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[Kacho]

Wanted: Dead is what happens when Ninja Gaiden meets Cyberpunk.​

Wanted: Dead is a new hybrid slasher/shooter from the makers of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. The game follows a week in life of the Zombie Unit, an elite Hong Kong police squad on a mission to uncover a major corporate conspiracy. Play as Lt. Hannah Stone, a hardboiled Hong Kong cop, and plow through mercenaries, gang members and private military contractors in a spectacular cyberpunk adventure.

KEY FEATURES​

• Hack-n-slash melee combat: Use a wide variety of deadly moves and dozens of unique finishers to slice and dice
• Third-person shooter: Battle indoors and outdoors using a curated selection of projectile weapons - assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs and grenade launchers
• Brutal finishers: over 50 unique finishing moves
• Cyberpunk: a crazy mix of advanced weaponry and lo-tech 90s retro futurism
• Gripping storyline: The Zombie unit uncovers a major corporate conspiracy in a dystopian version of Hong Kong
• Truly hardcore experience: the fights are not going to be easy, steel your resolve and use everything around you as you battle through hordes of mercenaries, synthetics and private security forces.
• Beat 'em up the old school way: Take down enemies to proceed further, revive the nostalgia in a modern twist on the established genre
• A love letter to the sixth generation of consoles.

PLATFORMS​

Steam
Xbox One/Series
PS4/PS5

LAUNCH TRAILER​

​

​

SCREENSHOTS

 

[Salz01]

Will,wait for reviews on this one. The. main character isn’t doing it for me either. Hopefully there are some costume unlocks.

 

[xion4360]

looks like a fun game as long as you don't take it seriously.

 

[ReBurn]

Third person action? I'm interested if so.

 

[MasterDerico]

Already pre ordered my disc!

 

[Punished Miku]

Its like a lost 360 era 3rd person cover shooter with more melee. Getting a little bummed out with the level layouts on level 1 but its early. Definitely a AA swimming in 7s kinda game.

The main character's voice acting will be studied for years.

 

[Strider Highwind]

grabbed it on steam, would've done it on ps5 and series x but iuuuuuuuuuunnnnno lol

 

[GeekyDad]

Will,wait for reviews on this one. The. main character isn’t doing it for me either. Hopefully there are some costume unlocks.

Not me.

Going to say shite right now.

 

[Party McHardy]

Itagaki?

 

[Amiga]

Wait! It is out now?

 

[Strider7]

I love B-tier third person action games. Fucking day one. Let’s gooooo!

 

[Punished Miku]

I love B-tier third person action games. Fucking day one. Let’s gooooo!

Its definitely B tier, and hard. I'd say most people will not like it or make it past level 1. Its going to be for only a small group of people. Otherwise wait.

Im having fun but died like 12 times on level 1. Then the first ninja enemy shows up and I really died immediately lol. Will try again tomorrow.

 

[Amiga]

Can't buy it or even pre-order it yet on PS5.

It wasn't even showcased in the store. had to search for it.

 

[JayK47]

Looks interesting. Wishlisted.

 

[Strider7]

Its definitely B tier, and hard. I'd say most people will not like it or make it past level 1. Its going to be for only a small group of people. Otherwise wait.

Im having fun but died like 12 times on level 1. Then the first ninja enemy shows up and I really died immediately lol. Will try again tomorrow.

You’re talking to somebody who loves and will adamantly defend games like Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Anarchy Reigns, Devils Third, Gotham Knights and many other games of that ilk.

 

[drotahorror]

Its definitely B tier, and hard. I'd say most people will not like it or make it past level 1. Its going to be for only a small group of people. Otherwise wait.

Im having fun but died like 12 times on level 1. Then the first ninja enemy shows up and I really died immediately lol. Will try again tomorrow.

What difficulty are you on? I watched a stream a bit ago and buddy was playin on normal and said it was pretty challenging (for him), but from what I saw he wasn't dying much. Only watched a few minutes though.

