Game:

Grand Theft Auto V (2013)

Duration: 6:55

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3

found this game for around $5, and I feel like 5-7 dollars is around the right price for what Wanted: Weapons of Fate offers. The game is very short, becomes tedious after a while, has it's share of technical glitches, but, found for the right price, you can still have some fun with it.

Wanted plays like the vast majority of duck-and cover third-person shooters of the seventh gen, but puts a few twists on the formula. Throughout the course of the game, Wesley, and Cross, Wesley's father who you play as for a few levels in the game to fill in backstory, do gain a few new abilities to use against the mostly brainless enemies in the game.

You only gain three new abilities in the game, and it's overall focus comes off as style over substance, as the core gameplay is engaging enough, but never rises above being a basic offering in the me-too Gears of War genre of games that popped up in the 7th gen.

The game is by no means horrible, as the formula it is based on is sound, and the ability to curve bullets, and slow down time while transitioning to a new cover spot do make things a little different. However, there are only two guns to use throughout the game, and not a lot of variety in the gameplay or enemy types.

The boss battles boil down to killing a few peons to fill up your adrenaline meter, the bullet symbols on the top of the screen that fill up as you kill enemies, and then unleashing a special attack like curving a bullet at them, or slowing time to bombard them with bullets which uses adrenaline to perform. Like clockwork in every boss battle, if you run out of adrenaline, a few peons show up for an easy kill to refill your adrenaline. Rinse, and repeat.

In fact, even though the game does throw a couple of sniping, some incredibly annoying slowed down scenes where you shoot bullets out of the air and attacking enemies where failure ends in cheap deaths, and turret scenes in their for variety, the entire game feels like a rinse a repeat cycle. Westley makes his way through mostly narrow, very linear environments killing a bunch of enemies, just to go onto the next area to do the exact same thing. I realize that's every shooter ever, but the lack of a new arsenal makes it feel even more tedious after a while in Wanted.

By about the sixth level, I needed a bit of a break from the game, because tedium added up. Mind you there are only nine short levels in this game for maybe four hours of gameplay give or take. The earlier levels were definitely better than the final levels in the game as far as feeling like more attention and care was given to them. I don't know if this game was rushed or not, but when I started my second run through the game, I enjoyed the early levels a lot more. However, once you beat the game, all there is to do is just play through it again.

There are a few characters to unlock, and some hidden notes to find in the game, but there was no multiplayer, or any extra modes of any kind in the game. It's pretty much a one-and done purely rental experience. In many ways it reminds me of Quantum of Solace on the PS2 with it's no-frills approach, even though I liked Quantum more.
Despite the tedium in the gameplay, short length, and some weird technical issues that pop up like my ability to aim from cover occasionally nopeing out on me for a while after I pulled off the bullet curve maneuver, I still managed to find some enjoyment out of the game. As I said, the formula it is based on is solid. The duck and cover gameplay and mechanics are solid if you aren't still worn out of these games from the 7th gen, and the special maneuvers are fun and sometimes give you a cool bullet-time effect where you watch your curved bullet hit it's target. The move to next cover mechanic also feels spot on and good to use.

Even if I sound a little negative in this review, Wanted is by no means a bad game, but it's by no means a great game either. There are games that do the stylistic shooter thing a lot better, and games that do the duck and cover gameplay a lot better as well. Wanted is middle of the road material that you can find some cheap enjoyment out of if you get it for the right price.

The Bottom Line: For the original $60 asking price, this game would have been a bit disapponting, however, found for a cheap price today, Wanted is a flawed, but fun experience if the price is right. There are so many other 7th gen games that pull off this sytle of gameplay a lot better, but like the 2008 movie, you can get some dumb fun out of it. Nothing here is broken, or outright terrible, but the game wears thin very quickly. With no extra modes of play, and a few unlockables, this is a game you play once, and maybe come back to play a level here or there on occasion at best. Five to seven dollars, and you'll get your money's worth.

#wantedweaponsoffate #ps3 #xbox360 #gameplay

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