I didn’t have a lot to do this weekend, so I thought I’d rent a game to get some quick achievement points. As fate would have it (bad pun intended),  I opted for Wanted: Weapons of Fate.  While initially I didn’t plan to actually finish the game, it ended up being far shorter than I’d expected- even by movie game standards.  However, having now played it to completion, I’m confident in saying while it’s not the best game adaptation of a film I’ve ever seen, it’s certainly not the worst.

Weapons of Fate opens much in the same way the film ends, with a monalogue from Wesley ironically criticizing the player for being a loser who just sits around playing video games.  Not necessarily the strong opener I’d hoped for, but certainly in keeping with the source material of the film.  But therein lies one of Wanted’s glaring problems- it just tries too hard to be edgy in a world where the very notion has lost all luster.  Even in video games where the ESRB has certainly relaxed its stance on what constitutes a Mature rating, nothing’s really shocking anymore and seeing a game try to solidify itself in some ultra-extreme shock value vernacular just comes off yawn worthy.  Bad scripting and unintentionally hilarious one-liners aside though, it does tie into the game quite nicely.

Weapons of Fate sees Wesley tracking down a villain and fraternity member known as The Immortal-a man responsible for the death of Wesley’s mother.  Sure, the plot’s nothing new, but it’s a nice change to see the writers of a game tie-in at least try to incorporate a continuing story into the original vision instead of just copying and pasting the movie events into the game.  Aside from playing as Wesley in his quest for vengeance, you’ll also play in flash-back sequences as Wesley’s father, Cross.  Although the two characters play nearly identically, Cross is privy to some flashier moves at an earlier point than Wesley.

Speaking of flashy moves, this is one area where WoF displays some undeniable charm and adds a few fun, new gameplay elements to the genre.  Anyone who’s seen the film is familiar with the ‘curve the bullet’ dynamic, by which assassins of the fraternity are trained to whip their gun in such a way as to allow their bullets to curve around obstacles to strike their target.  Upon hearing this dynamic would be in the game, I was skeptical, but it actually works quite well.  There are also some fairly standard slow-motion abilities.  The familiar pop-and-stop gameplay popularized by Gears of War is done fairly well here, but really shines when you can curve a bullet to take down foes that are keeping you pinned down safely from cover.  The only problem with the cover mechanic is it’s a little stiff, but it’s not too difficult to get used to, and the stylized transitions from one piece of cover to the next is a nice touch. Also, the ability to blind-fire from cover comes with the added bonus of being able to disorient your adversaries, allowing you to quickly circle around to adjacent cover and flank your target.  There’s something sadistically funny about watching your foes trying desperately to pin you down at a position you’re no longer in while you sneak up behind them and usher them from this world to the next.

Of course, the flip-side to this dynamic is that it illustrates another of the game’s shortcomings-bad A.I.  Now, I don’t expect every npc to be Solid Snake when it comes to suppressing my efforts, but at least make sure they’ve got the know-how to advance and put some pressure on.  In WoF you can quite comfortably hide behind cover nearly indefinitely with little to no enemy advancement.  While this certainly makes the game easier, it also removes any remnant of urgency while working toward your goal as when you’re behind cover you’re effectively invincible.  Surely this would be a moot point upon reaching one of the game’s bosses though, right?  Sadly, no.  this problem continues into boss battles with most requiring little to no strategy, or at least, a very obvious strategy as each boss’s weakness tends to parallel the ability you just learned.

This would almost be forgiveable were the game not already incredibly short.  Even on the normal difficulty, seasoned veterans of the 3rd person shooter genre will blitz through this game in as little as 5 hours.  I’m sure I mentioned this on the podcast earlier this week, but just to be safe, let me re-iterate; this is a rental, not a purchase.

Graphically speaking, WoF comes off as an oddly dark game.  Not dark as in subject matter (though it certainly is) but literally dark in even some of the brightest locales the game offers.  It’s almost as if you’re consistently expecting a dramatic light bloom effect without the payoff.  It could be an attempt by the developer to hide graphical deficiencies, as the texture work is pretty low-res.  The character models for Wesley and Cross look good enough, but the entire production feels rushed despite the fact the game comes out nearly a full year after the release of the movie.  Like many shooters of late, WoF suffers from the same drab color palette as even some of the best triple-A titles of the year.  On a high note though, despite numerous enemies on screen at once it does manage to maintain a consistent frame rate.

In the end, Weapons of Fate has decent production values and some neat ideas, it’s just a shame that its short length, repetitive, linear gameplay and hollow characters aren’t enough to make it shine.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is awarded 6 out of 10.

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