 

[Gambit2483]

Its definitely B tier, and hard. I'd say most people will not like it or make it past level 1. Its going to be for only a small group of people. Otherwise wait.

Im having fun but died like 12 times on level 1. Then the first ninja enemy shows up and I really died immediately lol. Will try again tomorrow.

Would you say it's reasonably priced @ $60?

This really seems like a $50-$40 title...

 

[VN1X]

Oof 50EU on Steam... I'll wait for a sale lol.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The game looks badass.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Looks like my kind of jank. Might just try to get it a bit cheaper from a keys site and start playing it right away if the player's feedback keeps being positive.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Uf, looks likes its more rough than I imagined. Its very short and that price wtf were they thinking...literally shot themselves in the foot especially considering its under 10h and not a quality product. Ill keep it wishlisted but doubt Ill ever pay more than 15 bucks for it.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

That voice actress sounds dead on the inside.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Stolen from Steam :

Recommended
16.0 hrs last two weeks / 21.9 hrs on record
Posted: 14 Feb @ 10:21am
Updated: 14 Feb @ 10:21am

Like that episode of Pokemon featuring Porygon, Nintendo wants everyone to forget that Devil’s Third ever existed. This infamous Wii U game attempted to combine third person shooting with the swordplay that characterised the Ninja Gaiden series. Why am I bringing up this critical and commercial failure? It turns out the studio that gave birth to Devil’s Third, Valhalla Games Studio, had a sister company called Soleli. Not only did they acquire the assets of Valhalla but has recently created a spiritual successor of sorts. Entered Wanted Dead, the latest attempt from ex-Team Ninja employees to make a game like Ninja Gaiden but with guns. Is this the game that every man wants to be gifted on Valentine’s Day? Or is it simply dead-on arrival.

Wanted Dead takes place in an alternative version of modern-day Hong Kong, where fashion and music from the 1980s is now in vogue for some reason. Amongst this bending of the space time continuum lies an ex-prisoner, turned cop called Hannah Stone. Who fights crime by moonlight and sings karaoke by daytime. The game features a tonne of cutscenes that are lengthy yet berthed of any substance. There are some genuinely funny scenes that put a smile on my face. But when the game attempts to tell a serious story, the flat acting and robotic animations doesn’t do the narrative any favours. Not to mention, the glaring use of low quality, BIK files to present parts of the game’s story. Which stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the real time cutscenes running in 4K. For those that are curious, the shower scenes are rendered in real-time. I’m sure David Cage will be pleased by this news.

Thankfully the gameplay makes up for the spotty story telling with white knuckle action delivered straight to your address with extra blood. Like Devil’s Third, Wanted Dead tries to mesh swashbuckling with pew pew action. Think Ninja Gaiden meets Vanquish and you’re on the right track. The biggest problem with Devil’s Third was the poor balancing that meant almost every scenario favoured guns over swords. Which wasn’t great given the guns had the impact of a cashew. Fortunately the tables have been turned with Wanted Dead as the sword is by far the most useful item in your arsenal.

Slicing and dicing enemies is super satisfying with blood flowing like cheap red wine. Hannah doesn’t feel as light as Ryu in Ninja Gaiden and controls like someone whose diet consists purely of Four N Twenty Meat pies. But the frantic nature of the fights with enemies coming from every corner is enough to keep the blood flowing. Unfortunately, the firearms in this game don’t have the same impact as the sword. The massive dead zone and poor feedback makes using any ballistic weapon a real chore. But except for a few hard-to-reach targets, you can take down the entire opposition with your trusty sword and forget the guns exist. To the game’s credit, this is probably the most action focused action game I’ve played in a long time. No quick time events or forced walking sequences. Pure, unadulterated carnage from start to finish.

