"Damn I wish they still made rough janky action games that got critically eviscerated like the PS2 days. No no not like that it's too rough and janky, and look at those reviews it's being critically eviscerated"
honestly one of the most lived in worlds ive ever experienced in a more linear level by level type of game. rlly appreciate how fleshed out and real everything feels and how truly ambitious this is. love how bright the gore in this looks and how often there’s rlly impressive and genuinely beautiful set pieces and levels. rlly casually cruel and oppressive atmosphere which is like rlly special given the fact that the story is never too self serious. just way too hard for me to finish lmao😖
Wanted: Dead is an exceptional game that takes bold risks with its design, creating a PS2-themed funhouse hall of mirrors that is both audacious and captivating. This game embodies the true essence of what a game should be- free to explore, experiment and embrace creativity.
Every decision seems intentionally made to either confound or elate, and it doesn't walk that line; it backflips on it.
Why am I watching Stefanie Jootsen spend 15 minutes teaching me how to make Lasagna? Why is there only one song in this fully fleshed-out karaoke mini-game?
Why does the ramen noodle-eating mini-game run forever until you decide to press start and quit? Why does the game have to state that the Gunsmith reeks of cat piss? Why did Maserati allow the developers to use the 1992 Shamal as the game's police cruiser?
It's unabashedly what it sets out to be, and there is beauty in that brazen confidence.
Once you understand the intricacies of guard canceling and how to correctly utilize the games firearms, the combat evolves into a dynamic interplay of visceral melee and third-person shooting.
There is "jank," but the jank serves as an intentional obstacle, adding an off-kilter layer to the combat. This distinctive blend contributes to the game's overall uniqueness.
Wanted: Dead touches on things like fascist police states, the military-industrial complex, the predatory nature of the healthcare industry, and neocolonialism, but only in passing. It all feels deliberately unfocused and, coupled with the mixed-media presentation, it results in a surreal, addictively confounding, fever-dreamlike experience.
Conversely, it has a deliberate focus on emulating the essence of a 6th-generation AA title and it adeptly accomplishes that particular aesthetic and feel.
There's truly nothing else on the market today like Wanted: Dead. While this game may not resonate with a broad audience, for the niche group it targets, it will hit like heroin.
Every decision seems intentionally made to either confound or elate, and it doesn't walk that line; it backflips on it.
Why am I watching Stefanie Jootsen spend 15 minutes teaching me how to make Lasagna? Why is there only one song in this fully fleshed-out karaoke mini-game?
Why does the ramen noodle-eating mini-game run forever until you decide to press start and quit? Why does the game have to state that the Gunsmith reeks of cat piss? Why did Maserati allow the developers to use the 1992 Shamal as the game's police cruiser?
It's unabashedly what it sets out to be, and there is beauty in that brazen confidence.
Once you understand the intricacies of guard canceling and how to correctly utilize the games firearms, the combat evolves into a dynamic interplay of visceral melee and third-person shooting.
There is "jank," but the jank serves as an intentional obstacle, adding an off-kilter layer to the combat. This distinctive blend contributes to the game's overall uniqueness.
Wanted: Dead touches on things like fascist police states, the military-industrial complex, the predatory nature of the healthcare industry, and neocolonialism, but only in passing. It all feels deliberately unfocused and, coupled with the mixed-media presentation, it results in a surreal, addictively confounding, fever-dreamlike experience.
Conversely, it has a deliberate focus on emulating the essence of a 6th-generation AA title and it adeptly accomplishes that particular aesthetic and feel.
There's truly nothing else on the market today like Wanted: Dead. While this game may not resonate with a broad audience, for the niche group it targets, it will hit like heroin.
Has a certain air of nostalgia to it, for both the good and the bad of previous generations
Pure unadulterated 6th gen zoomer filter
Wait, this was released just this year? How could this be?
In all seriousness though, I’m never trusting a journalist’s review ever again. I had interest in Wanted: Dead until I saw IGN’s 4/10 review calling it a bad game. I know not to trust these publications positive reviews, but usually when reviews are this low, there’s something very wrong. That’s not the case with Wanted: Dead.
Wanted: Dead is not only good, but it’s great; A beautiful seamless blend of cover shooting and hack n slash. The shooting is responsive and features great feedback. The melee combat is simple, yet engaging and challenging. Mixing these together could result in a mess, but the enemy variety, balancing and health system makes it harmonious.
Staying in cover blasting away results in running out of ammo and health. Much like Doom (2016) and Eternal, running away and hiding will get you killed. You heal from preforming the melee takedown animations and regular melee attacks. You can still use the cover shooting mechanics in an attempt to take out enemies at long range or thin out the horde, but the melee combat is what allows the player to regain health and build adrenalin. Adrenalin is basically your devil trigger or god hand, activating it shoots nearby enemies with your handgun leaving them open for a “glory kill”.
As for the melee combat itself, the only comparison I can make is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Parry enemies’ basic strings and then use the handgun counter on the moves that flash red. It’s simple and it could have used a few more types of enemies. At least there are bosses that have unique strings and abilities.
My biggest complaint with Wanted: Dead is that it doesn’t evolve much. The game doesn’t change much past the first level. Sure, there’s new enemies and a skill tree that unlocks new moves, but the lack of any real level design, platforming, or puzzles makes it more paced like a beat ‘em up than a traditional 6th gen character action game like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. Still, I didn’t find myself getting bored. It throws waves and waves of enemies at you with new combinations.
The checkpoints are stretched really far apart. It can be frustrating (especially a certain one of level 4) but overall I think it ties in well with the design they were going for. Wanted: Dead also has some jank but who cares? I don’t know why people get so upset about this. I glitched out of bounds twice, some of the animations froze during the glory kills, the chainsaw can miss right through enemies, a few times I couldn’t pickup a med kit, but if you’re gonna let that get in your way you’re not playing video games for the right reasons.
Wanted: Dead’s world is bursting with personality. There’s multiple goofy mini games and strange yet compelling voice acting.
Lieutenant Stone’s VA specifically is strange. Theres a few lines delivered poorly, but her unique tone makes it memorable. With all the extra side content I barely touched, I’m surprised how short the game was. It’s set up like a much longer game, complete with an HQ area and challenge arena, but it only lasted 7 hours for me. The story starts as a confusing mess without any structure, but eventually in the penultimate level, the twists and turns make sense of most of it without spelling it all out.
The devs of Wanted: Dead proclaimed it to be a “love letter to the 6th generation of games” and that’s absolutely what it is, warts and all. I cannot fathom someone playing this game and legitimately thinking it’s “bad”. It’s straightforward challenging fun. Get filtered.
8/10
Wait, this was released just this year? How could this be?
In all seriousness though, I’m never trusting a journalist’s review ever again. I had interest in Wanted: Dead until I saw IGN’s 4/10 review calling it a bad game. I know not to trust these publications positive reviews, but usually when reviews are this low, there’s something very wrong. That’s not the case with Wanted: Dead.
Wanted: Dead is not only good, but it’s great; A beautiful seamless blend of cover shooting and hack n slash. The shooting is responsive and features great feedback. The melee combat is simple, yet engaging and challenging. Mixing these together could result in a mess, but the enemy variety, balancing and health system makes it harmonious.
Staying in cover blasting away results in running out of ammo and health. Much like Doom (2016) and Eternal, running away and hiding will get you killed. You heal from preforming the melee takedown animations and regular melee attacks. You can still use the cover shooting mechanics in an attempt to take out enemies at long range or thin out the horde, but the melee combat is what allows the player to regain health and build adrenalin. Adrenalin is basically your devil trigger or god hand, activating it shoots nearby enemies with your handgun leaving them open for a “glory kill”.
As for the melee combat itself, the only comparison I can make is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Parry enemies’ basic strings and then use the handgun counter on the moves that flash red. It’s simple and it could have used a few more types of enemies. At least there are bosses that have unique strings and abilities.
My biggest complaint with Wanted: Dead is that it doesn’t evolve much. The game doesn’t change much past the first level. Sure, there’s new enemies and a skill tree that unlocks new moves, but the lack of any real level design, platforming, or puzzles makes it more paced like a beat ‘em up than a traditional 6th gen character action game like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. Still, I didn’t find myself getting bored. It throws waves and waves of enemies at you with new combinations.
The checkpoints are stretched really far apart. It can be frustrating (especially a certain one of level 4) but overall I think it ties in well with the design they were going for. Wanted: Dead also has some jank but who cares? I don’t know why people get so upset about this. I glitched out of bounds twice, some of the animations froze during the glory kills, the chainsaw can miss right through enemies, a few times I couldn’t pickup a med kit, but if you’re gonna let that get in your way you’re not playing video games for the right reasons.
Wanted: Dead’s world is bursting with personality. There’s multiple goofy mini games and strange yet compelling voice acting.
Lieutenant Stone’s VA specifically is strange. Theres a few lines delivered poorly, but her unique tone makes it memorable. With all the extra side content I barely touched, I’m surprised how short the game was. It’s set up like a much longer game, complete with an HQ area and challenge arena, but it only lasted 7 hours for me. The story starts as a confusing mess without any structure, but eventually in the penultimate level, the twists and turns make sense of most of it without spelling it all out.
The devs of Wanted: Dead proclaimed it to be a “love letter to the 6th generation of games” and that’s absolutely what it is, warts and all. I cannot fathom someone playing this game and legitimately thinking it’s “bad”. It’s straightforward challenging fun. Get filtered.
8/10
Don't be fooled by this game being made by ex-Team Ninja staff. Lower you expectations if you're going in expecting anything remotely as good as Ninja Gaiden Black when it comes to the combat. It's a janky, clunky game with only 3 different combos you can do. On top of that, you have some basic 3rd person shooter mechanics that are just like... alright? The weakest enemies take like 5 shots to the head to put down, so it feels like your guns are a damn joke. Enemies being tanky as shit isn't limited to your guns, either, they take a lot of hits from your katana to put down too.
