Good rental for fans of the Wanted universe

by Sebastian Stefanov

Fun factor: Boring

Worth to: Rent

If you abide by the scripted nature of levels and action you will get the most out of this rental, because trying to actually “play” the game outside its narrow boundaries will make you curse more than the main character.

Movie-based games have a bad reputation for being shallow, corporate shills whose only purpose is to funnel money from impressionable consumers who often don’t play games themselves but buy them for loved ones who do. Wanted: Weapons of Fate falls into that category, but it at least attempts to continue an interesting premise. Weapons of Fate is something of a sequel to 2008’s movie, “Wanted”. It picks up not long after the events of the cult action flick and expands the story into its comic book roots, which the screen adaptation avoided, or didn’t have time to elaborate. The game has many flaws, mainly with gameplay, but Warner Bros. gives fans of this assassin’s world enough juicy bits to make the drudgingly linear and superficial action worth swallowing, but only to see how the plot unfolds.

I get it! You’ll rip my wiener off! Now shut up!

The story begins after the Chicago loom faction has been decimated. It turns out our hero was marked as some sort of “abomination” by the Fraternity and targeted for destruction at birth. A few plot holes creep up as more content is presented, but the overall picture seems to have more depth than what we actually got in the movie. Players see the main character’s mother for the first time in flashback cutscenes that explain our nerdy killer’s pedigree in the shady business of reading defective looms.



Players are also introduced to new factions and new enemies. An “Immortal”, whom we only assume carries the title to sound cool, is out to get the Chicago loom and any secrets Wesley might still be in possession of after inheriting his father’s legacy. Familiar faces make surprising returns for this video game sequel, with authentic voices to match. We get to see a bit more clearly how the Fraternity functions, how it relocates its looms and, unfortunately, how porous its assassin recruitment process really is.

The problem with the story is that it doesn’t convey well once bullets start flying. Enemies are idiotic and repetitive, both in action and sound. And repetitive idiots don’t make for good gameplay. We get to see some innovation as to the culture surrounding the loom, with a few funny comments from Wesley, only to end up fighting the same 3-4 enemies who spout the same 3-4 obscenities in French. And we get to use the same 3-4 moves throughout the 6-8 hours it takes to complete the story.

Gameplay centers around cover mechanics, lots of shooting and rushing from one cover point to another, with the occasional stabbing in between. Players have only two special moves at their disposal: time slow-down and bullet curving. Actual bullet curving looks and feels authentic. With some practice, players can pull off gratifying shots. Time slow-down only works while rushing between cover points and is fairly decent. I’d like to say there’s hand-to-hand combat, but in reality it’s nothing more than an animated slashing when the players is close enough to press the Knife button. There’s also a blind-shot feature that lets players unload a few rounds to buy Wesley some time while enemies are ducking. It’s a gimmick since it will only be necessary against one boss fight -- the very fight players are introduced to blind-shot.

Bullet-sponge Wesley

Most of the game will be played while shooting from behind objects in linear levels. And I when I say linear, I’m not kidding. Stages are nothing more than a few corridors loaded with objects strategically placed to push players forward in a specific path. Add to that limited enemy variety, and you get extremely repetitive gameplay. The game offers an occasional turret and sniper mission, but they are so tacked on they can be baffling. Where exactly Wesley gets the sniper rifle or turret isn’t explained. He can only use two different types of pistols. Sniper scenes (they’re not really missions) aren’t even challenging. The objective is always to kill opponents without dying, which means taking plenty of cover. Turret and Sniper parts don’t let players move. You simply load in with the weapon in hand, start shooting from your cover point, and load out once everybody is dead.



When shot splatters of blood appear on screen signifying damage taken. Standing still removes the splatter and therefore replenishes health. It’s the same system used in Halo, only presented more instinctively. Now factor in stupid AI and cover mechanics, and you got a bullet-sponge Wesley. The only time players will die is if they lose patience, because enemies will seldom approach your character, only suicidal blade-wielding morons will (you hear those coming a mile away). And if they do, you can easily introduce them to your knife, which dispatches anybody in an animated sequence.

Specials moves can be performed as long as action points are filled up by killing enemies. Sadly, many opponents merely act as points filler (like the above-mentioned morons), while others are there to be taken out with special moves since they are impervious to normal attacks. Fighting eventually becomes routine. Boss fights play out using Wesley’s special attacks; once points are empty, action point “fillers” conveniently comes out to “assist” Wesley, i.e., get whacked.

Patience, grasshopper, or you will crap your pants

The game’s saving grace is the story. It explains what happened right after Wesley was born and even lets you play as Cross (Wesley’s father) in flashback missions. Some of the more innovative levels actually involve Cross. One stage in particular stands out when Wesley’s father is forced to escape a crashing plane while taking enemies down in scripted first-person slow-motion sequences, which the game sometimes dishes out to prevent monotony. It almost seems like GRIN knew their game would be overly-repetitive, so they slapped on slow-motion that ask players to take out enemies, and floating bombs, within a limited amount of seconds. Those parts are actually quite fun -- a kind of improved quicktime mode since you actually have control over the action as opposed to just quickly pressing a series of buttons while missing the unfolding action.

Speaking of GRIN knowing their game’s limitations, aiming and moving was complicated to stretch out gameplay, otherwise players would zip through the simplistic action. Aiming and moving is over-responsive, giving players a hard time zeroing in on targets. This adds some challenge to gunfights -- a plus. A big minus, though, is everything else surrounding gameplay.

In one boss sequence I had a goon appear behind me after having wasted ten minutes trying to take my target out. I still don’t know why he appeared on my rear when it was clear that action would unfold in front of me (maybe it was a bug), but that’s beside the point. The issue is I died because one dork behind Wesley is enough to do our super-assassin in. Why? Because of over-responsive controls. In some cases enemies will surround Wesley, and when that happens expect to pivot around like you’re trying to swat a swarm of bees with a load in your shorts, trying to figure out where your target is while frantically pressing the Knife button.



Knifing scenes usually leave players disoriented. And because of wonky controls/camera, you’ll often die trying to find your bearings. Forget about retreating in a firefight. If you happen to rush in too deep, you might as well restart because backtracking will frequently leave you stuck on some object out of camera view. Taking cover in the confusing (performed by pressing a button) usually has Wesley taking cover in an exposed area.

Another gameplay issue is cover mechanics. On occasion Wesley will come out of cover if you look around too much, which only adds salt to the wound that is gameplay. The best way to play Weapons of Fate is by not trying to “play” too much, and simply tagging along for the ride. In early parts, though, players can experiment, like rushing into crowds and knifing everybody while absorbing damage.

Summary

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a bearable experience. The game is short, scripted, mostly too easy, sometimes hard, but overall it’s a great rental for anyone captivated by the whole “Wanted” universe. The game expands the story into places fans of the movie knew must have existed, and they won’t be disappointed from that point of view. Gameplay, unfortunately, is filler, as strange as it might sound. If you abide by the narrowly scripted nature of levels and action you will experience the plot without too much torment, because trying to actually “play” the game outside of GRIN’s narrow boundaries will leave you cursing as much as Wesley.