Wanted: Dead Review (Bishop)
Very rough around the edges but enjoyable if you like hack and slash games.
Pros:
The combat becomes quite enjoyable after you get a few level ups under your belt. It has an arcade kind of feel where you are quickly running between enemies, hitting combos, and killing things quickly.
The art style and character design are pretty unique as is the world the devs created.
New game plus mode for those who want to replay or speed run.
The kill animations are very well done and have a gun fu type of feel. You’ll always look and feel badass when dispatching enemies.
Challenging but fair difficulty.
Cons:
The voice acting ranges from flat to terrible.
The story itself is nonsensical, lacks direction, and has no satisfying conclusion.
Enemy variety is pretty bad with many re-skinned enemies. You basically just have standard grunts with guns, ninja’s with swords, a big guy with a mini-gun, a melee focused grunt, and three different bosses. That’s it.
Performance issues. I frequently got framerate dips especially when entering combat.
Not a big fan of the mini-games sections although thankfully they aren’t forced upon you after a brief introduction to each one.
I think some of the checkpoints are a little unfair.
Fire grenades stagger you which wouldn’t be a big deal but if you’re standing next to a wall you will get stun locked until the fire goes out which will most likely get you killed.
Final thoughts:
I had a surprising amount of fun with this game despite it’s many flaws. Challenging games like this don’t really exist anymore and once you get a handle on the mechanics of the game it’s quite enjoyable. That said only a specific kind of person will like this game. You have to be OK with games that are primarily gameplay oriented and that don’t hold your hand at all. You have to be OK with some jank and overall Japanese weirdness. Think of older mid-tier games from the ps3 era like Neverdead or Killer is Dead where the biggest draw is that the game is attempting something new and wacky to distinguish itself from the crowd. If you’re one those people who like experiences like that then I’d recommend Wanted: Dead to you.