On top of that, the bosses pretty much suck. The first boss is lame and the second boss is kinda bullshit. The rest of the bosses after that I can only describe as "we have Sekiro at home" as you're forced to use your parry, gun counter and shitty combos to chip away at their health. The thing is, the bosses do nothing interesting and you have have a limited set of tools so they're just easy and boring as shit.
Despite all that, when the combat does work it can be pretty fun. But it just isn't good enough. Besides the combat, you have basic straight-line level design. It's just combat arenas but it works for what it is.
The first few levels break up the pace by letting you explore the Police Station, where you can find documents that are more important to the story than 90% of the cutscenes are. You can also partake in some minigames! Such as a shitty crane machine (which barely fucking works but you suffer through to see Stefanie Joosten cooking), a shitty rhythm game with a few songs, a Yakuza karaoke rip-off that's funny but only has one song and a garbage SHMUP. Yeah, not much to see there.
Now, what had me hooked from the get go was the story and characters. I instantly liked Hannah Stone and her bizarre voice acting and I wanted to see what the deal was with her Zombie Unit pals. I was like "okay, the gameplay is mid but everything else is interesting!". I expected a Deadly Premonition for character action games!
Light spoilers in this paragraph, however, so skip if you want to see for yourself but... the story doesn't know what the fuck it wants to do. The shit with the synthetics seems to just be thrown in there but it amounts to nothing. Hannah has an interesting backstory which the game does jack fucking shit with. In fact, there's not even ANY story in the last third of the game until you reach the ending, where the game just kinda ends and the credits roll while I ask myself "that it?????". So yeah, the game completely lost all its charm at one point and then it just was going through long ass stages fighting the same 5 fucking enemy types and a couple shit bosses until the game just rolled credits. In the end, it does NOTHING with ANY of its plot beats or characters other than scratching the surface on Hannah's past. In fact, this review is 10 times longer than a summary of the game's story would be!
Visually, the game can't decide on what it really wants to look like. Sometimes it looks genuinely amazing, other times it looks straight out of the PS3/360 era. However, it WILL give your PC trouble no matter what, because it's optimized like shit and also fairly buggy. I saw AI spaz out and break more than once, one time with an enemy that was out of bounds... but I needed to kill to progress. Thankfully I had like 3 clips of my rifle to empty into his head from far away so he went down.
Also the game's short and takes 5-8 hours?? Playtime on my save glitched out, talk about a masterpiece, plus it deleted my save after the credits anyway. So I can't say how long it really is. It's short as shit tho, that's for sure, despite the last third feeling padded.
In short, a janky character action game that can be fun when it does work (which is rare) but amounts to nothing in the end despite starting out very charming. I didn't even spend any money on this game and I feel ripped off, do not buy this for full price. Or even half price. It's worth like 15 bucks maybe.
On top of that, the bosses pretty much suck. The first boss is lame and the second boss is kinda bullshit. The rest of the bosses after that I can only describe as "we have Sekiro at home" as you're forced to use your parry, gun counter and shitty combos to chip away at their health. The thing is, the bosses do nothing interesting and you have have a limited set of tools so they're just easy and boring as shit.
Despite all that, when the combat does work it can be pretty fun. But it just isn't good enough. Besides the combat, you have basic straight-line level design. It's just combat arenas but it works for what it is.
The first few levels break up the pace by letting you explore the Police Station, where you can find documents that are more important to the story than 90% of the cutscenes are. You can also partake in some minigames! Such as a shitty crane machine (which barely fucking works but you suffer through to see Stefanie Joosten cooking), a shitty rhythm game with a few songs, a Yakuza karaoke rip-off that's funny but only has one song and a garbage SHMUP. Yeah, not much to see there.
Now, what had me hooked from the get go was the story and characters. I instantly liked Hannah Stone and her bizarre voice acting and I wanted to see what the deal was with her Zombie Unit pals. I was like "okay, the gameplay is mid but everything else is interesting!". I expected a Deadly Premonition for character action games!
Light spoilers in this paragraph, however, so skip if you want to see for yourself but... the story doesn't know what the fuck it wants to do. The shit with the synthetics seems to just be thrown in there but it amounts to nothing. Hannah has an interesting backstory which the game does jack fucking shit with. In fact, there's not even ANY story in the last third of the game until you reach the ending, where the game just kinda ends and the credits roll while I ask myself "that it?????". So yeah, the game completely lost all its charm at one point and then it just was going through long ass stages fighting the same 5 fucking enemy types and a couple shit bosses until the game just rolled credits. In the end, it does NOTHING with ANY of its plot beats or characters other than scratching the surface on Hannah's past. In fact, this review is 10 times longer than a summary of the game's story would be!
Visually, the game can't decide on what it really wants to look like. Sometimes it looks genuinely amazing, other times it looks straight out of the PS3/360 era. However, it WILL give your PC trouble no matter what, because it's optimized like shit and also fairly buggy. I saw AI spaz out and break more than once, one time with an enemy that was out of bounds... but I needed to kill to progress. Thankfully I had like 3 clips of my rifle to empty into his head from far away so he went down.
Also the game's short and takes 5-8 hours?? Playtime on my save glitched out, talk about a masterpiece, plus it deleted my save after the credits anyway. So I can't say how long it really is. It's short as shit tho, that's for sure, despite the last third feeling padded.
In short, a janky character action game that can be fun when it does work (which is rare) but amounts to nothing in the end despite starting out very charming. I didn't even spend any money on this game and I feel ripped off, do not buy this for full price. Or even half price. It's worth like 15 bucks maybe.
So far, this game feels like it's from a timewarp PS3 from 2012. It's a janky, so bad it's good dialogue game, akin to Deadly Premonition. If you like weird games that have a vibe of "we're doing this thing just to do it", this game is for you. It is by no means an excellent game, just one that is quirky and random.
O sentimento de se jogar Wanted:Dead é de que o jogo estava pronto a anos, mas não viu a luz do dia até ano passado, sua estrutura, sua estética, seu combate, são muito semelhantes ao que se veria num jogo base da sétima geração de consoles, e vejo isso com muito bons olhos e um sorriso no rosto.
Imaginem que Suda51 e SWERY estão trabalhando num projeto e o melhor de dois mundo se juntam (espero que Hotel Barcelona seja foda, ok?) essa é meio a ideia que eu tenho desse jogo, o combate é muito divertido, serio, e a primeira vista talvez soe estranho, mas serio, é muito daora, e por se tratar de um jogo com tanta personalidade, é o que adiciona ainda mais gosto em tudo.
Apesar das atuações de voz super blasé e fps cair durante cutscenes (igual Deadly Premonition, quem diria) o jogo se segura pelo seu carisma, partes em anime, momentos rítmicos, os diálogos ala Tarantino ou até mesmo, a galhofa pela galhofa são algumas das coisas que tornaram a minha experiencia com Wanted:Dead agradável.
De certa forma, dentro de um contexto aonde cada vez mais os jogos se parecem uns com os outros por causa da reprodução das tendências (leiam Walter Benjamin) é muito interessante ver um jogo ir contra a maré, usando de técnicas e forma do passado agora com estética, o que me faz pensar em Wanted:Dead com um jogo anômalo para o seu momento dentro da indústria.
Imaginem que Suda51 e SWERY estão trabalhando num projeto e o melhor de dois mundo se juntam (espero que Hotel Barcelona seja foda, ok?) essa é meio a ideia que eu tenho desse jogo, o combate é muito divertido, serio, e a primeira vista talvez soe estranho, mas serio, é muito daora, e por se tratar de um jogo com tanta personalidade, é o que adiciona ainda mais gosto em tudo.
Apesar das atuações de voz super blasé e fps cair durante cutscenes (igual Deadly Premonition, quem diria) o jogo se segura pelo seu carisma, partes em anime, momentos rítmicos, os diálogos ala Tarantino ou até mesmo, a galhofa pela galhofa são algumas das coisas que tornaram a minha experiencia com Wanted:Dead agradável.
De certa forma, dentro de um contexto aonde cada vez mais os jogos se parecem uns com os outros por causa da reprodução das tendências (leiam Walter Benjamin) é muito interessante ver um jogo ir contra a maré, usando de técnicas e forma do passado agora com estética, o que me faz pensar em Wanted:Dead com um jogo anômalo para o seu momento dentro da indústria.
You know I knew exactly what I was getting into with this game and yet somehow I still left disappointed lol. While this game has a lot of charm and fun combat ( can be clunky at times ) there is still so much wrong with this game.
Lets get this out of the way first of all this game is on purpose trying to replicate the era of 6th gen consoles which is fine! I LOVE that era to death which is why I bought into this game right away. Issue is they are selling this game at a full $60 which quite frankly is a huge ripoff. I didn't mind myself because I had coupons for my store so I saved a good amount so I didn't buy the game full price I instead bought it at the price that is should have costed day 1 which was $20 lol ( $40 at MOST). You are paying $60 for a older type of action game with insane amount of issues ( at least on PS5) that will take about 6-8 hours to beat just let that sink through your head lol.
The story was there but uninteresting and boring you will find yourself really not caring lol. As I stated there are bugs and issues with this game ranging from poor performance in some levels , AI issues , Hard crashes , Save loses ( didn't happen on my end but I have seen it happen) , Annoying difficulty spikes later on, Trash bosses etc etc the list can go on for awhile honestly lol.
The last 2 levels are some of the worst designed levels I have played in a long time where the game just throws tanky enemies by the pack at you back TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK. While this may not seem like an issue the checkpoint system is utter trash and if you die anywhere in these segments you are starting from the START and this issue really shines in its final 2 levels that are simply atrocious.
