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.