Well, Hollywood strikes again.  Every time anyone has a good idea Hollywood scoops it up, ruins it, squeezes every penny it can from it, makes us choke on it, then cuts it’s losses and runs away with a devilish little giggle.  That’s exactly what they’ve done again with WANTED.  For those of you not paying close attention, Hollywood has already moved past the A List comic books (Superman, Batman, Spiderman), burned through the B List (Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic 4), and made us suffer through the lower echelons of the comic book world (DareDevil, Electra, Iron Man).  But now, they’ve gone from mainstream to some of the less known, but highly respected comic books such as Spawn, Watchmen, and WANTED.  First came the movie starring the always lovely Angelina Jolie… and some other guy.  Now comes the video game.

WANTED: Weapons of Fate is another foray in to the world of a “Fraternity of Assassins”.  Can you imagine their pledge week?  Anyway, the back story on all of that is made fairly clear in the movie, so i won’t rehash it.  The game picks up 5 hours after the end of the movie.  The main protagonist, Wesley, has his home intruded upon by members of the French Fraternity and thus starts both an evolution of his skills as well as a journey of discovery in to who or what he is.    Along the line comes several upgrades to your abilities and weaponry that really make for the most interesting part of the game.  There are plenty of predictable plot twists and turns that delve deeper in to his past before ending with ever present boss fight.

Before you ask… yes, you get to bend bullets and slow time and all those fun ideas.  It’s not very smooth or quick… but it’s doable and becomes almost your primary tactic as the game progresses.  The practice of doing so takes more work than you might imagine.  For instance, yes you can bend bullets… but before you can do so you must stand up out of your cover spot while being shot at, then tell the game you want to bend a bullet by finding your target then pressing the special button, THEN you have to find the correct trajectory for the bullet.  WHY?!?!  You’re a super assassin that can bend bullets, but you can’t have the instincts to know the best trajectory?

The other major tactical factor in the game is your use of cover.  It’s rare that you find a shooter where staying under cover is so important.  The cover system was good, though not perfect.  It did a better job then most, particularly when moving between cover, but every so often the game did something less than logical that would cost you your life.  Very frustrating.

Level design was adequate, if not repetitive.  Lots of cover spots, lots of bad guys.  Not bad at all.  Most of the game is spent in either Chicago or Paris, so there’s a little diversity there.  One thing that should be noted is that i finished the game, at the hardest difficulty level, in 4 hours and change.  It’s NOT a long game.

Overall this game is a quick fun jaunt through the world of WANTED.  I liked it enough to play it through twice in 2 days.  The graphics aren’t great during cut scenes, but game play is acceptable.  Game play moves quickly, though it  too can get a bit repetitive if you don’t get creative.  And for all you Xbox360 Gamerpoint addicts, if you play on the hardest difficulty you’ll get 3 achievements for 80 gamerpoints per completed level.  All told, not bad for a weekends’ worth of escapism, but definitely not on anyone’s “must have” list.

This may just be a good rental for you, or perhaps trade for it and throw it back into the pile.

- David Hayes

1 Comment »

1. 

   oh my god. hehe

   Comment by pluseme — July 25, 2009 @ 8:48 am

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