There are some mini games in here and some are fun and some are not. there is a Shump game that was pretty cool , crane games which were fine and 2 Music Rhythm games that were terrible with strict timing on when you have to hit buttons and the screen layout making everything seemed cluttered making you get confused a lot and losing your combo.
Voice acting is cheesy and bad imo but honestly its a part of the charm and I did not mind it honestly but the comedy bits sucked.
I really wanted to like this game more and to be frank I did enjoy this game in its early levels. The combat can be very fun hitting combos and parrying into combos its all around very fun and they had something going for this game. There is so much charm in this game and I cannot knock it for that because it did nail the era so well but man by the end the issues just started being more prevalent to the point of unenjoyment which sucks.
I recommend this game on a deep sale at like $30 or below.
Lets get this out of the way first of all this game is on purpose trying to replicate the era of 6th gen consoles which is fine! I LOVE that era to death which is why I bought into this game right away. Issue is they are selling this game at a full $60 which quite frankly is a huge ripoff. I didn't mind myself because I had coupons for my store so I saved a good amount so I didn't buy the game full price I instead bought it at the price that is should have costed day 1 which was $20 lol ( $40 at MOST). You are paying $60 for a older type of action game with insane amount of issues ( at least on PS5) that will take about 6-8 hours to beat just let that sink through your head lol.
The story was there but uninteresting and boring you will find yourself really not caring lol. As I stated there are bugs and issues with this game ranging from poor performance in some levels , AI issues , Hard crashes , Save loses ( didn't happen on my end but I have seen it happen) , Annoying difficulty spikes later on, Trash bosses etc etc the list can go on for awhile honestly lol.
The last 2 levels are some of the worst designed levels I have played in a long time where the game just throws tanky enemies by the pack at you back TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK. While this may not seem like an issue the checkpoint system is utter trash and if you die anywhere in these segments you are starting from the START and this issue really shines in its final 2 levels that are simply atrocious.
There are some mini games in here and some are fun and some are not. there is a Shump game that was pretty cool , crane games which were fine and 2 Music Rhythm games that were terrible with strict timing on when you have to hit buttons and the screen layout making everything seemed cluttered making you get confused a lot and losing your combo.
Voice acting is cheesy and bad imo but honestly its a part of the charm and I did not mind it honestly but the comedy bits sucked.
I really wanted to like this game more and to be frank I did enjoy this game in its early levels. The combat can be very fun hitting combos and parrying into combos its all around very fun and they had something going for this game. There is so much charm in this game and I cannot knock it for that because it did nail the era so well but man by the end the issues just started being more prevalent to the point of unenjoyment which sucks.
I recommend this game on a deep sale at like $30 or below.
Wanted: Dead is a suped-up 2005 Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster seconds away from a head-on collision with a tall oak tree. It’s fun while it lasts but it will crash.
A guy wakes up, massive hangover
So, massive hangover
He's about to throw up and shit
He notices that he's naked, like no jeans, no undies. He reaches his dick and finds out he has four balls
So, he immediately grabs his phone and dials his old man
Dad, dad, I woke up the morning after and suddenly I have four balls!
His dad goes: get out of there, son, you're being fucked!
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
So, massive hangover
He's about to throw up and shit
He notices that he's naked, like no jeans, no undies. He reaches his dick and finds out he has four balls
So, he immediately grabs his phone and dials his old man
Dad, dad, I woke up the morning after and suddenly I have four balls!
His dad goes: get out of there, son, you're being fucked!
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
Wanted: Dead is another game unfairly thrown under the bus or ignored by main stream videogame reviewers. Things have been like this for a long time now but it’s still sad to see and getting worse. Mainstream videogame reviews are hurting games, the gaming industry and gamers. The importance placed on game review scores and the metacritic number is not a good thing as it causes developers to create safe games that appeal to the mainstream game reviewers. And we all know how good the big game reviewers opinions are – weak, ignorant, shallow first impressions, pushed out quickly to get clicks, written by people that didn’t pay for it, didn’t have enough time to learn to play it properly, or didn’t care and are in a position where they can’t be too critical as it may affect their access to the industry, advertising spending and connections with their peers. So then along comes a game like Wanted: Dead that they can ‘safely’ shit on or ignore or do a really bad job reviewing and most people won’t care but it hurts the game, the developers, the industry and gamers. (Obviously this is a generalisation and gamers aren’t much better.)
Wanted: Dead is not a 4 out of 10 or worse. Wanted: Dead is lower budget and rough around the edges but it is a really solid action game with plenty of personality. I honestly think it is an enjoyable, charismatic game made by developers earnestly trying to make something fun and challenging in their own style.
First let’s get the bad out of the way. The two big negatives I see in reviews are low production values/ lack of polish and difficulty. There is plenty of truth to the first point. The graphics are not the best and the frame rate does drop at times. Objects and environments are not super detailed and the character models look dated. The enemies pass though surfaces they shouldn’t occasionally and the camera doesn’t always do a perfect job. During my second play through I had multiple crashes and I think one of the trophies may not be unlocking. However none of this is bad enough to make me stop playing or dislike the game but of course it does lower my opinion and I wish the experience was smoother and better looking. The difficulty on the other hand is a deliberate part of the game. If you don’t want to learn how to play and you don’t give yourself some time to get decent at it then you’re in for a frustrating time. Once you get the hang of things and unlock some skills the game becomes pretty great. Don’t get me wrong the game still throws some really hard sections your way, especially in the final stage, but the only part of the game that feels bulls**t hard is those damn minigames, which are generally optional.
The story and characters of Wanted: Dead was something I didn’t think I was going to care for at first but overtime I got more into it. Especially the quirky cast of characters, they grew on me so much and by the end I was left wanting more. What helps a lot is that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and has you regularly changing from one thing to another. One minute you’re watching a cutscene, then some ultra violent gameplay, then to the crane game, then an anime cutscene, then karaoke, then live action cooking lessons, etc. It’s a fun, wild time but the humour and style won’t be for everyone. Wanted: Dead may not have a ‘good’ story or ‘deep’ characters but that isn’t a problem. It is totally fine to make something that is just kind of cool and fun.
Visually as I already said Wanted: Dead is not very technically impressive. I still like the look of it though because of the style, direction and character designs. The soundtrack was pretty cool and l liked the voice acting. It suited the characters and tone of the game.
Now we’re at the meat of the game, the excellent hack n slash/third person shooter hybrid combat. The problem with this is you don’t get the depth of a hack n slash or a TPS but you do gain the fun, interesting gameplay of mixing the two. Your main gun, second gun, grenades and cover work like a TPS. Your pistol is for counters, light hits and interrupting enemies. Your sword is for heavier hits, basic combos and charge attacks. You also have a block, parry, counter hit, side step, dodge roll, sprint, slide and sometimes a chainsaw. On top of that you have executions, slow mo and slow mo handgun attack all earned by playing well. You gain health back by hurting enemies too so it’s the type of game that rewards good play and encourages aggressive play. These elements mix so well together and once you get good and are in the zone it is a blast that looks so freaking cool. There is depth here or you can just get good enough to enjoy and finish it. Yeah it’s hard but worth it.
Wanted: Dead’s flaws are not enough to drag down the fun too much. I was swearing and laughing throughout and it will be a cult classic, if it’s not already. If it were slightly longer, had higher production values and was more highly polished it would be a game of the year contender for me. It is really important to support games like this. If people didn’t buy and appreciate King’s field, Lost kingdoms and Demon’s souls we wouldn’t have Elden Ring and Bloodborne. I would strongly recommend Wanted: Dead to anyone that enjoys Japanese action games.
7.4/10
Just wanted to add a little extra to this:
Since I first typed up this review I have played it two more times, including on Japanese hard mode and I fell more in love with it. I also didn’t give the story enough credit in my review. It’s still not something super deep or anything but there are obviously very deliberate choices that went into the this and are there for a reason. I’ll have to pull things apart or just get lazy and look for a good YouTube video on it. Part of me wants to raise this score even higher but I can’t ignore those flaws.
Wanted: Dead is not a 4 out of 10 or worse. Wanted: Dead is lower budget and rough around the edges but it is a really solid action game with plenty of personality. I honestly think it is an enjoyable, charismatic game made by developers earnestly trying to make something fun and challenging in their own style.
First let’s get the bad out of the way. The two big negatives I see in reviews are low production values/ lack of polish and difficulty. There is plenty of truth to the first point. The graphics are not the best and the frame rate does drop at times. Objects and environments are not super detailed and the character models look dated. The enemies pass though surfaces they shouldn’t occasionally and the camera doesn’t always do a perfect job. During my second play through I had multiple crashes and I think one of the trophies may not be unlocking. However none of this is bad enough to make me stop playing or dislike the game but of course it does lower my opinion and I wish the experience was smoother and better looking. The difficulty on the other hand is a deliberate part of the game. If you don’t want to learn how to play and you don’t give yourself some time to get decent at it then you’re in for a frustrating time. Once you get the hang of things and unlock some skills the game becomes pretty great. Don’t get me wrong the game still throws some really hard sections your way, especially in the final stage, but the only part of the game that feels bulls**t hard is those damn minigames, which are generally optional.
The story and characters of Wanted: Dead was something I didn’t think I was going to care for at first but overtime I got more into it. Especially the quirky cast of characters, they grew on me so much and by the end I was left wanting more. What helps a lot is that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and has you regularly changing from one thing to another. One minute you’re watching a cutscene, then some ultra violent gameplay, then to the crane game, then an anime cutscene, then karaoke, then live action cooking lessons, etc. It’s a fun, wild time but the humour and style won’t be for everyone. Wanted: Dead may not have a ‘good’ story or ‘deep’ characters but that isn’t a problem. It is totally fine to make something that is just kind of cool and fun.
