Wanted: Deadis a wild story that is a bit hard to piece together. The game stars Hong Kong police detective Hannah Stone who is the leader of a rogue group within the department known as the Zombie Unit. They’ve been tasked with trying to figure out why there is a full-scale robot rebellion springing up in the city.
RELATED:Top Hack and Slash Games of this Generation, According to Metacritic
That’s the most basic plot summary ofWanted: Dead, but the game is seemingly more interested in its characters than the overall story. The game rivalsDeadly Premonitionin terms of its balance between serious stuff and goofy comedy. It’s a hard game to review, but there are some very obvious pros and cons.
Best: The Swordplay
The first mission is very gun-heavy and doesn’t give players many opportunities to test their swordplay out. Also, it takes a bit to unlock some of the many cool moves in the skill tree. The second mission is more melee-focused, however, allowing players to test out Hannah’s katana skills.
It’s all a little rough around the edges, like most of the game’s aspects, but it is engaging. The swordplay makes it obvious that these developers worked on theNinja Gaidengamesand get what makes action compelling.
Worst: The Gunplay
The worst part about the gameplay inWanted: Deadis the guns. Hannah is equipped with a rifle and a pistol at all times and handling both doesn’t feel good. At checkpoints, players can customize both weapons with new barrels, ammo clips, and sights to change the stats.
Unfortunately, even if players sink time into improving accuracy or weapon handling, the guns will likely still feel off-balanced. The cover system, compared toother tactical shooters, is also pretty weird, with no dedicated button to go into cover. Hannah sometimes sticks to surfaces but often doesn’t.
Best: The World Design
Wanted: Deadis not the most impressive new action game on the market. What it lacks in graphical prowess though, it more than makes up for in cool world-building. The characters, especially Hannah, all look cool with their implants and gear.
RELATED:Action RPGs To Play If You Loved The World Ends With You
The game has a grungy cyberpunk aesthetic to it as if robotics and cybernetics just started to become commonplace. Another fun thing about the design is the references to pop culture such as the vending machines selling Depsi, or characters name-dropping showslikeThe X-Files.
Worst: The Audio Mixing
The audio mixing inWanted: Deadis baffling. The game was made in Japan but it takes place in Hong Kong. There is only an English voice track but Hannah has what sounds like a French accent and the rest of the cast sounds like they are covering up accents as well.
To compound matters, cutscenes often lack music, with sound effects sometimes being unnaturally high to the point where voices can barely be heard. Is the audio bad because there are glitches, or were these choices made by a human? This issue may or may not bother players depending on whether they likecheesy games and movies.
Best: The Music
The voice acting and sound mixing may be pretty bad on the whole, but the music is fantastic. The game features a good mix of rock and electronic music when fighting enemies in the field. The game also features a lot of pop song covers such as “I Touch Myself” and “She Works Hard For The Money.”
These songs can be played via jukeboxes at HQ or sung during the karaoke mini-game. The mini-game in question is introduced with Hannah and Vivienne singing “99 Luftballoons” in German which is just a lot to handle. Technically, it sounds bad, but it adds to the aforementioned charm of thisbizarre action game.
Worst: The Checkpoint System
Wanted: Deadis not an easy game by any stretch. There are two difficulties, to begin with, Normal or Hard, which may be too much for casual action game fans to handle. That’s one issue, but it wouldn’t be so problematic if the checkpoint system were a little better.
RELATED:Action RPGs To Play If You Like Demon’s Souls
Some levels will have long stretches of fighting countless enemies without a break in between a mini-boss. Having to restart those long battles over and over again can be disheartening for players and may well lead to a lot of people throwing in the towel.
Best: The Mixed Media
It may surprise players to find out there are anime cutscenes inWanted: Dead. The first occurs after the first mission. Hannah will suddenly black out at HQ and recall a memory from her past in 2004. These past segments are not the only time things go anime either, as the intro to the third mission is also animated.
These are bizarre choices for a game in 2023, butthe cyberpunk animationdoes look nice. Also, the marketing leading up to the game’s launch was fantastic. There’sa music videofeaturing the waitress from the diner and evensome cooking shows, which are well-worth seeking out.
Worst: Missing Features
There are a plethora of missing features that could have madeWanted: Deada much better game. A photo mode would be appreciated to help capture those cool moments in battle. Even taking out the motion blur would have improved the quality of the game by quite a bit.
A map would be handy on missions, but it would be more appreciated at HQ because that station is a maze. Characters get covered in blood on missions, which carries over to cutscenes. It looks wild and a way to have had that removed, like the motion blur, would have been nice.
Wanted: Deadwas released on July 19, 2025, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
MORE:The Best And Worst Things About Forspoken
