Wanted: Weapons of Fate Review

"Sin City" brought to the public how great graphic novels can be when translated to the big screen correctly. Graphics novels have always been good subject mater but just like everything else that's non-Hollywood, rarely do people making the movie take the effort properly reproduce the story for the big screen. Then when someone does do it just right, like with the Watchmen, people bitch because it's too much like the comic and hard for them to follow, those fucking retards. Anyways, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a game based on the graphic novel that also spawned a move. For those who didn't see the movie, Wanted, I'd suggest check it out keep very low expectation. On the same notes, expect the same here.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate, continues the story of the movie. The hero of the first movie and comic book, Wesley Gibson, is trying to learn most of his family and why he's become a target of the Fraternity. To help fill in some history, the player will play both Wesley and his father, Cross, in the form of flashbacks.

Being a 3rd person shooter, Wanted: Weapons of Fate has a heavy emphasis on using cover as do most shooters released these days. This leads to a very boring and repetitive style of play being that enemies always seek cover, and there's always cover for you to use. It becomes a stop-n-go style of making your way through one room, killing the bad guys, going to the next room, killing the bad guys, rinse, repeat. The game does a good job in keep cover safe, and let you travel from cover to cover very easily and quickly which is a change from most games that use the cover system.

Something unique is that by using standard suppression fire from cover can allow you to move from cover to cover faster. This is done in the idea that your suppression fire has distracted the enemy thus allowing you to move from cover to cover in order to flank them. When trying this move out, you'll notice a blurring effect that will let you know of your increase speed to move around cover. Health is also a commonly used practice of having no health bar, but instead the changing of color of the screen representing how close to death you are.

Where the game shows its uniqueness is in the combat. Surprisingly, you'll only have a standard gun in your possession (or two guns in the flashback parts), and no real selection of weapons. It doesn't matter because what you do with the gun is impressive on its own. Those familiar with the Wanted series/movies will know about the curving of bullets. This is considered a special talent only done by those that are in the Fraternity. When curving bullets, you can take down enemies that are behind cover which is something new and a bit refreshing since some enemies refuse to leave their cover. Another technique you learn a little later in the game is bullet time transfer from cover to cover. It reminds me of the bullet time dodge of Max Payne but with very little chance of getting hit. To pull off these moves, you will need to build up some adrenaline by killing an enemy.

Aside from the standard enemies, there are two instances where the action will change up. In each stage, there will be a bullet time sequence that occurs. During this sequence, the actions have a mix of QTE and bullet time where everything slows down like bullet time, but if you don't take down the right enemies, you'll die very quickly. What's most impressive is that at certain times, it's not the enemies you got to shoot but the actual bullets coming at you.

Some stages will also end with a boss fight yet these are far from impressive. In most cases, the fight will require usage of the curve bullet technique over and over or use of cover and suppression fire technique again making the fight itself pretty simple. To help, kind of, regular enemies will spawn constantly during boss battles where you need to curve your bullets. Take them out, and then use that adrenaline you built to lay into the boss using curved bullets.

The cinematic sequences of Wanted have a good look to them but the rest of the game does not have much going for it graphically. There's a definite attempt for a grittier look in the environments, and some areas like the airplane look great. For Wesley, the developer made use of the real life actor's looks which is an interesting touch. All in all, graphics are a bit better than the average game out right now.

As average, or slightly above average, the game is, voice acting is actually pretty good. Not that this will make the game any better, but it prevent s the game from being any worse. Many lines could have been done with a bad delivery but there is a sense of awesomeness when Wesley makes remarks about how living the traditional, cubicle life sucks so bad. Sound effects and score are present but nothing extraordinary.

Playing through the game, there is extra content lying around waiting to be unlocked such as images of the staff, comic book covers, and early concept art. Other characters can also be unlocked, letting you play through the main game with other character, but they're more of a palette swap with everyone playing just like Wesley. Sadly, there's just no need to play through with these characters so why bother? There are the traditional three difficulties but no benefit to switch it up, and of course, achievements to satisfy the inner OCD persona. No online play so it's another slap for those wanting some replay value.

Clocking in at around 4-6 hours, Wanted: Weapons of Fate makes it hard to be recommended for gamers. The cover system is repetitive, the game is short, and frankly, it's right on the level of other games keeping it from being special. Fans of the movie and comic book may find an extra attachment to the game, but in general, the game doesn't have what it takes to make it stand above the rest.

- O.G.