➤ Wanted: Dead, the review of an action movie that, looking back, is still stuck in us 🕹

The review of Wanted: Dead, a third-person action game that looks to the past, but ends without talking about the present.

Hannah Stone is the lieutenant of a special police squad in a cyberpunk Hong Kong ravaged by dictatorship and corruption. She is a strong, determined woman, sometimes extremely sensitive, other times ruthless, who hides a turbulent past that will emerge throughout the game. Loved by her men, she will end up in the middle of a huge conspiracy that will lead her to follow a long trail of blood and power to reach the heart of evil.

When we heard that a group of Team Ninja exiles were making a Ninja Gaiden clone we believed it a little. After all, the trailers spoke of technical combats, of high difficulty, of fifty finishing moves, of confrontations that mix hand-to-hand combat with firearms, which will tickle our desire to relive quite certain experiences. Unfortunately, as you will read in Wanted: dead review, dreams shattered against the rock of reality.

narration

Wanted: Dead, the review of an action movie that, looking back, is still stuck in us — Everyday life is part of the story of Wanted: Dead

Let's start with the best part of Wanted: Dead, that fiction. The story, which we have already illustrated in broad strokes, is not particularly original, but it is told in an interesting way, alternating the development of the plot itself with moments from the daily life of Stone and the Zombie Unit (that is the name of his team ), with a lot of folklore but also a certain taste for description that we didn't mind and, in fact, supported the whole experience. Thus we see our people sitting in a club and talking about the missions and their lives, we listen to a character telling bad jokes annoying others, we attend karaoke contests, abundant meals based on traditional dishes, refreshing showers (which reveal a bit of voyeurism) and other activities that end up characterizing the entire experience, taking it in a certain direction, and that enter into an almost speculative relationship with the most dramatic moments, such as the flashbacks of Stone's life or some narrative turns.

Sure, some options end up being pretty predictable, but it's the look history It is especially interesting, because it tries to give a broader vision of the characters and the events they experience, without ever becoming overwhelming. The brief dialogues with many non-player characters should also be read from this perspective, in particular Stone's generic colleagues who populate the police station (acts as a connection zone between the missions), whose words, for example, make us understand some interesting details. such as the contempt of the other police officers towards the Zombie Unit, the existence of relationships between the characters that would otherwise have remained in the background, or completely silent, and power dynamics that will prove important in the advanced phases of the game. Don't expect Tolstoy, no, but at least a precise direction of what the developers want to try to tell emerges. Too bad the story isn't worth following, considering all of Wanted: Dead's other huge problems, starting with the combat system.

The combat system

Il combat system It's horribly dirty, if not downright rude. Considering that it is the fulcrum of the experience (the levels are very linear and there is practically nothing to explore), you will understand that it is a pretty big problem. Stone does his best in very fast-executing combos that combine sword slashes and gun shots, when he's not using his gun like in a third-person shooter. The alternation of hand-to-hand combat with shooter moments should be the game's strong point and, in fact, when it works it produces interesting situations, between dismembered bodies and blood splashing everywhere, covering our police and their companions in red. . Unfortunately it doesn't work very often. Meanwhile, let's immediately clarify that the combat has very little technicality: the combos are limited and we usually always use one for the entire game, because it is more effective than the others. The artificial intelligence of the enemies leads them, on the one hand, to group around Stone, attacking with a certain timidity, and, on the other, to use decidedly questionable distance tactics, to the point that in some confrontations they seem more erratic than coordinated. .

