* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Courtesy of LetsPlay/{{slowbeef}}, making Slate a mix of MemeticBadass and MemeticPsychopath who eventually solves Grant City's crime problems by ''killing everyone there''. Meanwhile, Shadow is the HypercompetentSidekick who figures everything out early into the game and just does most of the brainwork while Slate just bumbles around and kills everyone.
* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler: Blanchov]] in ''2''. After taking out his [[TheDragon Dragon]] (in a much more epic gun battle), a cutscene activates showing Jack [[spoiler:casually walking up to Blanchov and shooting him in the chest just ''once''.]] After that, he dies. [[CutsceneBoss You don't even have to touch the controller]].
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Fahook getting drunk and shirtless in Level 14 for absolutely no discernible reason. It also doesn't help that his running animation is glitchy as hell.
* BreatherBoss: Meeshaka and Shadraka in the first game. Coming right off the heels of [[spoiler:Pinnacle]] and a storm of men trying to stop you from setting a bunch of explosives, they might seem intimidating at first blush due to the timer on your back and one of them having a grenade launcher, but the truth is that .50 Auto pistols are damned strong and it's not hard to have four full on ammo (particularly since a a few of them spawn as the shootout starts), so unloading them into one of the two, ideally Meeshaka since she's the one with the hitscan guns, during a single slow dive will take that one down, allowing you to focus on the other and, if you did get rid of Meeshaka first, avoid the grenades with minimal effort while you finish up.
* CatharsisFactor: In the final chapter of ''Retribution'' -- specifically in the penultimate [[spoiler:assault on the GAC base]] -- Jack discovers [[spoiler:a free [[BossInMooksClothing GAC Tank]] suit]] and [[EleventhHourSuperpower gets to go to town with it]]. After spending most of the game needing to GunFu your way through countless mooks ([[spoiler:and no doubt going through long cover-shooting sections to take down Tanks in specific]]), being able to [[MoreDakka dakka]] and [[StuffBlowingUp explode through hordes of mooks at once]] with little regard for your safety provides one hell of a rush.
* CameraScrew: The camera in the original game tends to point at the least useful position after a cutscene, especially bad when said cutscene is immediately followed by a shooting segment.
* ClicheStorm: The series runs through this in entirely different ways. The original game and its immediate follow-ups are loaded with tropes of HeroicBloodshed media and off-the-walls late 90's-early 2000's action movies. ''Retribution'' in the meanwhile rips its aesthetic and gameplay out of many RealIsBrown, ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar''-type [[TakeCover cover shooters]] and its plot from gritty [[FilmNoir neo noir]] clichés.
* CompleteMonster:
** First game: [[ADickInName Dick Hennessey]] is Grant City's [[DirtyCop corrupt police chief]] and head of the department's anti-crime unit G.A.C. Hennessey uses blackmail to hold all of Grant City under his thumb, allowing all kinds of criminal activity to happen as long as he gets to instill his own brutal brand of justice. Hoping to use [[MayorPain Mayor Pinnacle]]'s illegal gold smuggling ring to buy his way into power, Hennessey [[YouKilledMyFather kills Frank Slate]] for coming close to uncovering the operation, having his son [[PlayerCharacter Jack]] framed for killing gangster Augie Blatz and putting him on death row. With mayoral candidate Gloria Exner hoping to dismantle G.A.C., Hennessey attempts to have a conference building blown up to kill her, later having the hotel she's staying at set aflame with hopes of killing everybody inside.
** ''Retribution'' ContinuityReboot:
*** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Julian Temple]], owner of the Temple Network, is a cowardly media mogul who [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist wants to be seen as Grant City's savior to satisfy his ego]]. Funding [[WellIntentionedExtremist Redwater]]'s G.A.C. troops in private, Temple hires the villainous Riggs to spread chaos across Grant City in order to justify G.A.C.'s legalization, uncaring that it'll mean turning the city into a PoliceState. Allowing Riggs to launch a raid on his own tower and kill plenty of hostages, as well as attempting to destroy Grant Central Station, Temple hopes to have Redwater killed when all's said and done.