Visually as I already said Wanted: Dead is not very technically impressive. I still like the look of it though because of the style, direction and character designs. The soundtrack was pretty cool and l liked the voice acting. It suited the characters and tone of the game.
Now we’re at the meat of the game, the excellent hack n slash/third person shooter hybrid combat. The problem with this is you don’t get the depth of a hack n slash or a TPS but you do gain the fun, interesting gameplay of mixing the two. Your main gun, second gun, grenades and cover work like a TPS. Your pistol is for counters, light hits and interrupting enemies. Your sword is for heavier hits, basic combos and charge attacks. You also have a block, parry, counter hit, side step, dodge roll, sprint, slide and sometimes a chainsaw. On top of that you have executions, slow mo and slow mo handgun attack all earned by playing well. You gain health back by hurting enemies too so it’s the type of game that rewards good play and encourages aggressive play. These elements mix so well together and once you get good and are in the zone it is a blast that looks so freaking cool. There is depth here or you can just get good enough to enjoy and finish it. Yeah it’s hard but worth it.
Wanted: Dead’s flaws are not enough to drag down the fun too much. I was swearing and laughing throughout and it will be a cult classic, if it’s not already. If it were slightly longer, had higher production values and was more highly polished it would be a game of the year contender for me. It is really important to support games like this. If people didn’t buy and appreciate King’s field, Lost kingdoms and Demon’s souls we wouldn’t have Elden Ring and Bloodborne. I would strongly recommend Wanted: Dead to anyone that enjoys Japanese action games.
7.4/10
Just wanted to add a little extra to this:
Since I first typed up this review I have played it two more times, including on Japanese hard mode and I fell more in love with it. I also didn’t give the story enough credit in my review. It’s still not something super deep or anything but there are obviously very deliberate choices that went into the this and are there for a reason. I’ll have to pull things apart or just get lazy and look for a good YouTube video on it. Part of me wants to raise this score even higher but I can’t ignore those flaws.
Esse jogo quer ser muita coisa, as inspirações estão claramente visíveis em todos os lugares, é ao mesmo tempo Metal Gear, Max Payne, Ninja Gaiden, Sekiro, Esquadrão Suicida, Cover Shooters, jogos de arcade... e no fim, é apenas Wanted: Dead. No meio dessa bagunça de ideias, existe uma unidade fascinante por si só que vai muito além de apenas uma experiência derivativa de outras obras, e quando você olha para esse jogo se desprendendo das pré-concepções que essas inspirações podem ter criado, tudo fica bem mais interessante e divertido. Em questão de mecânicas é argumentável que, apesar de problemas de polimento, são genuinamente funcionais, mas quando vai para outros aspectos e o jogo inteiro é colocado em evidência... eu não sei, eu realmente não sei o que eu acho, eu terminei o jogo e ainda não entendi o que me atrai tanto aqui, eu ainda não entendi nada do que aconteceu na história, o que posso falar é que é definitivamente interessante.
someone might say to you "they made a new game that's like a ps2 game." instead of thinking "that sounds fun" you should run far far away from that person
It's not good, but also... it's incredible.
So, I decided to do a little digging on the development and circumstances of Wanted Dead and im convinced this is like a money laundering scheme or something. Like, this is definetly a crime right. Some rich asshole forms an entertainment company in switzerland called 110 Industries, which seems to consist almost entirely of this, Vapourware, and selling the debut album of Stephanie Joosten - most notable for playing quiet in MGSV - on Vinyl. He seems to really want to just make a game that's john wick, so he picks up Soleil and they just use his money to make a sequel to Devil's Third instead, being sure to cast Joosten and a Phillip-Morris model in lead roles, and put in the movie references the rich funder wanted in.
And yes, this game is just Devil's Fourth. Whilst Itagaki is oddly absent considering this game feels like a scam, It's the same Valhalla game studios team from Third, and it plays remarkably similarly. The main change is that combat is slightly less shit. You get pretty standard combos with your sword intermixed with a ludicrously powerful pistol used to stagger and parry enemies at a pretty high range. There's a heavy emphasis on canned finishers to restore health (Think doom 4), and the general sense is the game really wants you in the thick of things at basically every moment, slashing and dashing amongst the gunfire. It's a very chaotic system, and I would hesistate to say it's good, the enemy variety just isnt there, and enemies are just a bit too tanky to keep the flow great, but it's far improved from Devil's Third and is a serviceable action game with a pretty nice high degree of difficulty. I would go as far to say that it's bosses are pretty good, and I really like how fast the player dies - make the wrong mistake to even a single grunt and they'll kill you straight up, even on the difficulty that gives you cat ears.
But let's be real, that's really not appeal of Wanted dead when you get down to it. What is - is that will not see a game as truly baffling as Wanted: Dead in a long time. So many times it will make you question why. Why is there a relatively high production value full shmup included? Why is there this kinda rad mix of animated cutscenes intermingled in? Why do some scenes feel pieced together out of dialogue from different drafts? Why does the game clearly jab at some heavy stuff like health insurance and Margaret Thatcher for like 2 seconds and then drop it? Whats up with the Cooking videos featured heavily in the advertising but not in the actual game? Why is there a single (one) ladder that you can climb in the whole game? I legitimately could go on for much longer than this you have no idea, you go like ten seconds in this game and you wonder what the fuck the motivation behind the decisions was.
The game is all over the place to the point where I am in denial that it's just incompetence. A police officer pulling stuff from an interview that the SUPECT REFUSED TO TELL HER to go on to the next plot point is something Neil Breen would catch in the edit. The game's developers have been open that it's a throwback to cheapo PS2 games (presumably oneechambara being the point of reference?) but I seriously feel like this is all a bit. Am I being made fun of? Are Soleil making fun of this rich swiss asshole by making a shitpost? Am I now an accessory to money laundering?
Wanted: Dead is not a "weird game" in the way something like a Suda51 or Swery game is, or even LSD Dream Emulator. I'm tempted to compare it to kane and lynch 2 but that game is a million times more focused in it's vision and what it's trying to portray. I can't stop thinking about it, every decision it makes is so... wrong, yet also so deliberate. I've seriously never played anything like it.
It also, at times, also shines legitimately super brightly. I really like the banter between the gang, as weirdly odd as the voice acting is. I really like that one of it's primary characters is straight up mute and its a nice representation even. The mixing of media types and stuff is sick, there's one absolutely brilliant boss fight and the very final moments of the game provides a legitimately ace story twist which honstly makes me view the whole thing much more fondly.
The whole thing is bewildering. I can't stop thinking about it.
----------------------------------------------
Other "huh?" things I didn't mention for the sake of pacing
- Final level is absurdly long after the rest of the game was pretty good in this regard
- Claw minigame does basically nothing
- Difficulty curve insanely and blatantly all over the place, the first mission is one of the hardest.
- The degree to which the world is altered from the real world is odd and excessive.
- There's like 6 shower scenes
- Why do you get a free single revive like half the time when the game is overwise commited to being a tough classic action game? But you only get it when one member of your squad is there?
- Why is there such detailed gun customisation in a 5 hour action game
- Why is the one loading screen a very dated meme.
- Why does the one ninja elite enemy look like it's from a different game
- Why do the protagonists just not even mention sometimes why they're going to do a thing.
Make it make sense.
And yes, this game is just Devil's Fourth. Whilst Itagaki is oddly absent considering this game feels like a scam, It's the same Valhalla game studios team from Third, and it plays remarkably similarly. The main change is that combat is slightly less shit. You get pretty standard combos with your sword intermixed with a ludicrously powerful pistol used to stagger and parry enemies at a pretty high range. There's a heavy emphasis on canned finishers to restore health (Think doom 4), and the general sense is the game really wants you in the thick of things at basically every moment, slashing and dashing amongst the gunfire. It's a very chaotic system, and I would hesistate to say it's good, the enemy variety just isnt there, and enemies are just a bit too tanky to keep the flow great, but it's far improved from Devil's Third and is a serviceable action game with a pretty nice high degree of difficulty. I would go as far to say that it's bosses are pretty good, and I really like how fast the player dies - make the wrong mistake to even a single grunt and they'll kill you straight up, even on the difficulty that gives you cat ears.
But let's be real, that's really not appeal of Wanted dead when you get down to it. What is - is that will not see a game as truly baffling as Wanted: Dead in a long time. So many times it will make you question why. Why is there a relatively high production value full shmup included? Why is there this kinda rad mix of animated cutscenes intermingled in? Why do some scenes feel pieced together out of dialogue from different drafts? Why does the game clearly jab at some heavy stuff like health insurance and Margaret Thatcher for like 2 seconds and then drop it? Whats up with the Cooking videos featured heavily in the advertising but not in the actual game? Why is there a single (one) ladder that you can climb in the whole game? I legitimately could go on for much longer than this you have no idea, you go like ten seconds in this game and you wonder what the fuck the motivation behind the decisions was.
The game is all over the place to the point where I am in denial that it's just incompetence. A police officer pulling stuff from an interview that the SUPECT REFUSED TO TELL HER to go on to the next plot point is something Neil Breen would catch in the edit. The game's developers have been open that it's a throwback to cheapo PS2 games (presumably oneechambara being the point of reference?) but I seriously feel like this is all a bit. Am I being made fun of? Are Soleil making fun of this rich swiss asshole by making a shitpost? Am I now an accessory to money laundering?
Wanted: Dead is not a "weird game" in the way something like a Suda51 or Swery game is, or even LSD Dream Emulator. I'm tempted to compare it to kane and lynch 2 but that game is a million times more focused in it's vision and what it's trying to portray. I can't stop thinking about it, every decision it makes is so... wrong, yet also so deliberate. I've seriously never played anything like it.
