Wanted: Dead Review (herbyvore)
What do you get when you combine interesting gameplay, stellar game design, well-judged humor and taut writing in one of the most refreshing and memorable character action game in years?
A "Mixed" overall on Steam.
The sheer amount of hate this game is getting is upright disappointing but not surprising. Gaming Industry as a whole has been oversaturated with infinite slop that resembles anything but a video game. Biased journalists & gamers alike are in shambles in the mere presence of Wanted: Dead, they can't get themselves together, they are absolutely infuriated and feel completely insulted at the thought of a game being an actual game, playing like an actual game, and challenges the player... like an actual game. Wanted: Dead wears its influences on its sleeve and stays true to its roots, with a difficulty option literally called the "Japanese Hard Mode" telling you all you need to know about its direction. It is by no means an easy game, and it knows that. The fluidity of combat, which most haters here cite as "janky" is nothing but a spark of genius by reintroducing traditional game design to the modern age, each enemy encounter feels unique and requires the player to adapt to different strategies in order to succeed to different stages. Speaking of stages, one of the complaints most people have here is the length, its short but its meant to be short. Level design is very reminiscent of the old Arcade, SNES and Genesis titles where you have multiple parts to a single stage, just like the original Ninja Gaidens or Shinobi games, having checkpoints scattered around each stage fulfills that very exact purpose. Overall with the learning curve of the game and its mechanics, including the side content, took me about 14 hours to complete in Hard Mode, and I'm definitely going for multiple playthroughs afterwards because of the addictive, visceral combat it offers. At any point, it never gets stale when you get the flow going, the controls are very responsive to the players inputs which is a huge plus that many recent action games ignore unfortunately.
Besides all the hate its getting, lets focus on the love it was given by the developer team. With the sheer amount of extra advertisement put out for the marketing, you can't do anything but smile from the sheer love that was put into for all of them for the sake of building the lovely world of the game and expanding on its colorful cast, more notably featuring Stefanie Joosten of MGS V fame putting her best in the game's advertisements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgjQMDbKY3c
Including putting out some bangers along the way as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0vwgutOz4g
You can just tell she had one hell of a good time.
Overall, I believe all the recent hate the game is getting will get overshadowed and receive a cult classic status like any other game with a rough critical start, like Ninja Gaiden II or Deadly Premonition (which the game resembles very heavily, including the acting department)
Approach cautiously with an open mind. As Wanted: Dead does not forgive with its difficulty, but once mastered, will truly hook the player right into its core.