*** [[PsychoForHire Riggs]] is a [[PsychopathicManchild childish psychopath]] working with Temple to spread chaos throughout Grant City. [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulating]] and militarizing the Union gang into helping him raid Temple Tower, Riggs kills several hostages and [[CopKiller cops]] by sadistically dropping them to their deaths, while also partnering with the Triads to organize the destruction of Grant Central Station. Riggs also signs up to be a G.A.C. troop, killing some Union members upon G.A.C.'s legalization, while hoping to kill Redwater under Temple's orders.
*** [[AxCrazy Tseng]] is a crazed [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] mobster who likes to snort cocaine and murder people. With a fondness for [[TongueTrauma cutting out tongues]], Jack instantly identifies a group of tongueless bodies as his work. [[BadBoss Gleefully killing his own men]] for nothing, Tseng opts to spread chaos and excitement by sending a train packed with explosives to Grand Central Station, which is also packed with explosives, to kill countless innocent people.
* ContestedSequel: The only two games that play closely alike are ''2'' and ''Reckoning'', being directly tied to eachother. Thus, you'll find fans of the first game that dislike how the prequels were more arcade-like, or those that preferred that more streamlined setup compared to the first game's barrage of gimmicks and minigames. Many fans will generally agree that ''Retribution'' probably has the most well-rounded story, but may prefer the cheese of the first game, or not agree with its more TakeCover gameplay style.
* DemonicSpiders: In ''Retribution'', any GAC Unit who's carrying around a [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Mark 3-A2 or M210 Double Barrel Shotgun]], the latter of which is likely ''the'' strongest gun in the game, but no fun to be faced down by.
* DesignatedHero: In the original game, Jack Slate is implied to be one of the only honest cops in the WretchedHive that is Grant City, like his father was before he was murdered. The gameplay requires him to leave a massive body count on his quest to avenge one man's death, because he cannot progress until he has killed all of the criminals attacking him, and it does not allow him to deal with his opponents non-lethally. The story, meanwhile, includes Jack's escape from prison involving the cold-blooded killing of a warden technically guilty only of being [[AssholeVictim an abusive psychopath]] [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals who beat Jack's dog]]; [[spoiler:Jack only publicizing the conspiracy behind his father's death after he's personally killed everyone involved in it (including the [[CorruptPolitician mayor]] and the [[DirtyCop police chief]]); and Jack [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere deeming Grant City beyond saving and leaving it to rot]], knowing it will soon be caught in a massive and violent power struggle due to his actions]].
** The ContinuityReboot ''Retribution'' explicitly says that Jack is one of the only honest cops in Grant City alongside his father. His main adversaries are the GAC, a new police unit he describes as "[[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner judge, jury and executioner]] [[RabidCop all wrapped up in one nasty package]]", but his OneManArmy efforts to defeat the GAC require him to PayEvilUntoEvil by extrajudicially killing any GAC member he encounters, sometimes in shockingly and excessively brutal ways.
* FridgeHorror: Jack Slate being supposedly one of the few honest cops in Grant City while being a merciless OneManArmy during gameplay could be chalked off as GameplayAndStorySegregation at best or InformedAttribute at worst. However it also could mean that Grant City is such a [[WretchedHive cesspit of crime]] and it's police force is so corrupt, that a brutal AntiHero such as [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Jack]] is by [[OnlySaneByComparison comparison]] a model cop.
* GoddamnedBoss: [[spoiler:Pinnacle]] in the first game. He's twice as big as Jack, can take a punch without flinching, and you don't get any guns. The intended solution is to get him to tire himself out so that you can jump on his back and strangle him, but the act of doing so is incredibly dodgy since it seems up to luck when he'll do the attack that leaves him vulnerable and sometimes you can't get on him even when you're right behind him.
* GoodBadBugs: In ''Retribution'', just about any melee fight can be trivialized by quickly dodging to the side twice. The AI doesn't react to it correctly, and will usually start impotently doing a melee combo on nothing while Jack punches them in the spine.
