Hands on with Wanted: Weapons of Fate
March 6, 2009
Let me first preface my impressions by saying yes, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is yet another movie tie-in game. But before you close the browser in disgust, take heed oh ye of little faith – if the demo is any indication (which was released on Xbox Live and the PSN today), W:WoF has some solid mechanics that could make for an incredibly fun shooter in the crowded genre. Not only was this game not rushed to meet the opening release of the movie – Wanted has been on DVD and BluRay for some time now actually – as many other licensed games are want to do, it also serves as a direct sequel to the events of the movie. So far, so good.
Developed by GRIN and published by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, Weapons of Fate continues the journey of Wesley Gibson as he settles into his new role of super-powered assassin. Along the way, players will also have a chance to play Wesley’s father, a much revered assassin himself, in the form of flashbacks – in fact, the demo only allows you to play as his father on an assignment taking place on a turbulent airplane ride. If you’re familiar with the movie, you’ll notice that one of the main focuses of the game’s shooting mechanics is the ability to curve your bullets, which is especially useful around blind corners and obstacles that your target might be taking cover from.
You can’t just curve your bullets whenever you want, however; you must build up Adrenaline first, represented by the bullet casings on the top right of your screen, by killing enemies the old fashioned way. This includes peeking out of cover and shooting normally, or to earn extra Adrenaline, sneak up and go for a brutal melee kill. Once these casings fill up, you have one of two options, curve bullets or execute a slow-mo quick move that has you sliding from one cover to another, but giving you ample time in between to take out any enemies nearby. While this Matrix style of slowing down time has been done before in shooters, it feels right at home in Weapons of Fate, and only encourages you to earn more of that plentiful Adrenaline.
Another major factor is the game’s cover system: think more “sticky” cover of Gears of War/Uncharted fame than the more free-form mechanic seen in the likes of Army of Two. When near an object that could serve as cover, pressing A will automatically have the character slide, jump, or roll his way into it. Pushing out the left stick will indicate other sources of cover nearby as represented by a green arrow. As mentioned before, when you have enough Adrenaline built up, a new option for sliding from cover to cover pops in as a yellow arrow and executed with the Y button, giving you time to mow down enemies with ease.
Due to the cover mechanics and the way Weapons of Fate encourages you to move quickly, the game has a heavy emphasis on forward-movement and momentum: if you’re not moving your ass to cover, any other movements will seem awkward and slow to control. If you happen to accidentally come too close to an enemy, or if he ends up directly behind you, for instance, your only hope is to mash the melee button; turning around to face him would be too slow and costly otherwise. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be much need to backtrack aside from ammo clip droppings from your dead foes.
Will Weapons of Fate avoid the curse of licensed tie-ins and actually prove to be a decent game? As always, it’s up in the air. All I know is that I had tons of fun playing around in the demo, experimenting with the curved bullets and slow-mo action moves to see how smooth I could chain successful attacks together. My biggest criticism so far? That, sadly, Angelina Jolie is nowhere to be found … which would make sense given the outcome of the movie, but still.The game is scheduled for a March 24 release on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
