Wanted: Dead Review – Devil’s Fourth

Wanted: Dead is an action game by Soleil, a team founded by former developers that brought us series such as the reboot Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. As such, I expected a hardcore experience with high production values and engaging gameplay.

As you will see in the review, I only got half of that, while the other half is making me question what we have learned regarding game design since the original Xbox era. Why? Because it feels like we've just regressed into an era where nobody knew what they were doing in the worst way possible. While Hi-Fi Rush is a callback to all of these great games that engaged us, Wanted: Dead honestly felt like a game on par with Drake of the 99 Dragons and Bomberman: Act Zero.

Don't get me wrong. This game looks gorgeous, and the bloody scenes that will be peppering this gameplay flow incredibly well. But what does all of that mean when there's no real substance behind all of these pretty colors that leave me baffled at how incredible the potential this game had? I guess I should've lowered my expectations when I saw that the game's producer was also one of the people heading the wonderful masterpiece we know as Devil's Third.

Let's start with the presentation because that's the first thing that will stick out to players. Wanted: Dead will wow you with its visuals and cyberpunk aesthetics. The main problem with it is that it doesn't push boundaries when it comes to the visual design, so you'll often end up meeting with very samey-looking hallways and buildings.

That particular issue extends to voice acting and story presentation. There's an excellent and noteworthy story to highlight within this game. We get to meet some unique characters in the group of mercenaries that we play as they discover a corporate conspiracy that involves them and potentially the future of the Hong Kong Police Department.

Unfortunately, this story is marred by how it's presented, as most of the cutscenes reveal nothing of substance while the more important background details are left behind in-game notes. In other words, this game suffers from Final Fantasy VIII Syndrome, in which the entirety of the story is locked behind supplementary material. To be fair, the supplementary material is found pretty easily, but there was no need for that approach.

Not only that, but the game also loves doing this thing where they poorly explain major plot points, leaving anyone very confused as to what's going on. This pissed me off as the game does a very poor job of explaining the context behind its more important moments. Once you do have the context in the form of supplementary material that not everybody will be on the hunt for due to how this game is structured, you'll find that the story is rife with tragic character moments, an underground conspiracy, and a tale of betrayal and belief in a dystopian society.

Not helping things is the way the voice actors and actresses (Especially for Wanted: Dead's lead Hannah Stone) perform with the level of enthusiasm that makes Michigan: Report From Hell blush. Would it have been too hard to, at least, make a second take when it comes to this game's voice acting? I know that nowadays, expecting voice acting on par with AAA releases is a bit too much to ask for, but at least hire voice actors who give a damn about their roles, guys.

Incredibly, the character that puts the most enthusiasm into their role is the character that's supposed to be an android (but not really, as revealed later in the plot), and she makes even the audience question whether or not the real robot is the main character. It's hilarious, but it's also maddening to hear these voice lines when you are trying to get engrossed with the game's story.

The worst thing about this game's presentation is undoubtedly the glitches and bugs it has. While the game looks beautiful and can easily reach 160+ FPS, it often can crash, load particles where they aren't supposed to be (especially when using incendiary grenades), and in some instances, just crash entirely. It's funny. One of the minigames I played had this shaking effect that supposedly only triggers when you use a bomb. Guess what? The screen kept shaking and hasn't stopped since I deployed that first bomb, not even after several game soft and hard resets.

So, if Wanted: Dead looks nice but also has a horrible presentation, how does it play? It can't be that bad, right? Unfortunately, it is. Wanted: Dead is the perfect example of a baffling set of decisions regarding gameplay elements. The gameplay tries to use a mix of ranged combat in the form of gunplay and melee combat with your trusty katana.

Here's the problem, it kind of sucks at doing both, so you end up with a mesh of gameplay styles that often clash with themselves. Both sides of gameplay are constantly at odds, fighting for control over the game meta itself. You can commit to one weapon over the other, but doing so will often result in your death.