* MagnificentBastard:
** Original Game:
*** [[MayorPain William T. Pinnacle III]] is the corrupt, [[CigarChomper cigar-chomping]] mayor of Grant City. Running for reelection against Gloria Exner, Pinnacle uses his campaign promises to hide his illegal underground gold smuggling operation, getting the Iron Point Penitentiary prisoners to mine the gold for him in secrecy. Getting [[PlayerCharacter Jack Slate]] on his side by promising to pardon him of his supposed murder should he retrieve Hennessey’s incriminating files, Pinnacle forces Gloria to kill Jack by threatening to murder her, only to have her killed by Jack's supposed friend Hildy. Killing Hildy after she hands over the files and hoping to frame her as the mastermind behind Gloria's death, Pinnacle also proves himself a [[ActionPolitician powerhouse of a politician]], able to shrug off Jack's attacks with ease, and dies joking how Jack will never be pardoned for his crimes.
*** Patch is a leader of Mayhem, Inc. A [[ManOfWealthAndTaste smartly dressed]], dapper and intelligent assassin who frames Jack for the murder of mobster Auggie Blatz by luring Jack into a trap, Patch shoots him non-fatally, before using his gun to execute Blatz. Later blindsiding Jack and killing his ally Eve, Patch is almost able to successfully assassinate a mayoral candidate before engaging Jack in a final battle.
*** Prentiss "Preacherman" Jones is an inmate preacher at Iron Point Penitentiary who was framed for selling drugs. Having the utmost respect for Frank Slate, upon news of his demise, Jones does what he can to help his son Jack escape prison to avenge Frank's death. Getting Jack to acquire some battery acid and an escape map, moments before Jack's execution in the electric chair, Jones sneakily uses the acid and a hidden razor blade to break Jack free, afterwards taking advantage of a staged power outage to kill warden Sickle.
** ''Retribution'' ContinuityReboot:
*** [[IntellectualAnimal Shadow]], Jack Slate's trusty CanineCompanion, is far more clever and bloodthirsty than his original counterpart. A surprisingly tactical animal, Shadow uses stealth to carry out tasks for the Slate family, whether it be using his barks to lure goons to their demise, or sneaking up from behind and brutally murdering them. [[UndyingLoyalty Dedicated to protecting Jack at all costs]], Shadow successfully assists his master in the takedown of Redwater and G.A.C.
*** [[BigBad Captain Redwater]] is a well-respected officer who secretly created G.A.C. with hopes of turning Grant City into a PoliceState. [[WellIntentionedExtremist Genuinely seeking to clean up crime]], Redwater kills his friend Frank Slate to cover up his plans, partnering with Julian Temple to get G.A.C. legalized by allowing all kinds of criminal activity to happen under his watch in order to justify their deployment. Killing his partner Riggs after Jack reveals his plan to betray him, Redwater uses Temple's arrest by Jack to declare martial law, imprisoning his fellow officers with hopes of taking over the entire city with his army of G.A.C. troops.
* MemeticMutation:
** [[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} slowbeef and Diabetus]] turned just saying the game's name into a meme.
** A lesser meme through said Let's Play comes from a one-liner in the first level, when Jack guns down a bunch of thugs dressed as construction workers: "You boys should take up your grievance with city hall."
** Jack kicking a fence down on some poor Mook as he declares, "I'm Jack Slate, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!]]"
* {{Narm}}:
** Poor Jack never really gets his dignity back when he has Fahook [[{{Pun}} dead to rights]] with a gun to the back of his head in the first game -- only to get backhanded [[GroinAttack in the nuts]] and dropping him in seconds in a hilariously infamous case of CutsceneIncompetence.
** The various [[BondOneLiner one-liners]] Jack Slate dishes out are pretty hit-or-miss, but probably the biggest instance of it falling hilariously flat is right after his boss fight with Diggs, where after he finally collapses in defeat:
--->'''Jack''': Dumb son of a bitch. ''(beat... before Jack turns around and walks away)''
** The sequel's bad writing and ExcusePlot in general makes basically any cutscene an exercise in busting a gut. Jack's one-liners transform into a borderline NonSequitur, and almost everyone either poorly acts or overacts the hell out of their lines, never mind the animation somehow getting even more awkward despite the better graphics. Of course, some of that cheese is SoBadItsGood and lands firmly in NarmCharm territory.
* NarmCharm: Throughout the series, [[DeadpanSnarker Jack dishes]] [[BondOneLiner out one-liners]] like nobody's business. Whether you think they're funny [[SoBadItsGood and for what reasons]] is extremely YMMV.
