DEAD STRANGE

Not everyone will want to read WANTED: DEAD's love letter to 2000s action games

- Mollie Taylor

Wanted: Dead would have totally banged in the late 2000s. It’s a no-nonsense hack-and-slash with some sickeningly wicked dismemberment, B-tier voice acting, and heaps of jank. It’s exactly what developer Soleil was aiming for, backed by several ex-Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive workers. But in the year of our lord 2023, its unapologetic vision isn’t going to sit right with everybody.

Unfortunately, I’m one of those people. I’m a huge Team Ninja lover and a regular Dead or Alive defender, so I was excited to dive into the Hong Kong Police Department’s Zombie Squad, a group of former criminals. You take on the role of Hannah Stone, and Wanted: Dead’s flimsy narrative is played out across a number of missions.

They’re linear, which I dig. But the structure of each level is uninspired and samey. Waves of enemies are dotted between sporadically placed checkpoints, most of them identical in how they attack and move. Gun-wielding enemies can be easily rushed, while a number of melee enemies offer different challenges. Then there are your brutes who deal big damage and require precise timing with parries. Most of them are easy enough to deal with in isolation but become frustrating to fight in larger numbers.

Stone can deal with enemies through a mixture of melee and gun combat. She can slash and parry with her katana, stagger enemy movement with a handgun or go classic third-person shooter behind cover. When it flows, the combat feels great. Wanted: Dead is full of gloriously gory finishing moves that never get old.

FEELING BAD