The game has a strong film noir vibe, shown through the appearance of the detectives and the featuring of a female protagonist.

The player can also lie prone to evade gunfire, and perform a diving somersault in order to quickly take cover behind tables, plants, pillars, statues, and other fixtures.

Instead of using scrolling each stage takes place against a non-moving but richly detailed backdrop—beginning with the lavish interior of a posh hotel.

Two of the main characters bear an unmistakable resemblance to Andy Garcia and Kevin Costner who both starred in that film as George Stone/Giuseppe Petri and Eliot Ness, respectively.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Dead Connection on their October 1, 1992 issue as being the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.