Wanted: Weapons of Fate Review Continued

01 Apr 2009 at 14:35:08 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

However, it’s Wesley’s special abilities that make things a little more interesting. As explained in the film, what he assumed were panic attacks were actually symptoms of his ability to slow down time. What this means in gameplay terms, is bullet time. I know, it’s hardly revolutionary given that Max Payne was doing this back in 2001 (in fact WoF has a distinctly Max Payne feel about it at times), but it not only looks nice, it becomes essential as the game progresses. When you’re cowered behind cover with a sniper waiting for you to pop up and multiple grunts pointing shotguns in your general direction, it’s immensely satisfying to leap out of cover in bullet time and take out four enemies in one fell swoop. For the sake of balance, GRIN doesn’t allow you to drop into bullet-time whenever you feel like it – first you must fill up your adrenaline meters through regular kills and then you’ll be able to slow down time and also curve your bullet trajectory.

Yes, you can, somewhat ludicrously, bend bullets in Wanted. A quick flick of the wrist, according to the film, is all it requires and after a couple of levels you’ll acquire the ability. What we initially feared would be a pointless gimmick, however, is actually essential if you plan on finishing the game. If you don’t have a clear line of sight on your enemy, you can simply hold down R1 which brings up an indicator of your bullet trajectory. A red curve means it won’t hit the target so you need to move your shot until the curve turns white. At that point, release R1 and the bullet will fly off towards the target, displaying a pretty tasty bullet-cam cutscene if you manage to hit the target in the noggin. It’s a very well-implemented system and some of the bosses you face cannot be killed without it.       

Unfortunately, the boss battles are some of the weakest portions of the game. They generally rely on using one or both of your special abilities repeatedly, filling up your adrenaline bar by killing the grunts who show up whenever you run out. As you’re supposed to be fighting equally gifted assassins in the boss battles, you would hope for a little more variety, and difficulty. In fact, one of our main criticisms of the game is that it is both very easy and very short, an unfortunate combination if you’ve just forked out 40 quid for the game.

There is also some inconsistency in the quality of the levels. While the game does feature some iconic locations from the film (the Chicago textile mill for instance), some are pretty drab and not even the game’s luscious visuals can rescue them. In addition you'll have to contend with some seemingly interminable sniper and mounted-machine gun sections which are about as fun as a boot to the spuds and twice as painful. For some reason, GRIN also saw fit to include some curious on-rails bullet-time sections which see Wesley (or Cross) leaping about the place in slow motion as you simply control the aiming reticule. These sections were clearly included for cinematic effect, but it would have been nice to have more control over the acrobatics.

However, when the game does reach its peak (the aeroplane level in particular is spectacular) it’s hard not be impressed by the action-packed chaos in Weapons of Fate. As you chain from cover to cover, bending bullets and taking out multiple enemies in bullet time, you get the sense that GRIN has captured the essence of the super assassin pretty well. There’s nothing revolutionary in the game – some of its ideas are downright ancient – but, like the summer action film, Weapons of fate, for the most part, is exactly what you want from a Wanted game; a brain-at-the-door, often puerile, action-packed shooter.

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