Wanted: Dead Review (Falloutpunk)
Katana, Pistol, gory finishers. What is missing, you think? Not cover shooter, that's for sure. But yet, here we are.
This game has so much potential and.... wastes almot all of it and is also all over the place.
World: Nothing new, but still fresh enough. Sci-Fi Hong Kong with some interesting political structures - I think at least. It feels like nothing is really explained and the way the game is layed out - I don't even care. An american style diner in Hong Kong? Why? No idea, next scene. A ramen shop you will only see once? Next scene. Huge police station hub that is mostly empty and you just run around looking for some collectibles after each mission. Bland levels that don't really tell anything about the world... There is nothing intriguing about any of it.
Characters: The zombie unit consists of four characters with different yet stereotypical personalities. I don't dislike them, but they are again not very interesting. It doesn't help that the voice acting, especially that of Stone, the protagonist, is really bad. Yes, she is swiss and the actress as well, but this character does not fit her at all. She is supposed to be a ruthless leader and tries to be intimidating sometimes but the VA does not sell it at all. There is no range in her voice and almost no emotion. The others are not great as well, except for Gunsmith, a support character voiced and played by Stefanie Joosten.
Music: Pretty good. One of the better parts of this game.
Story: Yeah, no idea what the f is going on most of the times. There are some nice animated cut scenes sometimes at least.
Combat: THE BIGGEST SIN THIS GAME COMMITS. Firstly, WHY is there a cover shooter mechanic in my katana slicing game? When you give me lots of close range combat finishers, WHY force me to stay behind cover? Yes, it's not necessary, but why put it in in the first place? They should've focused more on the close range combat. BECAUSE IT SUCKS. When I first saw this game, I thought of WET from the good old days. You could jump, slide, wallrun etc while shooting and slicing with a katana. Wanted:Dead should have been called Wanted:WET because the combat in this game is so stiff, slow and not fun and while playing, I get the urge to boot up WET and play it instead. There is no point in saying anything more about it because the finishers are fun in the first level and then get boring fast. And except this and some useless skills, this game has nothing to offer.
Side Content: Some collectibles, Yakuza style minigames like Karaoke, claw machines, an Arcade cabinet and Ramen eating (which is actually pretty funny, but plays almost identical to karaoke)
While writing this, I have yet to finish the game and I'm glad when it's done.
Even for the cheap price during the sales, I'm not sure I recommend this one.