Hannah is joined by three other members in the appropriately named zombie squad. Doc stays true to his namesake by offering the ability to revive the player after their health is fully depleted. But you’re only good for one revival between each checkpoint. Cortex can stagger enemies, allowing Hannah to take them down with a finishing strike. The final person in your crew is Herzog, who will occasionally take out foot soldiers with a single bullet to the head.

In between each mission, you’ll find yourself at the police station where you can talk to NPCs and play various minigames. Your fellow co-workers have the personality of mud that pales in comparison to the character building exhibited in the likes of Astral Chain. The minigames also feel undercooked with a ramen and karaoke minigame that both play like a poor man’s Taiko Drum Master. There’s also a Skill Tester where you unlock additional goodies and figurines. I do appreciate the figurines showing up on Hannah’s desk as you acquire each one. It’s little details like this that I enjoy seeing in video games. Rounding off the mini games is a vertical shooter called Space Runaway. Which I couldn’t play since the game wouldn’t stop shaking. I don’t know if this is an intentional design or a bug with the PC build of the game.

Completing the game will take around 8-10 hours. You can play through the game again on a harder difficulty or mess around with any minigames you’ve unlocked. You can rewatch any cutscenes on the memories page, including multiple episodes of a cooking show parody called Vivienne’s Late-Night Chow. Which are generally funny and look like something ripped out of Robocop

Like many modern games, Wanted Dead is powered by Unreal Engine 4. While the texture work and geometry detail is solid enough. The sloppy animation and flat lighting are a notch against the presentation. As for which version I played, I opted to play through the game on my PC equipped with a Ryzen 3700X and Nivida RTX 3070. My first impressions of the PC port were quite positive. Loading times were almost non-existence when using an NVME drive and HDR is on the table for once. Both FSR and DLSS upscaling algorithms are included. But like many Unreal Engine 4 games, Wanted Dead doesn’t perform a pre-compilation of shaders on the main menu. In other words, the shader compilation happens during gameplay. A process that causes a drop in framerate and affects the fluidity of the game. But even with the shaders compiled, performance will randomly drop like a stone regardless of the visual quality or upscaling technique being employed. The game also crashed on multiple occasions and a bug caused the skill tree to disappear, forcing me to start the game again from scratch.

It's obvious that most of the game’s budget went towards producing the game’s terrific soundtrack. The developers of this game somehow managed to secure legendary music producer Giorgio Moroder. Best known for his work in films like Midnight Express, Flashdance and Scarface. The soundtrack is peppered with iconic 80s songs such as 99 Luftballoons and Manic. But there’s also a great selection of original songs sung by various guest singers and a fantastic score composed by Keiichi Sugiyama. Even if you don’t plan on playing the game, I insist that you check out the soundtrack on Spotify. It’s that good.

Wanted Dead is at its finest when you’re slicing enemies like the onions in a favourite infomercial while rocking to the game’s brilliant soundtrack. The writing is woeful at best, but it still managed to get a few chuckles out of me. But everything else in this game feels underdeveloped and could have used a few extra hours in the oven. However, despite its many warts, I can still picture Wanted Dead developing a cult following amongst a small group of weirdos that miss the era of middle-ground games that were commonplace during the days of the PS2. Games with a clear beginning, middle and end without the chaff that plagues modern, open world games. If that sounds appealing to you, I think you might get a kick out of Wanted Dead. Although I would avoid the PC version like the plague as it’s not currently fit for service.


By watching various videos and reading opinions like these this feels like a 6/10 game through and through and not necessarily in a good, janky AA way, more like "this feels underdeveloped in every way" and its positive points seem to be mostly the 80's aesthetics (OST etc).
Like I've already said twice in the other thread (and Cockatrice too), I don't know what the heck they were thinking with that MSRP, 60 big ones for this kind of quality and also release window is just...
Again, if hi-fi rush costs 30, this shouldn't be more than that, I mean, you can get Dead space or Hogwart's Legacy at that price, plus, there's Atomic heart releasing in a few days AND Re4Remake in a month, they literally shot themselves in the foot.
It's gonna be either game pass or a deep discount for me I think.