It also, at times, also shines legitimately super brightly. I really like the banter between the gang, as weirdly odd as the voice acting is. I really like that one of it's primary characters is straight up mute and its a nice representation even. The mixing of media types and stuff is sick, there's one absolutely brilliant boss fight and the very final moments of the game provides a legitimately ace story twist which honstly makes me view the whole thing much more fondly.
The whole thing is bewildering. I can't stop thinking about it.
----------------------------------------------
Other "huh?" things I didn't mention for the sake of pacing
- Final level is absurdly long after the rest of the game was pretty good in this regard
- Claw minigame does basically nothing
- Difficulty curve insanely and blatantly all over the place, the first mission is one of the hardest.
- The degree to which the world is altered from the real world is odd and excessive.
- There's like 6 shower scenes
- Why do you get a free single revive like half the time when the game is overwise commited to being a tough classic action game? But you only get it when one member of your squad is there?
- Why is there such detailed gun customisation in a 5 hour action game
- Why is the one loading screen a very dated meme.
- Why does the one ninja elite enemy look like it's from a different game
- Why do the protagonists just not even mention sometimes why they're going to do a thing.
Make it make sense.
Wanted: Dead is a great game and I'll die on that hill, it's just super fun and entertaining above all else. I won't pretend the game isn't rough around the edges and the gameplay isn't pretty janky because it is for sure and there's no denying that, but many miss the fact that is also kinda the point considering the game is trying to emulate the sixth gen of consoles (in every way, even the ones most would consider outdated) where a lot of the games were exactly that, rough around the edges and janky though there's also so much creativity, charm and passion put into every inch of the product that it is simply impossible for me to not love it.
I will tolerate no slander or hate against the devs and especially the creative director and writer Sergei Kolobashkin because he never lied nor did he ever give false promises and the game is exactly what he said it would be. A passionate love letter to the sixth gen of consoles back when devs weren't afraid to do different and unique things and put out games that simply weren't going to be for everyone and wouldn't get critical praise, but they put these games out because they had a vision and they wanted to make it a reality. That's exactly what Wanted: Dead is for better or for worse because I have never played anything else quite like Wanted: Dead which reminds me heavily of many things like Deadly Premonition, Ninja Gaiden, Yakuza, Metal Gear Rising and basically anything with Suda51's name attached to it all rolled into one insane hybrid fever dream of a game.
Wanted: Dead is unapologetic about its influences down to its core and everything from the unique blend of gory, flashy melee hack and slash and 3rd person cover shooter combat (Which just gets better the more you play as you unlock more skills and abilities) to the over-the-top and slightly convoluted B-movie plot about a group of former war-criminal inmates who get a second chance at freedom and become an elite team of police officers that also happen to get tangled up into a corporate conspiracy complete with eccentric archetypal characters (Like the loose canon katana wielding badass cop who plays by her own rules Hannah Stone, the awkward pop culture referencing, cat loving genius gunsmith Viviane or the ramen connoisseur and ladies man Herzog) and influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and 80s/90s Cyberpunk anime like Ghost in the Shell or the purposefully amateurish voice acting done by the devs themselves, the awkwardly lip-synched cut-scenes, self-aware goofy dialogue, weird mini-games and especially the linear to a fault level design and punishing difficulty with checkpoints few and far between (I would go as far to say that your enjoyment of the game could hinge upon how good you are at action games with nuanced controls) was all deliberately added to further fully encapsulate that PS2 era charm in every way possible.
Wanted: Dead feels like a long-lost classic PS2 game in the best (and some of the worst) ways possible and while that isn't going to be for everyone, hell it won't even be for most people, but I personally adore it and respect the creator for sticking entirely to their creative vision and simply putting out a game for no other reason than it was something they were passionate about and wanted to release for the ones who will enjoy and truly "get" it and for the ones that do "get" it, you'll get an incredible retro throwback to a time when games weren't afraid to just be weird and fun.
P.S. I can already tell that much like games such as Deadly Premonition, NieR, God Hand, Killer7 or Killer is Dead this is the epitome of a truly misunderstood gem of a game that will be heralded as a cult classic 5 or 10 years from now, but for now it has already reached that status for me.
I will tolerate no slander or hate against the devs and especially the creative director and writer Sergei Kolobashkin because he never lied nor did he ever give false promises and the game is exactly what he said it would be. A passionate love letter to the sixth gen of consoles back when devs weren't afraid to do different and unique things and put out games that simply weren't going to be for everyone and wouldn't get critical praise, but they put these games out because they had a vision and they wanted to make it a reality. That's exactly what Wanted: Dead is for better or for worse because I have never played anything else quite like Wanted: Dead which reminds me heavily of many things like Deadly Premonition, Ninja Gaiden, Yakuza, Metal Gear Rising and basically anything with Suda51's name attached to it all rolled into one insane hybrid fever dream of a game.
Wanted: Dead is unapologetic about its influences down to its core and everything from the unique blend of gory, flashy melee hack and slash and 3rd person cover shooter combat (Which just gets better the more you play as you unlock more skills and abilities) to the over-the-top and slightly convoluted B-movie plot about a group of former war-criminal inmates who get a second chance at freedom and become an elite team of police officers that also happen to get tangled up into a corporate conspiracy complete with eccentric archetypal characters (Like the loose canon katana wielding badass cop who plays by her own rules Hannah Stone, the awkward pop culture referencing, cat loving genius gunsmith Viviane or the ramen connoisseur and ladies man Herzog) and influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and 80s/90s Cyberpunk anime like Ghost in the Shell or the purposefully amateurish voice acting done by the devs themselves, the awkwardly lip-synched cut-scenes, self-aware goofy dialogue, weird mini-games and especially the linear to a fault level design and punishing difficulty with checkpoints few and far between (I would go as far to say that your enjoyment of the game could hinge upon how good you are at action games with nuanced controls) was all deliberately added to further fully encapsulate that PS2 era charm in every way possible.
Wanted: Dead feels like a long-lost classic PS2 game in the best (and some of the worst) ways possible and while that isn't going to be for everyone, hell it won't even be for most people, but I personally adore it and respect the creator for sticking entirely to their creative vision and simply putting out a game for no other reason than it was something they were passionate about and wanted to release for the ones who will enjoy and truly "get" it and for the ones that do "get" it, you'll get an incredible retro throwback to a time when games weren't afraid to just be weird and fun.
P.S. I can already tell that much like games such as Deadly Premonition, NieR, God Hand, Killer7 or Killer is Dead this is the epitome of a truly misunderstood gem of a game that will be heralded as a cult classic 5 or 10 years from now, but for now it has already reached that status for me.
what a goddamn mess. i wonder what led to this game having like 10 different directions, all eventually coalescing into one extremely entertaining, frustrating, and insane whole. there are like 5 different plots happening at once, and none of them get that much time for themselves.
- it feels like you're seeing the logical end to events in the lives of the cast; an end represented by slightly underwhelming action setpieces that are executed with mild disinterest (apart from the literal bloodbaths) coming from the game.
- it's like you're experiencing a deranged outsourced sequel to a blockbuster drama that really wants to make some callbacks to show good faith to the audience.
- it's impossible to find anything other than pure sincerity here.
- it's honestly beautiful.
- it feels like you're seeing the logical end to events in the lives of the cast; an end represented by slightly underwhelming action setpieces that are executed with mild disinterest (apart from the literal bloodbaths) coming from the game.
- it's like you're experiencing a deranged outsourced sequel to a blockbuster drama that really wants to make some callbacks to show good faith to the audience.
- it's impossible to find anything other than pure sincerity here.
- it's honestly beautiful.
Wanted: Dead is not that weird, a lot of popular games have just become too buttoned down.
W:D works in that margin of utterly compelling amateur game efforts. They have a handful of genre and story ideas that they're ready to follow to the grave, but the rest is up in the air. Will the next cutscene be in-engine or will it be anime? What annoying rhythm minigame will be featured in between the next mission? Why is there a jukebox of obscure European covers of old pop songs?
It's a damn videogame. You can do whatever you want. Without blanching at the audacity of games to be absurd, there's not much left to criticize here. The story is a properly bloody wink wink quick shot of violent adrenaline, the action is snappy fun and rewarding. I just wanted: more of it.
W:D works in that margin of utterly compelling amateur game efforts. They have a handful of genre and story ideas that they're ready to follow to the grave, but the rest is up in the air. Will the next cutscene be in-engine or will it be anime? What annoying rhythm minigame will be featured in between the next mission? Why is there a jukebox of obscure European covers of old pop songs?
It's a damn videogame. You can do whatever you want. Without blanching at the audacity of games to be absurd, there's not much left to criticize here. The story is a properly bloody wink wink quick shot of violent adrenaline, the action is snappy fun and rewarding. I just wanted: more of it.
After wrapping up Bayonetta and before starting the next game I just had to come back to Wanted: Dead. I love it and wanted to try it out again now that it has been updated.
At first I needed to re-adjust to this game, as I kept hitting the wrong buttons for dodge and reload and was playing kind of awkwardly, but after a bit of time it was clicking again. Quickly sprinting and rolling around as Hannah Stone while ripping, shooting and parrying your way through enemies is so much fun. The charm and characters of this game are still great too. So what’s new or different?
First of all are the fixes and improvements. I played through the game on PS5, on normal difficulty. Then I got the itch to keep playing this again and did Hard and Japanese Hard, which takes me up to 8 play throughs now. I had fewer issues and no crashes but there were still performance problems, particularly during Kowloon Street. So it’s a smoother experience but still needs a little more work and of course this game still has its bit of jank.
