Wanted: Weapons of Fate Review

Enemy AI behavior would've warranted praise if it weren't for a few nasty peculiarities. First of all, the evil henchmen in this game obviously never went through the entire "Evil Henchmen Training Program." If they have, then I guess they'd know it's not a good idea to duck for cover in the vicinity of fuel drums, which have this tendency to explode from gunfire (fuel drums are funny that way). In fact, enemies often choose lousy spots for cover, making it easy for players to take them out simply moving a few paces in any direction fire (i.e. without even using the curve bullet feature). Now it's good that the game doesn't necessarily force you into the bullet-curve routine. Still, the fact that enemies are usually wide open and ready to take a bullet can look a bit silly.

Each section in the game ends with a prolonged shootout with a boss-like opponent - boss-like, though these are certainly not full-fledged boss fights, seeing as each duel can be solved in mere minutes thanks to your bullet-curve skills and the battles are basically the same every time; only they take place in different environments.

The surprising thing is that through all of its gameplay clichés, Wanted isn't a total waste. No matter how mundane the rest of the game may seem, the bullet-curve aspect is a cool element and definitely a feature that could've been improved further. The developers attempted to enliven the atmosphere a bit with variety of interactive action sequences. Sadly, this was also enjoyable for a short time. Yep, storming through the single-player is yet another downside to Wanted: Weapons of Fate. It can be completed in less than six hours and that's even if you do your best to find all the poorly hidden paper slips that unlock the development team's concept art and such (yaay!).