Saturday, April 20, 2013

Wanted? Honestly?


In one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, the hero (Gibson) smacks his double crossing "best friend" with a standard keyboard: certain keys come loose spelling, well "F.U.C.K.Y.O.U." in the air. In the opening sequence of the game they spell instead..."U.N.I.V.E.R.S.A.L". Freudian tangents aside, the game goes downhill from there.

The graphics of Wanted: Weapons of Fate are up to date, with realistic shadows and shiny surfaces. Moreover, I liked to be able, once more, to use bullet-time (of Max Payne fame). It is called "assassin time" here, but who are we kidding, right? Paired with a more or less working and visually impressive "curving the bullet", these are the highlights of the game.

Besides being short, Wanted suffers from both awkward and counter-intuitive controls and fickle commands. Crouching and moving from one cover the next gets old fast - especially since it is not always easy to go where you intend in one step. If I were to guess, I would bet on the PC version being a hasty port. I suspect that it would be more enjoyable with a gamepad but I refuse to use a gamepad for a PC game.

Overall, this is a game that will appeal mostly to fans of the movie. I myself bought it to experience ...curving the bullet first hand. That it delivered. But hardly anything more.

To be fair, when was the last time a based-on-a-movie game was above par? 

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