Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Few words when paired together can strike fear in a gamer’s heart like ‘movie’ and ‘tie-in’. As such our expectations of Wanted: Weapons of Fate were not what you might call lofty…

However, the movie itself looks decent enough - almost Matrix-like, and attracting a stellar cast including the likes of Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and our own James McAvoy. And it’s the talented Scots actor that gamers play as for the most part here, in the role of overworked office grunt Wesley Alan Gibson who has recently discovered that he is actually a superhuman hitman. Like you do, etc.

The in-game action runs five hours after the movie ends, and young Wes certainly seems to have come to terms with his new found skills, innate bloodlust and, apparently, the mastery of sweary bad language. Meanwhile the storyline concerns Wesley’s quest to locate and eliminate his mother’s killer, all the while the fanatical Paris faction of the ‘Fraternity’ (a 1000 year-old society of secret assassins that Wesley was practically born into) tries its hardest to stop him. In alternate levels the historical events leading up to the present day predicament are played out by Wes’ father, thus helping to fill in the back story.

Not that such details really make much of a difference to the gameplay, which plays rather like Gears of War or Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. A dab of the A-button sends Wesley (or his Pa) scuttling for the nearest cover, from where he can blind-fire to suppress an enemy before finishing them off with a well-aimed shot. Also while in cover it’s possible - advisable, even - to leap from cover to cover. In this way the bad guys can be flanked and taken from the rear, so to speak.

Ammunition is plentiful pretty much throughout the game, most enemies dropping a small cache once killed. The Gibson boys have another trick up their sleeves too, in the form of a close-range knife attack. A deft press of the B button when an enemy is within arm’s reach is all that’s needed to despatch a ne’er do well very cinematically.

Speaking of which, from the second level onwards Wesley picks up another useful skill - bending bullets around corners. It’s a simple enough manoeuvre to master. Just point the gun-sight in the general direction of a hidden enemy, hold down the right shoulder button and a coloured arc appears, move the right stick until the arc turns white, release the shoulder button and presto! Occasionally the camera follows the bullet as it whizzes to its target too, which does look very cool.

Bullet-bending is not an unlimited skill, though, and relies on the collection of ‘adrenaline’, represented by a bullet icon in the top-right of the screen. Fill the adrenaline meter, turning it red, by killing enemies. Use the knife to top it up faster.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate utilises familiar gameplay mechanics, has a unique selling point with the bendy bullets and looks pretty handsome. So, what’s not to like? We’d really like to answer ‘not much’ but for a few crucial points, one of them an absolute travesty. In the first instance, as good-looking as the game can be, there really isn’t much variety here - the occasional (and slightly clumsy) sniper section interspersed with the regular third-person viewed levels is all. Secondly there’s no multiplayer mode, either locally or online. We could live with that if it wasn’t for the shocking brevity of the whole experience. The nine levels offered can be completed in under four hours - seriously!

It’s a real shame since Wanted: Weapons of Fate is actually unexpectedly good fun to play. Maybe it’s been specifically designed with undiscerning movie-goers or the rental market in mind. If not we can’t imagine what on earth the Swedish developers, Grin, were thinking, because nobody in their right mind would pay full price for such a short-lived game. That said, if you’re a sucker for the movie or are looking to get your money’s worth from an overnight rent - or, of course, you see the game going super-cheap - Wanted: Weapons of Fate is probably worth a look.

3 out of 5