* NightmareFuel:
** For as cheesy and over-the-top as the games can be, some of the disarm kills are pretty brutal and even show your unfortunate victim spasming afterwards on the ground. And this isn't even getting into the DarkerAndEdgier ''Retribution'' having much more violent deaths, like when you control Shadow and proceed to maul a poor bastard's face (or [[GroinAttack groin]]) gratuitously. Unlike the older titles, it comes off as genuinely sadistic and overly violent.
** Jack Slate himself. The series presents him as a quippy, quirky AntiHero that's trying to do the right thing, but he's a bit of a MemeticPsychopath because for a police officer he has a downright excessive body count and habit for brutality. It's to the point that entire areas get their criminal populace wiped off the face of the Earth because Slate came in looking for a fight, and in ''Retribution'' he's portrayed as a troubled yet well-meaning guy who also just so happens to vaporize criminal faces with lead and break their bodies in half with his bare fists with a "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality. He even outright executes his human shields instead of arresting them, and can do this ''before his father's death in the first game''.
* ObviousBeta: The section on Fahook's plane. The inexplicable scene of the prisoners Jack just rescued trying to kill him, Fahook running around shirtless with incredibly glitchy animation, your clearly being meant to end the fight with him with some kind of special move that doesn't seem to exist (luckily, shooting him works too), and having a 50/50 chance of Jack getting stuck running into the cockpit doorframe after the cutscene there.
* OneSceneWonder: Longshoreman X gets no lines and only appears for one boss fight in the first game, but still manages to be popular just because of his inexplicably badass name.
* PolishedPort:
** The Xbox version of the game is give and take. It had pixel shading for the characters in the game, 16:9 anamorphic wide screen support, and Dolby Digital sound support to make use of the Xbox's unique capabilities.
*** Averted, the [=PlayStation 2=] version of the game, despite being released months after the Xbox version and had all content that also in the [=GameCube=] and PC versions, was actually developed first. Namco ported the game to the Xbox due to the deal with Creator/{{Microsoft}}, downgrading some of the content that appeared in the [=PlayStation 2=], [=GameCube=], and PC versions in order to push Xbox to its limits, and released first as timed-exclusive.
** The [=GameCube=] version. Like the [=PlayStation 2=] and PC versions has more to work with in the options menu (you can invert the looking camera and change to widescreen mode) and is more refined in general, with the melee combat being tweaked, three difficulty levels instead of one, and adding some item pickups along with bugfixes and other quality-of-life tweaks. Where it gets fuzzy (as in [=YMMV=] on whether or not it's a good change or not) is the fact that several things are flat-out removed, such as minibosses, gameplay challenges, and even some of Jack's quips.
** The PC version is easily the best of the bunch, as it includes all the improvements from the [=PS2=]/GC versions without removing any of the content and has more graphics settings. It was initially a PortingDisaster, though, as a bug which prevented Jack from picking up propane canisters would pop up on certain machines. Given that part of the tutorial involved throwing propane and shooting it, it essentially made the tutorial {{Unwinnable}} until a patch was released. Not to mention that the DRM that's on legit copies of the game no longer work on modern systems.
* ScrappyMechanic: ''Retribution'' is a third-person [[TakeCover cover-based]] shooter where, like the previous games, you suffer from disposing of your guns the moment you run out of ammo. Then you have to go beat someone else up or disarm them for their gun. Except generally speaking, unless you're running headlong into gunfire like a fool, your fists generally overpower most foes, meaning guns are ineffective and borderline sluggish and awkward to use unless you can line up OneHitKill headshots. It's supposed to encourage you to swap your combat style up frequently, but instead comes off as GunsAreWorthless.
* ScrappyWeapon: The first game has its share of duds. The M92 Silenced Pistol is probably the worst for having the worst damage in the game, no contest. Other bad weapons include the M11 Silenced SMG, which suffers from terrible range that hampers its usability considerably and the [=MP5=]-A5 Submachine Gun, which is just shown up by every other automatic rifle around. The M210 Double Barrel shotgun, in spite of being the strongest weapon in the game shot-for-shot, also falls behind its more common counterparts due to having worse range than the M11 and a horrendous rate of fire, enough so that anyone you fail to obliterate with it will have plenty of time to get back at you for the attempt.
* ThatOneBoss: Three of them in the first game: Diggs, Fahook and Hennessey.
