Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Remember Wanted? That movie that came out last year starring Angelina Jolie as a completely badass assassin? Well, here’s the sequel. Yes, yes, I know it’s a year late. Don’t ask me what possessed Warner Bros. Games to release this now, rather than last year.

To make matters worse (for the game’s financial backers, anyhow) this Wanted is a game that’s easily lost in the crowd. For the most part, licensed movies games are just crap put out to help cash in on a brand name. But with Wanted, the truth seems to be a little sadder.

See, Grin, the Swedish developer that did last year’s fantastic retro revival Bionic Commando: Rearmed made the game. And because Rearmed was so good, I really want to believe that they had a vision for Wanted.

Whatever the case, though, it doesn’t work much. The game is a really basic, blasé cover shooter. In fact, damn near all of its mechanics are based around “quick-chaining” cover, or moving from one spot to the next quickly to get a leg up on your heavily armed competition. Oh, and you can curve bullets.

The game works well in its simplicity, and in theory, that should be enough, but it just isn’t. Level design is so linear that even though you have the ability to quick-chain to almost any kind of cover around, there’s really only one path to move forward.

Also, did I mention you carry the same pistol for practically the entire game? That’s one pistol. Un. Uno. Ichi. Doesn’t make for the most compelling of gameplay experiences.

It doesn’t end there. What’s maybe the most frustrating part of the game is that every now and again your character does some crazy over-the-top acrobatics, slides and dodges … in what amount to quick time events with a targeting reticule.

So while your assassin is bounding up the side of a wall and dodging a hail of bullets in a midair flip (or whatever), you’re controlling said reticule. Swell!

In Wanted‘s defense, once you master the art of bullet curving, it can be pretty rewarding. But to base an entire game on one ability, whose only upgrade is the number of times you can perform it before having to recharge, isn’t a recipe for success.

Ultimately, any cool ideas Wanted had are short-sighted by its extremely narrow design. Who knows what Grin was thinking. Though the fact that they are doing the Terminator: Salvation game suggests that maybe they just like bad movie tie-ins.