Wanted: Weapons of Fate Review

The sequel to the 2008 film, Wanted, comes in the form of a video game. The game picks up roughly five hours after the movie ends where our hero – Wesley Gibson has just killed his target. The question is, can the game live up to the movie in a time where all movie tie-ins are expected to be sub par?

Right from the beginning, if you've seen the movie, you may notice something is off. Wesley has went from being an efficient killer who had doubts about The Fraternity's (the organisation he worked for) motives, to someone who doesn't seem to mind causing a total bloodbath. It is a video game however so this is quickly forgotten.

As mentioned, Weapons of Fate picks up about five hours after the movies finale and Wesley now finds himself searching for more information about his mother, Allyse. Wesley has been having a recurring dream which always ends the same way, his mother being shot, but he never sees the killers face. He is awakened by two French SWAT officers ransacking the apartment. The SWAT members find a kill order, which are what Fraternity members use to identify their targets, behind a picture of Allyse. From here, it's gung ho action all the way.

You are given tutorials in the beginning to get you used to the games various mechanics, the main one being cover dodging. You'll be using a lot of cover in this game, if you don't, you will die. Once you're used to the controls you're off to kill a rather sizeable amount of members from the French chapter of the Fraternity. For the first two missions this is as simple as going from cover to cover, popping out and killing, but once you're past that, you learn the movies main gimmick – Bullet Curving. The actual bullet curving itself is easy to pull off, and tremendously satisfying. You simply hold R1 and use the anolouge stick to determine the trajectory of the bullet. If the line is red, you'll miss and if it goes white, you're onto a hit. There's something about seeing a bullet swerve around a crate and go straight into someones head in slow motion that never gets old.

You will also find you do not play solely as Wesley during the main game. You will also be playing as another Fraternity member, Cross in numerous flashback levels, which fill you in on some of the story.

Slow motion plays a part in all special abilities in the game, be it from bullet curving, slow motion cover movement – where you'll move from one piece of cover to the next in slow motion while having the ability to shoot enemies and finally, the sections of the game that utilise nothing but slow motion.

There are sections to break up the monotony that turn the game into an on-rail shooter. You have no direct control over Wesley/Cross but when given the opportunity you can shoot enemies and bullets in slow-mo. These are really well choreographed and capture the feel of the movie well. The only downside is, if you miss a single bullet or enemy, you start that section again. This is annoying on the hardest difficulty when all aiming assistance is gone. The other two features the game uses to break up the action, are sniping and mounted gun sections. These are both useless, as the sniping is very easy and doesn't add anything (you can't move your character, only the sight) and the gun emplacement sections are tedious. You literally have about two seconds before you have to go back behind cover or you will be smothered by a barrage of bullets.

Unfortunately just as you may be starting to enjoy curving bullets into enemies while they are hiding behind cover, the game ends. This is it's weakest point; the length. On my first playthrough I completed it in a little under three hours. On my second playthrough I completed it in less than two. Call me picky, but I like to think customers paying full price for a game might expect more than that and to rub salt into the wound, there is actually a trophy/achievement for completing the game faster than the developer (1:10:00). It feels odd that a developer would award a player for completing their £30+ game in less than an hour and there's little replay value to be had here. Once you have met certain conditions, you unlock new character skins. And that's exactly what they are – skins. All these characters handle the exact same way as Wesley and Cross, and this can be distracting when you're playing as the annoying ex-boss Janice and she's swiftly ducking and rolling from cover.

Once completed, there is also Headshot mode, Close-Combat mode and Time Attack mode. But all these aren't as exciting as they may sound, they're more of an annoyance. Headshot mode you have to kill basically every enemy with a headshot, if you miss, you have to begin that section again. Same goes with Close-Combat mode, replacing headshots with melee attacks. Time Attack mode is self explanatory, this is where you'll be trying to complete the game in less than an hour.

All of these modes and characters to be unlocked, along with several artworks and comic book covers don't add to the games longevity, they instead hinder it as you'll be forcing yourself through specific sections looking for small scraps of fabric which unlock the bonuses and this isn't fun.

Even although I've sounded negative; I had a really good time with Wanted: Weapons of Fate while it lasted. The main pulling point is the bullet curving and the main setback is obviously its length. However I still find myself putting it on so I can curve some bullets, as it's one thing that never gets old.