It probably doesn't help that most enemy attacks are quick and drain a huge chunk of your health, especially from Melee strikes. While you do have a parry and a dodge roll to avoid those, they won't really be effective until you upgrade them, especially when they throw an attack that does a clear indication and windup of a parry-able attack but has to be instead countered with a close range gunshot.

These things aren't hard to counter; they just needlessly tack on the supposed "Difficulty" by punishing your mistakes with a massive HP drop. I guess it's because of that that you're pelted with huge mobs of enemies with both ranged and melee weapons that will all try to attack you at once. After all, you may be able to parry things in a 1v1 scenario, but I'm sure you won't be able to parry a bullet or three knife dudes going to town on you at once.

Additionally, the hitstun you receive whenever you get hit can ONLY be canceled with a slide or dodge roll. If you try to do something like, say, parry the second attack in a combo or something of the sort to correct your mistake, you'll end up getting hit again. Additionally, you can just fall into a trap where your enemies stunlock you and ping-pong you back and forth between attacks until you die.

Once you realize what's going to happen by sheer virtue of memorization, you'll essentially find out that the enemy and ally AI isn't that hard to exploit. Most of the enemies don't know what "Self-preservation" is and will make a beeline toward you, meaning that every member of your squad will shoot them as they try to chase you around while being completely determined to hit you. They also have a bad habit of using rocket launchers to blow themselves up or throwing grenades at each other.

Of course, your allies can also be absent-minded shits too, as you can see them recklessly charging into a bunch of enemies and getting flooded with bullets (but be completely fine as they are invincible), throwing grenades at the enemy you just so happen to be in the middle of melee combat with, or just completely forget about the enemy as they flank you while you're in the middle of attacking someone else.

It's incredible that a game like Wanted: Dead made me fear rocket launchers, as their projectiles can explode on contact with an invisible wall and cause your death through no fault of your own. So much of this game's combat involves a lot of jank that it makes me wonder whether this game was even playtested. Especially in boss fights, as some of them can have huge, persistent hitboxes that will get you stuck and subsequently killed (hi, Spider Tank!)

I think it sucks when I think that the final boss fight is the fairest in the entirety of Wanted: Dead. I don't even think there's a point in talking about things like the mini-games, which feel like they are tacked on at best; the soundtrack, which is great but also feels a bit out of place at points; or the fact that this game is trying to charge a premium price for what's essentially a mediocre experience.

This game is not worth $60. The fact that they think it's worth that much is appalling. This is one of those games you find in the bargain bin as it has mediocre voice acting, terrible gameplay mechanics that are constantly at odds with each other, and an unrewarding gameplay loop that doesn't offer much variety.

Wanted: Dead is the best example of wasted potential I've ever seen, let alone played. It has a great story hidden underneath tons of supplementary material, and the enemies are essentially braindead. Still, they will come at you in droves so you feel like the journey is "difficult" by virtue of getting hit constantly, and your skill "improvements" only exist to make your combat mechanics feel like actual mechanics essentially. Such as making the timing window of a parry that of an actual parry.

This game makes me question whether Ninja Gaiden for Xbox was difficult or if it was just the sort of artificial difficulty in which the game shoves as much bullshit down your throat as it can so you feel proud of it having overcome its janky mechanics. I couldn't care less, and honestly, I will be proud of at least beating this game on Hard Mode and going back to Hi-Fi Rush.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the manufacturer).

3.0

WCCFTECH RATING

Wanted: Dead

Wanted: Dead feels like a callback to the worst games of the Xbox/PS2 era. The game has a distinct lack of polish when it comes to its enemy design, and, combined with the horrid voice acting and confusing storyline that's only explained through supplementary material, it feels like the ultimate case of wasted potential that could've become something better had the developers put a bit more thought into it.

Pros

• Decent storyline overall
• When the game works, it looks gorgeous
• The game's visuals are a sight to behold
• The minigames are fun time wasters

Cons

• Janky combat mechanics that often contradict each other
• Horrible AI that constantly does a better job killing itself than killing you and your allies
• Pointless upgrade system that only makes your character bearable to play
• Terrible voice acting across the board
• The game's story is hidden behind supplementary material

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