** You fight Diggs in a gas chamber. As the fight progresses, the gas slowly drains your health; you and Diggs take turns punching the mask off each other's faces and stealing it for air, which draws out a fight already stretched by Diggs' endurance.
** Fahook is fought in the back of a plane with limited cover. His gun will shred you to pieces if you're not careful, and you have to use the bullet time dive and the right weapons with precise timing in order to hit him before he hits you. Occasionally, Fahook will take a swig of a magic potion and start breathing health-bar-destroying fire at you (yes, really), at which point you have a limited window in which you have to shoot the potion out of his hands. To make matters worse, towards the end of the fight the back of the plane opens up, and you can get sucked out yourself if you aren't careful.
** Hennessey is even worse. He starts the first stage of the fight with an electrified riot shield which can kill you in a few hits, and will constantly charge at you, so you have to try and lure him into the water to short out his shield without getting hit yourself. After a few rounds of this, you have to fight off some more GAC squad mooks to reach the final melee fight with Hennessey. Hennessey has ridiculous endurance and will annihilate you in seconds if you haven't mastered your melee attacks. Fight back for a while and Hennessey opens up the door to the room's incinerator, then resumes his melee onslaught ''with his fists on fire''. And at his last sliver of health, your melee-weary hands better be ready for a quick use of reflexes, because you'll have to knock him into the incinerator. Did we forget to mention there are no health pickups whatsoever during this fight?
* ThatOneLevel: Amusing LetsPlay memes aside, most of Level 3 in the first game is a tedious FetchQuest with way too many repetitive fistfights.
* TearJerker:
** Frank's death in ''Retribution''. Despite the game being criticized for its {{Narm}}, the scene and [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct voice acting]] is almost shockingly well done -- Jack's hysterical breakdown when he realizes his dad is suddenly dead sounds completely real.
** Also during the second game, after Ruby [[spoiler:gets shot to death by Blanchov, her DyingDeclarationOfLove to Jack is genuinely heartbreaking]], quite surprising considering the second game up to that point had taken itself much less seriously than the first one did.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Patch. He's a suave assassin who has a few fun character traits and a nice [[EvilBrit British accent]], complete with a memorable introduction (and he's the one who sends Jack to prison, setting him up to be a major villain). He does not have a single line after that, and proceeds to die [[AntiClimaxBoss as anticlimactically]] [[{{Narm}} as possible]].
** Heck several characters in the first game don't get utilized as much as they should due to getting killed off too early. Other potentially interesting that get killed off before we get to know very much about them are [[spoiler:Eve]], [[spoiler:Marvin Silt]], and [[spoiler:Gopher]].
* TooBleakStoppedCaring:
** The series takes place in an all-around WretchedHive where every single person who isn't Jack Slate is a criminal, self-serving, and/or dead, and Jack himself is definitely no saint, even in a relative sense given how violent his quest is. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, the chief of police and both mayoral candidates are dead and Jack decides there's nothing he can do to fix Grant City and decides to just walk away and let it rot.]] About the only thing that keeps the games from being soul-crushingly bleak is the NarmCharm surrounding the ridiculous and over-the-top action and Jack's dorky one-liners.
** ''Retribution'', being a DarkerAndEdgier reboot, may be even worse in some respects. Jack's father gets some scenes before his death and he, much like Jack, generally opts to kill criminals instead of even attempting to arrest them, [[InformedAttribute despite the game's claims that they're both good cops]]. Jack himself is less into the endearing one-liners and now just screams and curses at everyone. Even Jack's dog generally acts more like a bloodthirsty beast than a police dog this time around. About the only thing that prevents this game from being as bleak as the first game, despite taking itself much more seriously, is the fact that Jack's goals are more obviously heroic, and the story doesn't get far enough into the Grant City politics to show whether it's quite as corrupt as in the first game.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: While Jack Slate is a mass-murdering AntiHero throughout the series, ''Retribution'' kicks this and Frank up hard time. The two are willing to beat the everliving shit out of any thug that looks their way in a crappier part of town while hunting for information, and only consider negotiations when guns get pointed their way. For the rest of the game Jack unironically considers the [=GAC=] forces to be JudgeJuryAndExecutioner as heinous officers crossing the line -- when he himself has and will do the exact same thing in the entire franchise.

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