Wanted: Weapons of Fate is the videogame sequel to the movie released last year. It is being developed by a rising star in the gaming industry GRIN. They have previously worked on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and its sequel on PC. They also put out the awesome Bionic Commando Rearmed. And for the future they have Terminator Salvation and Bionic Commando on their plate. Everything seems up and up with this development studio but they still haven’t been tested very much yet. Plus movie adaptations typically don’t do so well because they are rushed but this one is a sequel. Not held to the constraints of a movie release date. What will be its fate?

The game takes place directly after the movie. Therefore if you haven’t seen the movie, playing this game will massively spoil the movie. You play as Wesley and sometimes his father in flashback sequences. The game starts out though in Wesley’s apartment after the event of the movie. You hear people robbing your house and eventually confront them taking something from your mothers picture frame. Obviously you go after them and uncover the truth about your past. The story is passable, just like the movie. Some sequences are over the top which fits into the mentality of the movie. Unfortunately the game jumps around a lot from different locations and switches from Wesley to his father and it can be a little jarring. The pacing is off. The characters are not particularly great either and are very one-dimensional. This game wasn’t made for the story and neither was the movie, it was made for the action.

Throughout the game I got a Max Payne vibe. You’re running around very linear areas kicking ass in third person. Instead of bullet time, you eventually gain the ability to slow down time when jumping from cover to cover. The beginning of Max Payne 1 involved a chase, so does this game. There are a lot of similarities and that’s a good thing. Max Payne was a huge hit. The developers seemed to have been going for a generic action flick and I think they have nailed it. There is a full cover system implemented in the game and rarely will you ever leave it to walk around. Interspersed throughout the game are two stationary weapon sections that mix up the gameplay but are not as good as the regular gameplay. Training is integrated into the gameplay and once you learn something new, you go to the training grounds to learn how to use it effectively. The most iconic one is obviously bending bullets and it is very easy to use and makes you feel super powerful. Unfortunately someone you go to use it and it won’t lock on to your target, causing you not only a failed shot, but the loss of adrenaline. Adrenaline is what fuels your special powers throughout the game. As a super badass, the game is incredibly easy on the normal difficulty. This is largely aided by the poor AI. It’s a stop and pop shooter. Get in cover, wait for enemy to pop their head, take them out. And here you can take out the middle man by curving your bullets and not have to wait for them to jump out. Another character will make a straight beeline for you and if you don’t take him down, it will start a quick-time event for hand-to-hand combat. It was a lot of fun to play but it’s only about 3 hours long which is disappointing. There is no multiplayer. You unlock enemies from the game to replay as but it’s only a cosmetic change. The game also feels like it should exist in the last generation. You’ll have fun but it’s definitely not near the cutting edge of anything.

The graphics are lackluster. There is just no personality or life to anything. The character models reflect their movie counterparts pretty well but the animations are not that great. There is a particular enemy that you typically fight in a hand-to-hand quick-time event which is a neat idea, but the animation is exactly the same the entire way through. Bending bullets only has a couple animations too which tends to get repetitive because you use the power so often. The linear levels are blocky and uninspiring. For such a short game, even some of the levels are recycled. Some parts of the game lack consistency. One part you’re wearing a mask throughout the level and somehow in the pre-rendered cut scene you won’t be wearing it anymore. The pre-rendered cut scenes at least look decent, but most other games are doing it real time in gameplay and it’s disappointing they couldn’t bring it to the forefront like the competition.

The sound is as forgettable as the rest of the game. The weapons sound pretty weak and lack a powerful oomph. The voice acting is pretty good and spot on even though they do not use the original actors. The music is very forgettable; you actually tone it out after a while and forget its playing. The sound design is only okay but does give enough that it doesn’t become distracting.

Wanted was a generic action flick that was mildly entertaining. Here the developers seemed to emulate that and succeeded, perhaps too much. Wanted: Weapons of Fate is an entertaining run. You’ll be presented with a passable story that you’ll quickly forget. Leaping from cover to cover while bending bullets at your heart’s content will make you feel like a badass and give you a little grin on your face. The graphics will look like a last generation game with no soul. The sound will be barely good enough as to not break the immersion and the voice talent will lay down cheesy lines. A lot of this sounds bad and I am not sure if it’s intentional or not but it just feels right. If you were going to make a game based off of a generic action flick, this is what it would come out the other end. It’s entertaining, makes you feel like a badass, and is over before it overstays its welcome. The biggest issue is with the price tag and length. It’s (currently) a full priced $60 and you only get 3 hours. It makes the title the perfect rental but with the fierce competition out there, I would hold off for the bargain bin to purchase it.

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