Yet Wanted: Dead is a challenging game, sometimes too challenging given the conditions. As it does? The quick answer is: try to frustrate the player with sudden difficulty spikes, often due to their biggest problems, rather than design choices. Let's talk for example about the crazy implementation of camera, which in some cases cannot follow the action at all, in others it frames objects on the stage that cover the action itself (is this why the levels are usually very bare? More on that later) and whose management is almost entirely It depends on the player; or we talk about the lack of indicators of any kind about the origin of the attacks from off-screen, partly compensated by the distance of the shot to Stone's back, but deadly when you have to dodge the bullets looking for some cover (only grenades are inform and not always with adequate accuracy). But again: the possibility of fixing enemies is missing, a truly incomprehensible choice that in some cases forces you to make real turns to monitor the scene, especially in the presence of very fast opponents (see for example the first boss). . Stone has unlockable skills, divided into three trees (attack, defense, support), which give him, for example, longer combos, improve his damage resistance and add grenades. In general, they are crucial to advance, but in general they are few and that is why there is a tendency to standardize the choices, which in any case do not imply substantial changes in combat or gameplay.

Therefore, you will understand that we are light years away from the planet Bayonetta, but also from Ninja Gaiden themselves. By the way, here, instead of dancing while fighting enemies, it feels like fighting enemies. game systems. Let's give a couple of very specific examples: in the third level you find yourself fleeing to the roofs of a building where you find a pair of armored beasts placed one after the other. Now, the combat area is very narrow and favors the enemies in every way, since they are heavily armed at a distance and, if they want, they can charge Stone with lethal melee attacks that are difficult to dodge. Let's consider that in Wanted: Dead firearms hurt much less than attacks with knives, for example a knife can kill the protagonist with a couple of shots, while a machine gun needs several shots to achieve the same result. That said, dodging the two giants is not only difficult, but a real torment, since the camera often tricks you about the direction of the dodge, obviously you end up getting hit because the character moves in a different direction than the that you are avoiding. the one you thought you were going to have indicated with the controller. Stop It is not an easily viable option, because the giants are able to immediately break the defense. Add to this the less than perfect collisions and some irritating design choices, like allowing enemies to suddenly change their trajectory while executing their attacks, and it becomes difficult not so much to advance, but to completely uninstall the game in the feeling that only Luck can help us reach the end, especially after having almost completely passed a very easy general level (more than the previous ones, so you understand how poorly calibrated some things are).

The second example is completely opposite and refers to a boss (If you don't want previews, skip ahead to reading the next paragraph). The fight begins when Stone has to deal with some rebel synthetic workers equipped with melee weapons, while the boss bombards the battlefield with explosives. However, after killing some of the enemies, he enters the field directly and begins attacking us in hand-to-hand combat, using his firearm as we move away. So far everything is working pretty well: the challenge is high and the boss seems to have some decent attack patterns. Of course, there is the problem of having to manage the camera manually, but that is spread throughout the game, so little attention is paid to it. In any case, after a few failed attempts we managed to take away half of his health, starting the terrible phase three. The boss gets angry, throws his firearm on the ground and... becomes stupid, staying at a distance to try to charge us from time to time with easily dodged attacks. Simply shoot him with the pistol while keeping him at a distance and you're done. What should have been the most difficult phase turned out to be a walk in the park, which we even managed to overcome on the first try.

Be that as it may, I problems from Wanted: Dead's combat system doesn't end there. In fact, added to this is the repetitiveness of the common enemies, practically all the same in their attack patterns throughout the game, the numerous bugs, including lost animations, enemies that end up trapped behind walls (it also happened with the first boss, so to speak). speak), interpenetrations, etc. and some pretty questionable choices in progression. It should be noted that throughout the game we will have companions in all missions, whose function is mainly to disrupt because, although they are fully armed, they do very little damage. It is true that they are immortal and that is why you see them all the time receiving bullets, bombs and hammer blows without blinking.

It deserves a separate mention chainsaw. In theory, it's a special weapon designed to create particularly splashy sequences, since when used, Stone can destroy one or more enemies with a single shot. In general it works, but even here the lack of refinement is felt. In fact, when you hit the target with the chainsaw, an animation starts that cannot be interrupted and leaves Stone defenseless against possible attacks coming from off-screen that he could not avoid due to the aforementioned lack of indicators. Ultimately, using a weapon designed to carry out senseless massacres can be very dangerous, because the game system does not allow you to monitor the entire scene or does not make us completely immortal during the dismemberment animations.

