An entertaining, albeit short and generic, shooter coupled with a time-line branching story of bloody revenge.
Wesley is greeted each night by the same dream, depicting his mothers assassination while she's holding him in her arms. And it always ends the same way….from the perspective of the killer. Early on, Wesley's house is invaded by a group of SWAT like officers, and Wesley sees one of them defacing a picture of his mother, finding behind it in the frame an assassins kill order with her name on it. He then is told by an ex-assassin that worked with his father that his mothers killer was none other then an assassin known only as The Immortal, thus sparking Wesley's travels to France to destroy the French sect of the Fraternity and exact his revenge. Throughout the game, you also get to take control of Cross, Wesley's father, in flashback type missions that flesh out further details of the story. Along the way, your taken to many unique locations such as an airplane (mid flight!), an assassins tomb deep in the heart of French town, and a mountain top. The ending had quite an excellent twist, and a satisfying outcome.
Another notably awesome aspect to the story is the dialogue. I thought it was outrageous, but in a good way. Explicit, over done, but always either hilarious, or at the least, entertaining.
Gameplay: The game at its core is a standard over the shoulder shooter, coupled with some unique elements like Bullet Curving, Shrapnel Explosion, and Quick Movement(essentially bullet time) actions when you move between cover. These abilities really spice up the gameplay, and for me kept it from becoming stale. I never got tired of curving a round behind cover and hitting 3 goons simultaneously. A very well implemented cover system is also present, allowing you to slide between cover pieces, advance on targets while behind the protection of movable cover, and even suppressing fire for enemies you just can't seem to get a shot on. You also have the ability to get in close to your opponent and perform a brutal knife kill that usually involves broken bones or groin stabs. Did I mention they were brutal?
At certain points your thrust into slow motion segments in which you must shoot not only the enemy in front of you, but the bullets that they've fired which are now flying at you. If you fail to shoot both the bullet/s and the enemy, you are killed instantly. These events added a fair amount of excitement when they pop up, which is far to infrequently for my taste. You also occasionally take control of mounted machine guns and sniper rifles to eliminate a set amount of enemies, but these segments feel tacked on for the most part.
Unfortunately, the game is terribly short, ending when you would expect it to be hitting its stride. The gameplay can also be very repetitive if you don't particularly get a kick out of the bullet curving or shrapnel explosion, as these are just about the only variations you get. Your arsenal is limited to 3 different types of handguns, and a pair of fully auto sub-machine gun like handguns. Not a shotgun or grenade in sight. This makes me a sad panda.
Technical: Facial animations are mediocre at best, but the movement animations are very well done. Fluid and realistic. The graphics are acceptable for the most part, though the cut scenes have a very blocky, compressed look. In game is noticeably better, but when the locations are very vast, objects in the distance are blurred out. It can become obtrusive at times, but other times you won't even notice this effect. Sound design was poor, featuring mostly generic score pieces and a couple tracks performed by the group UNKLE. Through out the missions, there's a calm track that plays when you are moving about, and a faster track that plays when in a fire fight. This transition between tracks grew highly annoying to me. I actually had to turn down the games music. The credits song ("Little Things" by UNKLE) was the only truly pleasing track.
The rest of it: Wanted offers you many extras to encourage further play throughs, including multiple characters and trophies associated with fulfilling certain acts as each of them, two new modes: Headshot and Close Combat, which require you to meet a head shot and knife kill quota respectively, an unlockable difficulty, and gobs of extras like concept art, crew quotes, videos, comic book covers, etc. Problem is, with how short, easy, and repetitive the game is, you may not feel all that inspired to do so.
The verdict: Wanted is, for most, a rent and forget type of game. It makes a few exciting new adjustments to a tired genre and is successful for the most part, but it doesn't set itself far enough apart to warrant a purchase unless you wait a few months and pick it up off the bargain shelf. However, it is WELL worth that rent. Don't write it off.