 

[Punished Miku]

Would you say it's reasonably priced @ $60?

This really seems like a $50-$40 title...

The price isn't an issue for me on this game. Im barely into it still but it feels like a AA full game. It will go on sale Im sure.

 

[Bartski]

ever get that feeling when you know a game looks like a pile of jank but you really want to play it anyway? Yeah that's the one.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The shader comp stutter makes it a no go for me.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Game's so janky it's jank has transcended the game itself and has propagated into the store.

 

[near]

I'll be with you guys soon!

 

[Strider7]

Only played about 30 mins cause I'm short on time at the moment, but I'm liking it!

 

[Evolved1]

When I first saw this I thought, "Neat, but jank". However the last video I watched recently seemed way less jank. As if they actually fixed stuff. If this game is a solid 60 fps on PS5 it's a week 1 buy for me.

 

[Punished Miku]

Only played about 30 mins cause I'm short on time at the moment, but I'm liking it!

I can't recommend it to anyone but I'm liking it and glad I got it. Definitely going to be looking for some high level play videos to study.

 

[Petopia]

Stolen from Steam :

Recommended
16.0 hrs last two weeks / 21.9 hrs on record
Posted: 14 Feb @ 10:21am
Updated: 14 Feb @ 10:21am

Like that episode of Pokemon featuring Porygon, Nintendo wants everyone to forget that Devil’s Third ever existed. This infamous Wii U game attempted to combine third person shooting with the swordplay that characterised the Ninja Gaiden series. Why am I bringing up this critical and commercial failure? It turns out the studio that gave birth to Devil’s Third, Valhalla Games Studio, had a sister company called Soleli. Not only did they acquire the assets of Valhalla but has recently created a spiritual successor of sorts. Entered Wanted Dead, the latest attempt from ex-Team Ninja employees to make a game like Ninja Gaiden but with guns. Is this the game that every man wants to be gifted on Valentine’s Day? Or is it simply dead-on arrival.

Wanted Dead takes place in an alternative version of modern-day Hong Kong, where fashion and music from the 1980s is now in vogue for some reason. Amongst this bending of the space time continuum lies an ex-prisoner, turned cop called Hannah Stone. Who fights crime by moonlight and sings karaoke by daytime. The game features a tonne of cutscenes that are lengthy yet berthed of any substance. There are some genuinely funny scenes that put a smile on my face. But when the game attempts to tell a serious story, the flat acting and robotic animations doesn’t do the narrative any favours. Not to mention, the glaring use of low quality, BIK files to present parts of the game’s story. Which stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the real time cutscenes running in 4K. For those that are curious, the shower scenes are rendered in real-time. I’m sure David Cage will be pleased by this news.

Thankfully the gameplay makes up for the spotty story telling with white knuckle action delivered straight to your address with extra blood. Like Devil’s Third, Wanted Dead tries to mesh swashbuckling with pew pew action. Think Ninja Gaiden meets Vanquish and you’re on the right track. The biggest problem with Devil’s Third was the poor balancing that meant almost every scenario favoured guns over swords. Which wasn’t great given the guns had the impact of a cashew. Fortunately the tables have been turned with Wanted Dead as the sword is by far the most useful item in your arsenal.

Slicing and dicing enemies is super satisfying with blood flowing like cheap red wine. Hannah doesn’t feel as light as Ryu in Ninja Gaiden and controls like someone whose diet consists purely of Four N Twenty Meat pies. But the frantic nature of the fights with enemies coming from every corner is enough to keep the blood flowing. Unfortunately, the firearms in this game don’t have the same impact as the sword. The massive dead zone and poor feedback makes using any ballistic weapon a real chore. But except for a few hard-to-reach targets, you can take down the entire opposition with your trusty sword and forget the guns exist. To the game’s credit, this is probably the most action focused action game I’ve played in a long time. No quick time events or forced walking sequences. Pure, unadulterated carnage from start to finish.