That said, the ruthless description also hides a potential which paradoxically Wanted: Dead manages to express when it stops being a difficult game and becomes a senseless massacre, as happens for example in the third level where the first enemies are numerous and very weak and it is a pleasure to harvest them without rest making random combinations . Precisely the feeling of omnipotence conveyed by these moments is what pushes us to move forward despite all the other problems, to the point that one wonders how the experience was designed, given that it essentially succeeds most where the stated objectives fail. . It all seems terribly unfinished, if not completely incomplete.

Mini-games and secondary activities.

As we have mentioned, the levels of Wanted: Dead are divided into interactive phases set mostly in the police station. Stone converses with the other characters, has flashbacks revealing his past, takes a shower, wanders around the police station looking for documents to read, and carries out secondary activities, read about the minigames, some successful, others much less so. The best of all is undoubtedly Space Runaway, a truly complete classic arcade shooter that is played by interacting with a coin operation.

If you want, you can also download it externally to Wanted: Dead (do it because it's worth it). Additionally, there are two hook machines, allowing you to collect some trophies and a bit of experience, and there's a frankly irritating Guitar Hero-style rhythm game doled out to restaurant meals or Karaoke contests. What happen? Let's say that, of course, it lacks refinement and immediately puts the player before a very high challenge, made up of really pressing and complicated key sequences to press. It is true that winning is optional, but this is almost a slap in the face to the player and we do not understand how someone who does not know the genre perfectly can find an experience like this, which should be a beautiful, exciting or interesting interlude in some way.

Otherwise, the other interactions at the police station also present some critical problems. For example, the presence of the aforementioned documents to read to learn more about the setting and the characters is fine, but having to go through the entire station every time to find them is quite annoying, also because it is divided into four floors and is not exactly little. Additionally, there is no progression management tool. For example, there are no upgrades for weapons that can be purchased (the game automatically grants them at save points in an order set by the designers), there are no side tasks, there is nothing at all, apart from a training room . It's actually not that bad, given that Soleil immediately said it would be an action game inspired by similar games from the sixth generation of consoles, but at this point one wonders why waste time building such a large environment if it can't be can do. almost nothing significant.

Technical side

La technical part It's the icing on the cake of Wanted: Dead, the classic that I would like but can't do. In what sense? For example, we have some models scanned in high resolution, such as that of Stefanie Joosten (Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, here Gunsmith, fan of guns and cats), but equipped with few animations, which are going to weigh especially the numerous scenes in between, with characters with the expressiveness of fried tofu and the movements of puppets. The lack of resources in this sense becomes evident when the anime-style sequences start, which are infinitely better than the infographics, in terms of overall rendering, creating a not exactly positive contrast with the rest.

As for the animations, things are a little better in the game, also because the cinematic sequences become scarcer and there are a lot of deaths (some finishing moves are decidedly tasty... when the animations do not work on the Champs Elysées due to (to various errors and glitches), but it's a shame for the really simple environments, which are not adorned with the various effects of modern video cards and it's also a shame for the response of the shots, which in some cases are too slippery, almost as if Stone's sword was cutting the air more than the bodies of the enemies. Since this is not a large production, some deficiencies would also be forgivable, if it were not for the fact that, with a certain masochism, the developers themselves have chosen to focus on elements that highlight them. The soundtrack is certainly better, composed of effective songs that accompany the action well and, in general, good sounds. Too bad, here too, for the too many shouts and the excessive repetitiveness in the phrases spoken by our fellow adventurers. Evidently they also wanted to be somewhere else.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store Price 58,99 € Holygamerz.com 4.5 Readers (16) 7.0 your vote

In short, Wanted: Dead seems like a frankly insignificant game, with the narrative side as its only point of interest (but without particularly shining). The latter manages to raise some interesting themes, but is undermined by a number of problems that cannot be ignored. It's a shame, because when we first started it we really expected to find ourselves in a modern Ninja Gaiden emulator, but as we played alone we ended up wanting more and more intensely to get to the end as quickly as possible. then we could use the uninstall function and forget about it.