Title: Wanted: Weapons of Fate
Developer/Publisher: GRIN/Universal Studios
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: 03/24/09
Number of Players: Single Player
Wanted: Weapons of Fate takes place after the events of the movie, with Wesley trying to uncover his family’s past any get revenge for the death of his parents. The game features many of the same characters and some of the same moves, but does it retain the pizzazz of the film?
The developers tried to retain the flair from the film, by allowing for some mild run and gun combat and the ability to curve bullets. However, the game is overwhelmingly a third-person cover shooter, and as such, gets a bit repetitive. There are nine levels for you to play through, and while each feature a different locale, they all do the exact same thing. You simply go from one cover point to the next, and pick off enemies, which is greatly eased by the ability to curve bullets when you have adrenaline. The cover system itself is very easy to use; simply look for the on-screen queue, and press the A button to take cover. Once there, you can hold the left thumbstick and move to another locations. That’s all there is to it, and in fact, that’s pretty much the only movement controls in the game. You can’t otherwise jump, run, dive, or anything when out of cover; it’s pretty limiting and disappointing, as it would have been nice to have been able to dive around, picking off enemies while in the air, but you just have to be in cover.
I played on the normal difficulty, and while the last two levels were semi-difficult and long, it’s pretty hard to die if you try. All you have to do is stay in cover and you’ll be fine; just wait for your health to regenerate if you get hit, and don’t go running into a group of guys with shotguns. You can grab enemies or perform a takedown with a simple press of the B button, but in a group, it’s not the best of ideas. The AI isn’t too aggressive either, so feel free to stay in one spot for as long as you need; they won’t come and attack you. However, some enemies do tend to lob grenades, so you will have to move from time to time.
After the first few levels, you learn some new abilities, which can be used when you have adrenaline. By the end of the game, you have four adrenaline “tanks”, and one gets filled for every kill you get, so it’s not difficult in the least to obtain adrenaline for these moves. One of them is the ability to curve a bullet. This is down by holding the RB, and moving a control stick to create the path; when an enemy goes from red to white, the bullet will hit him. Every now and again, one of these shots will alter the camera, with it going in slow motion and following the bullet, which is pretty neat. Another ability allows you to go from one cover point to the other, in bullet time, and take out a few enemies as you go; pretty nifty, but not usually necessary.
Aside from those aforementioned moves, there isn’t really much else to the game. There are some enemies that carry shields, so you’ll have to perform some cover fire to stun them, and then go around, however, once you learn to curve a bullet, you can do that instead. There are also a few areas where you can use a sniper rifle or mounted-machine gun, which mixes up the gameplay a bit, but these aren’t particularly exciting. There are a few boss battles in the game, but they all play pretty much the same. You’ve got your boss, and you just shoot them until their health bar is depleted. Once you realize you have to use the Y, jump out of cover slow-mo move, to damage the boss, it’s a synch.
The game is also really short. There are 9 levels, and aside from the last two or three, they are really short, and all pretty much the same. They’re also very linear, and you don’t have much of a choice in choosing a route or plan of attack. However, as an incentive to keep playing, there are plenty of unlockables to uncover, such as art, extra playable characters, and a harder difficulty, but nothing that will blow you away.
A couple of other gripes with the game is that the aiming is a bit sluggish, even on the highest sensitivity, so while aiming isn’t difficult, it takes a second to go from one side of the screen to the next, which is a bit frustrating; it could have been smoother. Also, the bullet collision isn’t the best in certain instances. For example, if an enemy is taking cover, but there leg or head is visible outside said cover, you can’t really hit it; sometimes you’ll get lucky, but 90% of the time, you’ll just be wasting ammo, which is pretty lame.
The Review
Story:
Weapons of Fate takes place after the movie, but has you playing both Wesley and his father. A handful of the main characters from the movie make appearances, and a new chapter of The Fraternity are shown, as they try to get hold of the loom. It’s a decent enough story that retains the feelings of the movie.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is average. It’s a third-person cover shooter, so you just jump from cover point to the next, taking out enemies as you go. You have some cool abilities at your disposal, like the ability to curve bullets to take out enemies behind corners and such, but other than that, the game is pretty bland. It’s fun to curve bullets and such, but there isn’t much to the game. You just go behind cover, shoot a few people, and move forward; that’s about it.
Sound/Music:
The music isn’t anything special, but the voice work is pretty good. Wesley retains his attitude, and the developers definitively used it both in dialogue and settings, such as the names for the difficulty levels, which are too vulgar to mention here.
Graphics:
The graphics are what should be expected from a current-gen game. The cutscenes are decent, but there is some grainy effects which aren’t good. Overall, they aren’t much special, but not bad.
The Good:
It’s fun to curve those bullets and take down enemies with style, especially with that sweet machine gun with exploding rounds. Kill-cam = sweet.
The Bad:
Linear levels, very short, and repetitive gameplay. There are some things thrown in to mix up the action a bit, but not enough.
The Ugly:
I’m shooting you in the leg! Just because you’re hiding doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to hit you…bull crap.
Final Score: 3/5
What Others Thought:
TestFreaks: 6.9/10
MetaCritic: 62/100
GameRankings: 65.78%
Tags: GRIN, Review, Universal Studios, Wanted, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Warner Bros.
