Wanted: Dead presents itself as a new slasher/shooter hybrid from the creators of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Developed by Soleil Ltd and published by 110 Industries SA, Wanted: Dead positions itself as a “love letter to the sixth generation of consoles.” Following a week in the life of an elite police squad in Hong Kong known as the Zombie Unit whilst trying to uncover a major corporate conspiracy and led by Lt. Hannah Stone, who the player takes charge of.

Gamers from “back in the day” will understandably be excited about the prospect of Wanted: Dead, especially if you’re a fan of the aforementioned games under the creators belt. As for me, I never played Ninja Gaiden and I’m not much of a fighter fan, having only dabbled in Dead or Alive among a few others within the genre. From what I have seen of each of those titles, this looks similar, but different from an outside glance.

After a short few hours so far with the game, I find myself stuck and frustrated with a particular area within the first level. I have had nothing but issues (skill or otherwise) trying to get past this section to the point of pure frustration, ripping away any desire to play I have left. As you start the game you’re greeted with the choice of two difficulty options being Normal and Hard, however I have managed to die repeatedly over and over in the same area. This is where the game offered to lower me to a “Neko-Chan” difficulty that equips your main character Hannah with a pair of cat ears.

At this point any fun I was having with Wanted: Dead has quickly faded, as I desperately want to progress to see what else is on offer but I also would rather not bang my head against the wall trying to progress this painstakingly aggravating section just to play what could turn out to be more of the same. With that said and me writing this as I’m playing, I have since been back to tackle this area again and finally managed to overcome it and reach the end of the level. I now find myself sat staring at the start of the next level, struggling to pick the controller up and get on with it.

Zombie Unit’s Story

The story feels slap-dash and if I’m being honest it just isn’t there. Granted, I haven’t seen the story all the way through to the end but right from the very start it feels as though you are just dropped into this elite police unit and left to it. An introductory cutscene delivers nothing in personality and fails to make the player bond with any of the characters or allow you to learn what they’re like, aside from one guy (whose name I don’t remember) who deliberately drops his fork in a café to get a sneaky peak at an attractive waitress.

With more cutscenes thrown my way upon completion of the first level, was again just another missed opportunity for the game to make me care or feel even slightly invested in these characters. Out of nowhere my character seemingly faints or stumbles and I’m thrusted into another cutscenes that completely switches it’s visuals on its head and goes full throttle into anime styled visuals. It would have been a very welcoming surprise if it had it not managed to leave me with more questions, rather than answers.

Any kind of connection or bonding between this elite squad is squandered, as the most dialogue they share during gameplay is minor quips that don’t land and are often reused and repetitive. “I expect nothing less from this team” is a line you’ll hear repeatedly after successfully clearing an area of all enemies.

I must admit that Hannah, the games main protagonist does look rather badass. The voice doesn’t match the image sadly due to what I can only describe as some uninspired voice acting. A lot of the voice acting feels like the actors have just been told to read lines from a script without much thought behind their characters, which help me build any meaningful connections with the cast.

Shoot or Slash?

Being a hybrid of two genres sounds like a good idea, but it only works if you can at least nail one of them, which Wanted: Dead fails to do. The main gameplay loop is enter an area, clear the enemies, move forward to the next area and then rinse and repeat. Until you ultimately reach the end of the level to face off against a final boss. Having both melee and ranged weapons at your disposal with a system that allows you to combine and mix both is a brilliant idea, when it works.

The problem is, the enemies are so spongey (even on this special lower difficulty this game offered me) and they chuck quite a few of them your way at once and it becomes hard to juggle melee/ranged combat and subsequent ammo efficiently. Multiple times I would try and chop up the competition only to get gunned down by around 10 soldiers, only to change my approach and hold back whilst trying to utilize my rifles, then unloading all of my ammunition into a single enemy and still have them run up to me and finish me off.

A few times I found the game to be unresponsive and I would be stuck getting smacked by an enemy. My character decided she enjoyed dying and would refuse to counter or dodge when I pressed the corresponding buttons.

I would say that thankfully, weapon upgrade drones arrive at certain times throughout the levels. However, even though these drones allow you to tinker with your weapons and provide different damage buffs and what not, the end result is still: Empty all your ammo into an enemy, wonder how he is still standing and then mash buttons aimlessly. There is also a skill tree that offers various different upgrades throughout but fails to actually make your character feel any stronger, or really even give you any sense of growth with her skills.

In all honesty, the combat starts out actually being somewhat fun and engaging, before it quickly devolves into what felt like a repetitive button mash. No matter how much I played with my weapon setups, or looked into the skill tree, it always came down to a “hope for the best” strategy. All of this harps back to my personal blight I mentioned at the top of this review where I got stuck on a frustrating section. As most of the gameplay loop falls into a repetitive; enter area, clear area, enter next area, clear area and so on and so forth. This, coupled with some rather aggravating checkpoint placement very quickly manages to strip away any fun you may be having.

In Conclusion…

For moments when the game manages to just click, it is accompanied by a rather awesome soundtrack of various heavy metal and some pretty decent sound effects. The music is actually very in-keeping with the style of game in my opinion, even having a very cyberpunk-esque feel to certain tracks. Pulling off a dope finishing move is very satisfying and keeps the flow of combat moving nicely. You can even pull off a double or triple finisher, but how you do this, I wouldn’t be able to explain as I only succeeded in pulling off a triple finisher once and it happened to be completely by accident.

Wanted: Dead certainly is not going to be in the running for any graphical awards, but it doesn’t look horrible by any means. In fact, some of the environmental design is actually rather nice but seems like a wasted effort in such a fast-paced slasher game where you barely have time to think, so it’s not something you’ll be able to appreciate unless you take a minute to stop and smell the roses.

Ultimately I cant help but feel like this one needed a little more time in the oven. There are some great ideas here and the whole combat system, trying to mix slasher with shooter is a great one, but it just feels a little too rough around the edges to be enjoyable. I’ve spent roughly five hours with this game and scraped by way to the second level by the skin of my teeth, whereas, speaking to a friend (who has a great review on this game should you want a second look) of mine Logan, he managed to push through and complete the game in around 13 hours. So, time played could vary drastically, especially if you’re a scrub like me.

I like what this game tried to do but the overall execution just misses the mark I’m afraid. Add the performance issues into the mix and it’s just not a title I would want to recommend. I have not been burnt out so fast on a game, and I usually always try to finish a game, especially when it’s for review purposes.  However that first level was enough for me to know I’ll get no further enjoyment from it. I can’t recommend this one, especially at full price, if you still want to try this one for yourself, I can only advise that you look for sale.

All in all, I’ve spent roughly around five hours with this and have no urge to continue playing, as I’m honestly just not having any fun with it and fear the game is just going to be more of the same. In this day and age with the abundance of games available, first impressions are everything and sadly, Wanted: Dead leaves a sour taste right from the off.