Wanted: Weapons of Fate
This is what should be done with most games based on films
Tags: Wanted Categories: PS3 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 24th, 2009
I’m playing Wanted: Weapons of Fate, and wanted (pun not intended) to enjoy the game as much as I did the movie. While I enjoyed the game and found it fun to play, it wasn’t as up to the same level of enjoyment as the movie. Still, it should be noted that as a game it stands on its own, is fun to play, and acts as a natural extension of the film’s storyline – which is a far sight better than simply rehashing it.
One of the things that I want to say right at the beginning is that there is no multiplayer. This was actually a good decision. By focusing on the single player game, the development team was allowed to make the game as good as it could be.
Where the film concerned itself with the relationship between Wesley and his father, the game extends that story to concern his mother and does so in a way that ties in the world of the comic and the film. This is an extension of the film, so this is the world that we see, but elements of the comic do creep in, such as the iconic suit that Wesley wears.
At its heart, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is an action game and to a large part it succeeds. The problem here is that the genre has been done to death and it is going to take a lot to take a way the feeling of “same-ness” that so many of these games have. Wanted: Weapons of Fate does bring some new stuff to the genre, particularly based on the film that it is inspired by, but it is also shackled by some of the conventions of the genre.
Early on there were two things that irritated me about Wanted: Weapons of Fate, and I couldn’t shake that feeling because these were problems that were unnecessary – but understandable because they are standards of the action genre. The first issue I had right off the bat was the lack of being able to swap weapons with those of the downed enemies. Also more irritating is the fact that it is simply a corridor shooter. Yes, there are some “open” areas, but essentially everything is artificially closed off. I’m not expecting an “open world” approach like the benchmark Grand Theft Auto franchise, but far too many doors are locked (and can’t be busted open for some reason) and too many stairwells have large piles of rubble blocking the way.
Still, despite these problems, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is immensely playable and enjoyable. The look and feel of the film is accurately captures and recreated – this is not for kiddies. It is also not a game for those that haven’t seen the film as this is both a true sequel as well as providing plenty of setup for the events in the film. One of my other complaints is that it relies too heavily on the player going through past events that happened before the film. I can understand why this was done, but that doesn’t mean it was necessary to do it as much as it was done here.
Enough complaining.
Curving bullets is fun and the cover mechanics are well implemented. For most of the game these two things work so well together that it almost completely makes up for the fact that in many respects this is a generic action game. Moving from cover to cover is easily done, and firing blind actually proves useful. There are some great hand to hand takedowns, especially from cover.
It’s interesting that the curving of bullets proves to be not only such an integral part of the gameplay, which is to be expected because it was that way in the film, but as a gameplay element it is pulled off rather effortlessly. And did I mention using enemies as human shields? No?
I could go on about how the curving of the bullets is pulled off, but really if you’ve seen the film you know what to expect. And let’s face it, if you haven’t seen the film you really have no need to play the game. Wanted: Weapons of fate is a good extension of the film and a great signpost for how other games based on films can be. With a little less attention paid to creating a typical action game and more on further recreation of the film’s world Wanted: Weapons of Fate could easily have been one of the best games of the year, regardless of it being based on a film. As it stands, fans of the film Wanted will not only want to play Wanted: Weapons of Fate, but will have a good time doing it as well.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Solid sequel to the movie rather than rehashing it + Cover and curved bullets gameplay + No forced multiplayer at the sacrifice of the single player game |
7.8 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Artificial corridors - Can't swap out weapons/lack of real variety - Storyline winds up geing a bit too much with regards to what happened in the past |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If more games based on movies were like this then the world would be a better place. It isn't perfect, but a far sight better than movie-based games, and there are a few things that set it apart from the generic action games that flood the market. | |
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Tags: Wanted
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 24th, 2009 and is filed under PS3 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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