There is a big change to difficulty. The first ninja now has three Stimpacks right in front of him and all the tougher enemies drop them too. I don’t know how I feel about this. The game already has an easy mode, which is now easier to access. It feels like the game lost its edge a bit and like the creators have compromised their vision. It seems a bit late too, all the reviews are out and the game has been on shelves for over a year. Is this really going to pull in more people? I almost managed a no death run first go despite not playing it since last year and not trying for it. During the last chapter there were just a lot health drops that I was leaving behind. The game just feels quite a bit easier. At first I thought no problem normal difficulty has been made more accessible, which is fine, but new players will be missing something. However these changes were made to hard and Japanese hard as well. Holy crap why did they lower the difficulty of the entire game? Now if I want to play the game as the developers originally intended and how I enjoyed it I need to not install the update, which means playing a buggier version that likes to crash. It’s still an incredibly fun game and I know many will prefer it now but it has really lost something. I liked that it demanded you learn how to play, it was rewarding and the journey to getting better was one of Wanted: Dead’s highlights. I liked that you had to be on your game or get punished. I liked the tension and palm sweats the difficulty and checkpoint system created. I liked that it made you learn to get through strings of encounters rather than just one encounter at a time with heaps of health or checkpoints in between. I want more people to play Wanted: Dead so maybe this is going to be good in the long run but I don’t like that it’s been toned down either, it does negatively impact the experience and there was no reason to change the higher difficulties. Surely there was a better way to get new people on board.
They added player stats so you can track your progress for some trophies. The severance pays trophy has been fixed as well and I unlocked it. I’m never getting that Platinum trophy though because of how damn hard it is to do really well at the mini games, seriously why is the ramen game harder than beating the game on Japanese Hard mode? They also added the ability to toggle in and out of cover with a button press. I’m not a fan of it and changed it back straight away. I want to move around quickly in this game and snapping in and out of cover just feels better.
I’d love to see more improvements and content added to this game like an even harder difficulty that changes up enemy placement, a boss run mode, chapter select and a ranking system. As much as I’m really happy this game got an update, it feels like two steps forward and one step back, when the game needed to be taken four steps forward.
The reviews and how they have almost certainly impacted this game’s sales and how it will be remembered by many (if remembered at all) really sucks. Some of the bad reviews I have read gave me God Hand 3/10 flashbacks, hopefully this game get’s some of the recognition I think it deserves one day. Overall Wanted: Dead is an amazing, addictive game. It’s hard to describe just how good this game feels. I’ve played it 8 times now and have it down to about 2 hours and no deaths, if I’m careful, and I’m still keen on playing it more. It’s just such a special game and I think if I were to review it again now I’d put it in the 8 out of 10 range, which for me makes it a must own and play game.
Added more after another update in April:
I had to go back to Wanted: Dead again after another big update released and this now brings me to ten playthroughs. It’s been further improved but also comes with the cost of difficulty being nerfed even more.
There’s actually quite a long list of changes. First up is an expanded skill tree with some new skills and some changes to previous skills. The biggest changes here are a quick little grenade toss, sliding attack makes enemies drop shields and adrenaline rush, which gives you slow mo after bullet time and you are more powerful during it. On top of this there’s been rebalancing to damage and stun and adrenaline seems to build quicker. The additions are nice but the changes are taking things too far. They simply make you more powerful and make the game easier.
There are additional fixes for bugs and improvements have been made to visuals and performance which is always very welcome but some performance issues still remain. You can now transfer your save from PS4 to PS5 as well.
The Space Runaway minigame has been made easier and one of the trophies for the Ramen minigame has been made easier too.
Wanted: Dead is fantastic and it is wonderful to see the game getting this much attention and improvement I just wish it didn’t come with the cost of lowering the game’s difficulty. It is especially frustrating when a lot these changes could have only been made to Neko and maybe Normal mode while Hard and Japanese Hard could have been left as they were. It is still an incredibly fun game but it has lost some of its edge and the experience has been negatively impacted. Tension is reduced and it no longer has the same good balance between challenging and rewarding. It is highly likely that new players won’t be pushed to learn to play. This means newer players may not discover what this game has to offer and that the rewarding journey of getting better will often be missed. This is really important as one of Wanted: Dead’s strengths is how good it is at making you feel good. It is disappointing that Soleil hasn’t been able make it more accessible without impacting how challenging and rewarding it was.
If you were put off by or dropped Wanted: Dead because of bugs, issues and/or difficulty then now is the time to jump in or jump back in. It is in a better state now (at least on PS5) and is quite a bit easier to play through. You will be missing something due to the easier difficulty of the whole game but I know a lot of people won’t care about this.
Wanted: Dead has become my favourite PS5 game, that isn’t some kind of re-release. I very, very rarely have wanted to come back and replay a game so much or so often since the early PS3 days, which is now around 15 years ago. If gaming is not doing well right now then games like Wanted: Dead is the medicine, even with the all the issues that were present in the game at launch.
I’m kind of surprised there isn’t a bit more discussion around the story, world and characters too but I guess not many people played it. I feel bad about how much I initially glossed over and didn’t think about it. It’s actually really good. This world is really cool, I love the characters and I’m really hoping for a sequel.
STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS
It’s a cyber punk, alternate version of our world, set in Hong Kong but with a very international cast of characters. Meat is rare and there seems to be clear separation of the different classes of people. It is about a corporation convincing the public that they have made synths (= working class) but really they haven’t. The corporation literally owns people, has their own security force and seems to have a lot of control over politics and the police. Then there is the whole ending with the reveals and the anime cut scenes. I didn’t expect the game to hit this much and have a story this good after that opening diner cut scene. I was just expecting stylish, irreverent fun. There’s so many interesting deliberate choices as well, like the voice actors, only one karaoke song and it’s 99 Luftballons, Stone’s police car is a Maserati from the early 90s and there is one random Nems song. There’s just too much to list. I have so many questions as well, like how did this game even get made? Why is the technology the way it is in this world? Why are there live action cooking segments? Will Hannah/Emma find peace and/or resolution?
At first I needed to re-adjust to this game, as I kept hitting the wrong buttons for dodge and reload and was playing kind of awkwardly, but after a bit of time it was clicking again. Quickly sprinting and rolling around as Hannah Stone while ripping, shooting and parrying your way through enemies is so much fun. The charm and characters of this game are still great too. So what’s new or different?
First of all are the fixes and improvements. I played through the game on PS5, on normal difficulty. Then I got the itch to keep playing this again and did Hard and Japanese Hard, which takes me up to 8 play throughs now. I had fewer issues and no crashes but there were still performance problems, particularly during Kowloon Street. So it’s a smoother experience but still needs a little more work and of course this game still has its bit of jank.
There is a big change to difficulty. The first ninja now has three Stimpacks right in front of him and all the tougher enemies drop them too. I don’t know how I feel about this. The game already has an easy mode, which is now easier to access. It feels like the game lost its edge a bit and like the creators have compromised their vision. It seems a bit late too, all the reviews are out and the game has been on shelves for over a year. Is this really going to pull in more people? I almost managed a no death run first go despite not playing it since last year and not trying for it. During the last chapter there were just a lot health drops that I was leaving behind. The game just feels quite a bit easier. At first I thought no problem normal difficulty has been made more accessible, which is fine, but new players will be missing something. However these changes were made to hard and Japanese hard as well. Holy crap why did they lower the difficulty of the entire game? Now if I want to play the game as the developers originally intended and how I enjoyed it I need to not install the update, which means playing a buggier version that likes to crash. It’s still an incredibly fun game and I know many will prefer it now but it has really lost something. I liked that it demanded you learn how to play, it was rewarding and the journey to getting better was one of Wanted: Dead’s highlights. I liked that you had to be on your game or get punished. I liked the tension and palm sweats the difficulty and checkpoint system created. I liked that it made you learn to get through strings of encounters rather than just one encounter at a time with heaps of health or checkpoints in between. I want more people to play Wanted: Dead so maybe this is going to be good in the long run but I don’t like that it’s been toned down either, it does negatively impact the experience and there was no reason to change the higher difficulties. Surely there was a better way to get new people on board.
They added player stats so you can track your progress for some trophies. The severance pays trophy has been fixed as well and I unlocked it. I’m never getting that Platinum trophy though because of how damn hard it is to do really well at the mini games, seriously why is the ramen game harder than beating the game on Japanese Hard mode? They also added the ability to toggle in and out of cover with a button press. I’m not a fan of it and changed it back straight away. I want to move around quickly in this game and snapping in and out of cover just feels better.
I’d love to see more improvements and content added to this game like an even harder difficulty that changes up enemy placement, a boss run mode, chapter select and a ranking system. As much as I’m really happy this game got an update, it feels like two steps forward and one step back, when the game needed to be taken four steps forward.
The reviews and how they have almost certainly impacted this game’s sales and how it will be remembered by many (if remembered at all) really sucks. Some of the bad reviews I have read gave me God Hand 3/10 flashbacks, hopefully this game get’s some of the recognition I think it deserves one day. Overall Wanted: Dead is an amazing, addictive game. It’s hard to describe just how good this game feels. I’ve played it 8 times now and have it down to about 2 hours and no deaths, if I’m careful, and I’m still keen on playing it more. It’s just such a special game and I think if I were to review it again now I’d put it in the 8 out of 10 range, which for me makes it a must own and play game.
Added more after another update in April:
I had to go back to Wanted: Dead again after another big update released and this now brings me to ten playthroughs. It’s been further improved but also comes with the cost of difficulty being nerfed even more.
There’s actually quite a long list of changes. First up is an expanded skill tree with some new skills and some changes to previous skills. The biggest changes here are a quick little grenade toss, sliding attack makes enemies drop shields and adrenaline rush, which gives you slow mo after bullet time and you are more powerful during it. On top of this there’s been rebalancing to damage and stun and adrenaline seems to build quicker. The additions are nice but the changes are taking things too far. They simply make you more powerful and make the game easier.
There are additional fixes for bugs and improvements have been made to visuals and performance which is always very welcome but some performance issues still remain. You can now transfer your save from PS4 to PS5 as well.