Hannah is joined by three other members in the appropriately named zombie squad. Doc stays true to his namesake by offering the ability to revive the player after their health is fully depleted. But you’re only good for one revival between each checkpoint. Cortex can stagger enemies, allowing Hannah to take them down with a finishing strike. The final person in your crew is Herzog, who will occasionally take out foot soldiers with a single bullet to the head.

In between each mission, you’ll find yourself at the police station where you can talk to NPCs and play various minigames. Your fellow co-workers have the personality of mud that pales in comparison to the character building exhibited in the likes of Astral Chain. The minigames also feel undercooked with a ramen and karaoke minigame that both play like a poor man’s Taiko Drum Master. There’s also a Skill Tester where you unlock additional goodies and figurines. I do appreciate the figurines showing up on Hannah’s desk as you acquire each one. It’s little details like this that I enjoy seeing in video games. Rounding off the mini games is a vertical shooter called Space Runaway. Which I couldn’t play since the game wouldn’t stop shaking. I don’t know if this is an intentional design or a bug with the PC build of the game.

Completing the game will take around 8-10 hours. You can play through the game again on a harder difficulty or mess around with any minigames you’ve unlocked. You can rewatch any cutscenes on the memories page, including multiple episodes of a cooking show parody called Vivienne’s Late-Night Chow. Which are generally funny and look like something ripped out of Robocop

Like many modern games, Wanted Dead is powered by Unreal Engine 4. While the texture work and geometry detail is solid enough. The sloppy animation and flat lighting are a notch against the presentation. As for which version I played, I opted to play through the game on my PC equipped with a Ryzen 3700X and Nivida RTX 3070. My first impressions of the PC port were quite positive. Loading times were almost non-existence when using an NVME drive and HDR is on the table for once. Both FSR and DLSS upscaling algorithms are included. But like many Unreal Engine 4 games, Wanted Dead doesn’t perform a pre-compilation of shaders on the main menu. In other words, the shader compilation happens during gameplay. A process that causes a drop in framerate and affects the fluidity of the game. But even with the shaders compiled, performance will randomly drop like a stone regardless of the visual quality or upscaling technique being employed. The game also crashed on multiple occasions and a bug caused the skill tree to disappear, forcing me to start the game again from scratch.

It's obvious that most of the game’s budget went towards producing the game’s terrific soundtrack. The developers of this game somehow managed to secure legendary music producer Giorgio Moroder. Best known for his work in films like Midnight Express, Flashdance and Scarface. The soundtrack is peppered with iconic 80s songs such as 99 Luftballoons and Manic. But there’s also a great selection of original songs sung by various guest singers and a fantastic score composed by Keiichi Sugiyama. Even if you don’t plan on playing the game, I insist that you check out the soundtrack on Spotify. It’s that good.

Wanted Dead is at its finest when you’re slicing enemies like the onions in a favourite infomercial while rocking to the game’s brilliant soundtrack. The writing is woeful at best, but it still managed to get a few chuckles out of me. But everything else in this game feels underdeveloped and could have used a few extra hours in the oven. However, despite its many warts, I can still picture Wanted Dead developing a cult following amongst a small group of weirdos that miss the era of middle-ground games that were commonplace during the days of the PS2. Games with a clear beginning, middle and end without the chaff that plagues modern, open world games. If that sounds appealing to you, I think you might get a kick out of Wanted Dead. Although I would avoid the PC version like the plague as it’s not currently fit for service.


By watching various videos and reading opinions like these this feels like a 6/10 game through and through and not necessarily in a good, janky AA way, more like "this feels underdeveloped in every way" and its positive points seem to be mostly the 80's aesthetics (OST etc).
Like I've already said twice in the other thread (and Cockatrice too), I don't know what the heck they were thinking with that MSRP, 60 big ones for this kind of quality and also release window is just...
Again, if hi-fi rush costs 30, this shouldn't be more than that, I mean, you can get Dead space or Hogwart's Legacy at that price, plus, there's Atomic heart releasing in a few days AND Re4Remake in a month, they literally shot themselves in the foot.
It's gonna be either game pass or a deep discount for me I think.

