Wanted: Weapons of Fate Xbox 360 Review

Whilst watching the well staged action scenes of Wanted, with its bullet curving and whatnot, many a gamer would perhaps be thinking that it would be perfect material for an enjoyable action romp of a game, and they’d be right. But with the release of Wanted: Weapons of Fate only now are we getting a game of the licence, well; at least no one can say that they rushed it.

Rather fittingly for a game being released after the film, Wanted: Weapons of Fate itself takes place after the events of the film. The story is reasonably enjoyable and once again it follows Wesley, who this time around is trying to learn the truth about his mother. There’s also flashback scenes involving Wesley’s father Cross, which further fleshes out the overall story.

As is all the rage these days, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a cover based shooter. The cover system implemented is as smooth as they come: you can easily dash from one cover point to another and the animation whilst doing so is fittingly stylish. Whilst behind cover you’re able to shoot blindly, which is generally just as it should be, an ineffective method of taking down the enemies, but one that can occasionally save your skin.

The most unique aspect of Wanted: Weapons of Fate is its bullet curving mechanic. Just as the name suggests this allows you to curve bullets, allowing you to shoot around walls or other objects to take out otherwise unreachable enemies. It’s satisfying, particularly when you score a headshot and the camera follows the bullet as it travels through the air.

Structurally the focus is very much on the action, and puzzles are just as they should be for the licence: nonexistent. Oddly there aren’t many guns and sniping is left to scripted sections.

Aside from the Bullet Curving, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is largely generic. The level settings fail to excite and the enemies are dummies. Your standard goon behaves predictably, though variation comes in the form of knife wielding enemies, who will rush you, as well as the occasional bullet soaking boss encounter, which are unlikely to live in the memory long, but do require you to make use of Wesley’s skills.

The game can be completed in around six hours and its brevity certainly isn’t helped by the fact that it’s largely challenge free on the normal difficulty, with the hardest difficulty setting only becoming unlocked once you’ve finished the game. It seems strange to offer the game to challenge seekers in an imperfect form for the initial play through, particularly when there are many who don’t have the time nor the desire to play through a game again. There’s all the usual concept art and videos to find, there’s also characters to unlock, but these are merely cosmetically different to Wesley and share all of his skills, a real wasted opportunity to offer some replayability for a game that really needed it.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is thoroughly enjoyable while it lasts and is largely a very well designed and polished game. It’s the short length that proves to be its major failing and for that reason, the game should really be considered as a rental or a sub twenty pound purchase, but certainly nothing more than that, especially as there are more substantial and better games vying for both your cash and attention.

6/10