The Space Runaway minigame has been made easier and one of the trophies for the Ramen minigame has been made easier too.
Wanted: Dead is fantastic and it is wonderful to see the game getting this much attention and improvement I just wish it didn’t come with the cost of lowering the game’s difficulty. It is especially frustrating when a lot these changes could have only been made to Neko and maybe Normal mode while Hard and Japanese Hard could have been left as they were. It is still an incredibly fun game but it has lost some of its edge and the experience has been negatively impacted. Tension is reduced and it no longer has the same good balance between challenging and rewarding. It is highly likely that new players won’t be pushed to learn to play. This means newer players may not discover what this game has to offer and that the rewarding journey of getting better will often be missed. This is really important as one of Wanted: Dead’s strengths is how good it is at making you feel good. It is disappointing that Soleil hasn’t been able make it more accessible without impacting how challenging and rewarding it was.
If you were put off by or dropped Wanted: Dead because of bugs, issues and/or difficulty then now is the time to jump in or jump back in. It is in a better state now (at least on PS5) and is quite a bit easier to play through. You will be missing something due to the easier difficulty of the whole game but I know a lot of people won’t care about this.
Wanted: Dead has become my favourite PS5 game, that isn’t some kind of re-release. I very, very rarely have wanted to come back and replay a game so much or so often since the early PS3 days, which is now around 15 years ago. If gaming is not doing well right now then games like Wanted: Dead is the medicine, even with the all the issues that were present in the game at launch.
I’m kind of surprised there isn’t a bit more discussion around the story, world and characters too but I guess not many people played it. I feel bad about how much I initially glossed over and didn’t think about it. It’s actually really good. This world is really cool, I love the characters and I’m really hoping for a sequel.
STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS
It’s a cyber punk, alternate version of our world, set in Hong Kong but with a very international cast of characters. Meat is rare and there seems to be clear separation of the different classes of people. It is about a corporation convincing the public that they have made synths (= working class) but really they haven’t. The corporation literally owns people, has their own security force and seems to have a lot of control over politics and the police. Then there is the whole ending with the reveals and the anime cut scenes. I didn’t expect the game to hit this much and have a story this good after that opening diner cut scene. I was just expecting stylish, irreverent fun. There’s so many interesting deliberate choices as well, like the voice actors, only one karaoke song and it’s 99 Luftballons, Stone’s police car is a Maserati from the early 90s and there is one random Nems song. There’s just too much to list. I have so many questions as well, like how did this game even get made? Why is the technology the way it is in this world? Why are there live action cooking segments? Will Hannah/Emma find peace and/or resolution?
Wanted: Dead is a very unruly throwback to the PS3-360 era of third person action games. It's one of those games that has a clear vision of what it wants to do, and yet can't help but be distracted and stumble the whole way through its path.
Let's start with the best part: the combat. At its peak, the combat is absolutely ferocious, brutal and stylish. You'll be juggling your ballistic armaments and katana as enemies approach you with either the intent to intimately cut you up or blast you from afar. The game communicates its "intended" playstyle from early on quite well, as melee enemies are much harder to take down with guns even with headshots, and enemies with guns shoots you just enough to put a chunk of your health down if you run straight at them. You can customize your main long gun and pistol to change how it behaves (sacrificing damage for stagger, recoil control for accuracy, and so on). The pistol works more like a stagger button, as you can immediately start attacking them with a katana after you use your pistol to stun them for a second. You can also dodge, and parry attacks with your katana and handgun. Some attack are only parry-able if you use your handgun, but you can unlock an upgrade through the skill tree to remove this limitation. You can replenish your health with stimpaks that are replenished in each checkpoint, and you can also get one free revive in each checkpoint (although they take away this ability sometimes). You can also get some of your health back if you do a finishing move fast enough, but its usually not easy enough to be a reliable option. There's more to talk about, but in short, it's an absolute hoot of a combat system that only gets much more satisfying to handle as you progress through the skill tree. While the enemy AI and level design are mostly average, and many of the encounters doesn't quite showcase the full potential of the system, the combat always manages to shine through the rubble. It's honestly one of my favorite combat systems in recent memory, if we're just talking about the core mechanics. The only thing about the combat that I purely dislike is the regular fragmentary grenades, they're so hard to throw accurately and thus becomes unpractical.
The combat sections always end with a boss fight, and for the most part they're decent. They don't really have a lot of unique moves, but the challenge they provide is a step above the rest of the game, in a good way. The notable ones include the third boss, which has a cool invisibility cloak, and the very last one, which has the most flashy moves. I did not like the two tank boss fights.
The story is, simply put, incomprehensible. Nobody talks like a regular human, and none of the conversations gives you an idea of what is really going on with the story. All I know for sure is that you're playing as a former war criminal turned Hong Kong "special" police, and you have 3 other compatriots (and a cat-loving gunsmith) in your crew. None of these characters are likable. There's some semblance of a story with your main character that only gets clearer when you finish the game, but even that is not really substantial. Despite all of this, I still enjoy the cutscenes and dialog ironically, mostly because of how weird the voice acting is in this game. It's like they're deliberately trying to sabotage the story.
Outside of the combat sections, you get to explore the Police HQ. You can talk to other policemen (and find out how unpopular your crew is), pick up some documents, and most importantly, play minigames! There's a crane game where you can collect character figurines and music tracks, a karaoke and ramen eating minigame (both are rhythm based), a firing range complete with time and score attack modes, and a original side scrolling shoot em' up arcade game. These mini games add a strong flavor of quirkiness to the game, and is much appreciated, even if they're infected by the unpolished-ness of the main game.
This game is quite rough around the edges. On the PS5, the game has randomly crashed on me 5 times in my 9 hour playthrough. There are times where the framerate plummets for a couple seconds, although it's not too often. The very last hour of the game features a lot of tight spaces that can be hard for the camera to handle, resulting in you getting surprised by an off screen enemy. There's more quirks here, just know that they can be quite annoying if you end up getting the short end of the stick.
In short, Wanted: Dead is much more interesting than the sum of its ingredients, for better and worse. And yet, that's why I enjoyed it so much. It represents mid-budget video games at its most chaotic form, born out of a desire to stand out and provide a breath of fresh air, and it definitely accomplishes that. Maybe the best it can hope for is a cult classic status in the future, and I'm sure the devs will be okay with that.
Let's start with the best part: the combat. At its peak, the combat is absolutely ferocious, brutal and stylish. You'll be juggling your ballistic armaments and katana as enemies approach you with either the intent to intimately cut you up or blast you from afar. The game communicates its "intended" playstyle from early on quite well, as melee enemies are much harder to take down with guns even with headshots, and enemies with guns shoots you just enough to put a chunk of your health down if you run straight at them. You can customize your main long gun and pistol to change how it behaves (sacrificing damage for stagger, recoil control for accuracy, and so on). The pistol works more like a stagger button, as you can immediately start attacking them with a katana after you use your pistol to stun them for a second. You can also dodge, and parry attacks with your katana and handgun. Some attack are only parry-able if you use your handgun, but you can unlock an upgrade through the skill tree to remove this limitation. You can replenish your health with stimpaks that are replenished in each checkpoint, and you can also get one free revive in each checkpoint (although they take away this ability sometimes). You can also get some of your health back if you do a finishing move fast enough, but its usually not easy enough to be a reliable option. There's more to talk about, but in short, it's an absolute hoot of a combat system that only gets much more satisfying to handle as you progress through the skill tree. While the enemy AI and level design are mostly average, and many of the encounters doesn't quite showcase the full potential of the system, the combat always manages to shine through the rubble. It's honestly one of my favorite combat systems in recent memory, if we're just talking about the core mechanics. The only thing about the combat that I purely dislike is the regular fragmentary grenades, they're so hard to throw accurately and thus becomes unpractical.
The combat sections always end with a boss fight, and for the most part they're decent. They don't really have a lot of unique moves, but the challenge they provide is a step above the rest of the game, in a good way. The notable ones include the third boss, which has a cool invisibility cloak, and the very last one, which has the most flashy moves. I did not like the two tank boss fights.
The story is, simply put, incomprehensible. Nobody talks like a regular human, and none of the conversations gives you an idea of what is really going on with the story. All I know for sure is that you're playing as a former war criminal turned Hong Kong "special" police, and you have 3 other compatriots (and a cat-loving gunsmith) in your crew. None of these characters are likable. There's some semblance of a story with your main character that only gets clearer when you finish the game, but even that is not really substantial. Despite all of this, I still enjoy the cutscenes and dialog ironically, mostly because of how weird the voice acting is in this game. It's like they're deliberately trying to sabotage the story.
Outside of the combat sections, you get to explore the Police HQ. You can talk to other policemen (and find out how unpopular your crew is), pick up some documents, and most importantly, play minigames! There's a crane game where you can collect character figurines and music tracks, a karaoke and ramen eating minigame (both are rhythm based), a firing range complete with time and score attack modes, and a original side scrolling shoot em' up arcade game. These mini games add a strong flavor of quirkiness to the game, and is much appreciated, even if they're infected by the unpolished-ness of the main game.
This game is quite rough around the edges. On the PS5, the game has randomly crashed on me 5 times in my 9 hour playthrough. There are times where the framerate plummets for a couple seconds, although it's not too often. The very last hour of the game features a lot of tight spaces that can be hard for the camera to handle, resulting in you getting surprised by an off screen enemy. There's more quirks here, just know that they can be quite annoying if you end up getting the short end of the stick.