Feeling like this steam recommendation is a cap

 

[SmokedMeat]

Oh hey this looks pretty good. Let me check it out on Stea….Mostly Negative reviews. 39% positive and it’s $60?

I doesn’t mind slumming it as mediocrity can be fun - but not until it’s $20 or less.

Great trailer though.

Gameplay also sounds kiddie pool shallow.

 

[lh032]

the enemies are way cooler than the protag.

 

[Punished Miku]

Oh hey this looks pretty good. Let me check it out on Stea….Mostly Negative reviews. 39% positive and it’s $60?

I doesn’t mind slumming it as mediocrity can be fun - but not until it’s $20 or less.

Great trailer though.

Gameplay also sounds kiddie pool shallow.

The enemies can be a little braindead, but the gameplay isn't shallow. It's awkward at times because it almost has too much, being a full TPS with a decent amount of melee as well. It's a hybrid.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

I was thinking of picking up the collectors edition for Series X but I’m not sure, might hold off until there is more impressions. A demo would of been nice.

Bit of a weird way to respond to a review too

 

[The Cockatrice]

Game's so janky it's jank has transcended the game itself and has propagated into the store.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Bit of a weird way to respond to a review too

Holy shit.

I don't know what's up with the japs and Steam, always fucking up releases. Like when RGG forgot to press the button of "release Yakuza 7" and people had to wait for some extra hours to play.

 

[The Cockatrice]

LMFAO @ 2:37

what the fuck is this voice acting?? Alright, this shit went from not interested, to maybe intersted, to wishlist, to wait for big sale, to never touch.

 

[Punished Miku]

what the fuck is this voice acting?? Alright, this shit went from not interested, to maybe intersted, to wishlist, to wait for big sale, to never touch.

It's one of my favorite parts of the game lol.

 

[Hayabusabruh]

Ign gave it a 4. Lol

 

[GHG]

Ign gave it a 4. Lol

God hand resurrected?

Spoiler

Not really. Will check this out when it hits $5.

 

[Punished Miku]

God hand resurrected?

I can see how someone can score it a 6, and be kinda accurate. I'd probably land on a 7 so far. But I'm happy I got it, and will be trying hard to master it. I don't see how it's a 4 though, at all. But I'm still on level 1.

The IGN review doesn't even really read like a 4. He says the combat is pretty good, but just doesn't evolve much.

 

[Umbasaborne]

Man this looks fun af, kind of want to support it just to get more games like it

 

[Raelgun]

i followed this guys advice and 2 hours into the game haven't experienced a single crash...

 

[Bartski]

Wanted: Dead Reviews

Wanted: Dead is rated 'Weak' after being reviewed by 98 critics, with an overall average score of 59. It's ranked in the bottom 14% of games and recommended by 19% of critics.

opencritic.com

 

[Hypereides]

I don't give a rats ass about the ratings. This game looks dope as fuck.

Its like a lost 360 era 3rd person cover shooter with more melee. Getting a little bummed out with the level layouts on level 1 but its early. Definitely a AA swimming in 7s kinda game.

The main character's voice acting will be studied for years.

Stone's accent is apparently Swiss.

 

[Nankatsu]

So, Not Wanted judging from the reviews?

Concept looks cool as fuck, despite looking a bit rough.

 

[Hot5pur]

Looks like a disaster. Should have been $30 or gamepass, or both. Seems like a failed arrogant gamble. Plenty of B level games released last year that were much better and had "old school" gameplay done well (eg. Soulstice).

 

[stranno]

Looks like Devil's Third. I loved that game, unfortunately it never made out of Wii U (except the multi-player, which was available on Steam for a short period of time), when it was going to be an XBOX 360 exclusive game in the beginning. Lol.