Wanted: Dead – Review

Between 2001 and 2006, players of the sixth generation of video game consoles had a plethora of options in the action genre. After the decline of platformers, the character-action video game rose to prominence on consoles like the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, as well as on the Nintendo GameCube. Games like Devil May Cry, God of War, and Ninja Gaiden, among many others, gained popularity for their brutality and difficulty. Wanted: Dead aims to re-create that classic bad guy run in the year 2023. Will it successfully land?

It’s crystal clear what Soleil Ltd. was striving for with Wanted: Dead, the developer behind the game. The staff knows better than anyone what it felt like to jump into a 2000s action title, thanks to the work of developers who worked on titles like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. There is a lot of fondness for looking back on that era.

Instead of action corridors where you’re pushed to your limits with every life-or-death encounter, many subsequent brands opted for open areas and fetch missions. Indeed, Wanted: Death does that. If you aren’t confident in your abilities, every battle could be your last. If you die, you’ll have to restart from a checkpoint, which will waste valuable game time.

This is not to imply that Wanted: Dead is as challenging as a Souls-like. You won’t feel like throwing your controller through the wall in frustration. Instead, it’s an all-out brawler that necessitates your finest performance. It suffers from an identity crisis as a result, however. There are components of a cover-based shooter, even if it often feels like the best strategy is to run up to foes and slash them to pieces. The problem is that adversaries soak up bullets like a sponge, but fall to a few well-placed katana slashes when you get near.

It’s unfortunate that Wanted: Dead fails so often to make combat enjoyable, as that is the game’s bread and butter. It hurts to listen to the same “Grenade!” audio clip ten times in the first level. Your intelligence is questioned nearly every time you take damage. When you’re running low on ammo, hiding behind cover is fantastic for headshots, but then you’re at danger of being ambushed on the way to your target. This results in a clunky, risk-vs.-reward action experience where boredom sets in a little too early, despite the game’s lengthy 9-hour length.

Wanted: Dead has a lot working against it, yet it’s not quite unplayable. Those who can remember a time when games were more or less always played this way will find it to their liking. The well-realized cyberpunk backdrop and engaging dystopian plot don’t hurt, either.

Unfortunately, even at the full price of $59.99, it isn’t enough to make this a must-buy for anyone. Sooner or later, I imagine this will end up in the bargain bin, where it would be worthwhile to pick up if the game’s fighting is improved. To tell the truth, you shouldn’t rush into Wanted: Dead just yet.