In short, Wanted: Dead is much more interesting than the sum of its ingredients, for better and worse. And yet, that's why I enjoyed it so much. It represents mid-budget video games at its most chaotic form, born out of a desire to stand out and provide a breath of fresh air, and it definitely accomplishes that. Maybe the best it can hope for is a cult classic status in the future, and I'm sure the devs will be okay with that.
so perfectly unfinished in that PS360 sort of way to where you almost have to wonder if it's intentional
a less-smart-but-better-playing version of Binary Domain, seriously if you think this game had a cool world but failed to explore its premise you have to check that game out, the Yakuza people made it and everything
this game should've had a multiplayer mode, Devil's Third multiplayer was incredible and you should feel bad you never got to play it
a less-smart-but-better-playing version of Binary Domain, seriously if you think this game had a cool world but failed to explore its premise you have to check that game out, the Yakuza people made it and everything
this game should've had a multiplayer mode, Devil's Third multiplayer was incredible and you should feel bad you never got to play it
This game is not very good. I had a very good time though. It’s flawed, but oozes charm. Like, the bizarre dialogue coupled with iffy voice acting with an extra dose of horrible sound mixing should be a recipe for a bad time. But I found it very endearing. The actual story is not good, though. It starts off interesting, but has absolutely zero pay-off in any way, shape, or form. I don’t know if this is a time or budget constraint or it’s just bad on its own. Either way, it doesn't really matter to me.
The gameplay is a mix of linear combat levels, with some minigames and exploration of the police station in between them. The minigames are fun on the first go, but I never went back for seconds. And exploring the station was fun the first time, but after that you just kinda mindlessly run around it looking for new intel pick-ups after every level. It’s nothing special, but offers a nice repose from the combat. The combat is pretty simple, but effective. You have a sword, and some guns. I mostly played aggressively, not using guns for the most part. Just slashing around, and finding it very fun. Attacking, and parrying. This being a game made by former Ninja Gaiden devs, I’m sure there’s plenty of secret techniques that deepen the combat. But I’m a scrub, and don’t know anything about that. I did discover block canceling tho, and felt like a genius. The actual game is pretty hard. Those ninjas, man… A nice challenge is a good thing, but the checkpoint placement really grinded my gears. Dying could mean having to repeat like 5 minutes of constant combat which gets pretty annoying. But other than that, I honestly had a fun time.
The gameplay is a mix of linear combat levels, with some minigames and exploration of the police station in between them. The minigames are fun on the first go, but I never went back for seconds. And exploring the station was fun the first time, but after that you just kinda mindlessly run around it looking for new intel pick-ups after every level. It’s nothing special, but offers a nice repose from the combat. The combat is pretty simple, but effective. You have a sword, and some guns. I mostly played aggressively, not using guns for the most part. Just slashing around, and finding it very fun. Attacking, and parrying. This being a game made by former Ninja Gaiden devs, I’m sure there’s plenty of secret techniques that deepen the combat. But I’m a scrub, and don’t know anything about that. I did discover block canceling tho, and felt like a genius. The actual game is pretty hard. Those ninjas, man… A nice challenge is a good thing, but the checkpoint placement really grinded my gears. Dying could mean having to repeat like 5 minutes of constant combat which gets pretty annoying. But other than that, I honestly had a fun time.
It's really weird that the narrative around this game has become that it's some kind of corporate money laundering affair or some other cheap passionless writeoff when it's just, like, no? Obviously this is an extreme passion vanity project the likes of which rarely gets mass distribution in video games even in the indie scene, let alone a boxed product by a reputable developer. This is more like something that would get dropped by Pendulum Pictures on a box of 50 shot on video flicks than anything else. And guess what? That is my entire vibe.
Every moment of a cutscene in this game is an unhinged surreal delight, CGI PS360 cutscene anime filtered through 9 layers of google translate. I can't tell you a thing that happened in this game but I can tell you that Herzog's stories have more male nudity in them than a Joaquin Phoenix movie and I did a stunningly difficult karaoke minigame to 99 Luftballoons while my character and Stephanie Joosten looked like they were singing at gunpoint.
The weirdness carries over into the traditional levels too, with dialogue peppered in and just an incredible awkwardness to every combat encounter. Guns are formally useless (one of the things I think is surprisingly worse about this game next to Devil's Third, a modern gaming classic) and swordplay is very simplistic, but there's fun to be had in the RSI inducing button mashing, mostly because it's really difficult so you have to actually learn parries and shit. There are encounters that are like pulling fucking teeth though, the boss fight against August is one of the absolute worst I can remember, the game is just not fair or deep or varied lol. It is fun tho. I like the lil hub zone too, love a hub, love wandering around hearing the inscrutable cop dialogue.
This game is set in Hong Kong but there's like no Chinese characters at all?
Also it's explicitly set in 2022 so I guess it's alt history?
Sometimes the cutscenes are anime?
Sometimes you see actual Stephanie Joosten playing with her band?
Every moment of a cutscene in this game is an unhinged surreal delight, CGI PS360 cutscene anime filtered through 9 layers of google translate. I can't tell you a thing that happened in this game but I can tell you that Herzog's stories have more male nudity in them than a Joaquin Phoenix movie and I did a stunningly difficult karaoke minigame to 99 Luftballoons while my character and Stephanie Joosten looked like they were singing at gunpoint.
The weirdness carries over into the traditional levels too, with dialogue peppered in and just an incredible awkwardness to every combat encounter. Guns are formally useless (one of the things I think is surprisingly worse about this game next to Devil's Third, a modern gaming classic) and swordplay is very simplistic, but there's fun to be had in the RSI inducing button mashing, mostly because it's really difficult so you have to actually learn parries and shit. There are encounters that are like pulling fucking teeth though, the boss fight against August is one of the absolute worst I can remember, the game is just not fair or deep or varied lol. It is fun tho. I like the lil hub zone too, love a hub, love wandering around hearing the inscrutable cop dialogue.
This game is set in Hong Kong but there's like no Chinese characters at all?
Also it's explicitly set in 2022 so I guess it's alt history?
Sometimes the cutscenes are anime?
Sometimes you see actual Stephanie Joosten playing with her band?
não é uma merda
como que alguém solta o projeto mais inspirado, interessante e apaixonado que eu tive o prazer de jogar no ano de lançamento de 2023 assim como quem não quer nada.
jogo intenso em todos os aspectos - ele não vai te pedir pra você engajar com os mini games de ramen, arcade, cantar 99 luftballons com a joosten (o melhor karaoke, yakuza sonha), nem com os flashbacks de anime, ou os checkpoints de 40 minutos que tem uns 5 mini chefes pra voce enfrentar com recursos limitados. ele vai jogar tudo isso na sua cara. isso com uma confiança infinita, chega a ser de invejar, os audaciosos responsáveis por criarem essas fases com vários momentos que diversas analises chamariam de injustos, essas coreografias de lutas lindas (eu adoro quando a hannah finaliza um segundo inimigo com um tiro na cabeça dele), ou o fato desse ser o jogo de ação-espadinha que mais se disfarça de tiro em terceira pessoa. não senti que os artistas responsáveis por isso fraquejaram uma vez sequer.
é bastante intrusivo, similar as memórias (implantadas? apagadas?) da protagonista. mas wanted:dead é uma obra que também te acalenta, lembrando que mesmo sendo uma policial, policiais de verdade não vestiriam sneakers.
jogo intenso em todos os aspectos - ele não vai te pedir pra você engajar com os mini games de ramen, arcade, cantar 99 luftballons com a joosten (o melhor karaoke, yakuza sonha), nem com os flashbacks de anime, ou os checkpoints de 40 minutos que tem uns 5 mini chefes pra voce enfrentar com recursos limitados. ele vai jogar tudo isso na sua cara. isso com uma confiança infinita, chega a ser de invejar, os audaciosos responsáveis por criarem essas fases com vários momentos que diversas analises chamariam de injustos, essas coreografias de lutas lindas (eu adoro quando a hannah finaliza um segundo inimigo com um tiro na cabeça dele), ou o fato desse ser o jogo de ação-espadinha que mais se disfarça de tiro em terceira pessoa. não senti que os artistas responsáveis por isso fraquejaram uma vez sequer.
é bastante intrusivo, similar as memórias (implantadas? apagadas?) da protagonista. mas wanted:dead é uma obra que também te acalenta, lembrando que mesmo sendo uma policial, policiais de verdade não vestiriam sneakers.
From a glance it's an exciting action throwback to the PS2/PS3 era of janky Japanese hack n slash.
The actual product is a clumsy, clunky often tortuous experience in either bad or just plain stupid game design. Frustrating in ways that feel incongruous to the propulsive momentum the gameplay promises, with no real intrinsic reward other than relief from not having to battle the same nauseating wave of enemies again and again for an hour.
Still. The wrapping is okay and every few minutes I'd exclaim, "that's sick" to my lonely room.
The actual product is a clumsy, clunky often tortuous experience in either bad or just plain stupid game design. Frustrating in ways that feel incongruous to the propulsive momentum the gameplay promises, with no real intrinsic reward other than relief from not having to battle the same nauseating wave of enemies again and again for an hour.
Still. The wrapping is okay and every few minutes I'd exclaim, "that's sick" to my lonely room.
sleeper hit of the year
This game is really weird.
The story is super strangely paced and the dialogue often feels Lynchian. And occasionally there are the strange minigames. It's very weird but honestly really enjoyable.
The combat is less enjoyable, mixing a cover shooter where the enemies are damage spongy and your ammo runs out immediatly with a hack and slash game and it doesn't really work. Also the game is way too hard, even on easy mode, but that difficulty mostly comes from atrition which as I said before is not something I like.
The story is super strangely paced and the dialogue often feels Lynchian. And occasionally there are the strange minigames. It's very weird but honestly really enjoyable.
The combat is less enjoyable, mixing a cover shooter where the enemies are damage spongy and your ammo runs out immediatly with a hack and slash game and it doesn't really work. Also the game is way too hard, even on easy mode, but that difficulty mostly comes from atrition which as I said before is not something I like.
I love this game. It fuckin' blows mega dong!