Synopsis: Wanted: Dead is a new hybrid slasher/shooter from the makers of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. The game follows a week in the life of the Zombie Unit, an elite Hong Kong police squad on a mission to uncover a major corporate conspiracy.

Reviewed on: PC (Intel i5-9400F @ 2.90GHz, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM)
Also available for: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One

Developer: Soleil Ltd
Publisher: 110 Industries SA

Wanted: Dead is simply a strange game. It has moments of greatness brought down by swathes of averageness. It often feels best when away from the game’s main plot, when its strangeness becomes charming through silly minigames and in the anime story interludes that hint at something deeper. This is then undercut by clunky combat that looks better than it feels, and deliberately average voice acting makes the experience scrappy. Though even these detractors have some slightly elevated moments, Wanted: Dead seems self-aware of its averageness, aiming for a throwback sixth-gen feel but not quite nailing it.

As a member of the Zombie Unit of the Hong Kong Police force, you play as Lt. Hannah Stone who, as her name suggests, is a tough-as-nails former soldier given a second chance in this elite unit. This future Hong Kong takes on cyberpunk influences, as the police often act in the best interests of corporations who pay their bills. However, the unit uncovers a conspiracy within these corporations that they trace throughout the game. The setting was a bit of wasted potential; it could have been much more interesting than the game lets it be—which is a bit of a running theme in Wanted: Dead.

Zombie Unit is composed of Lt. Stone and three other former soldiers joining you on missions and socialising with you back at Police HQ. Toeing the self-aware line, the unit and its characters are stupidly charming due to their zaniness. This is “helped” along by the voice acting, which is wooden yet droll and always lands within that “so bad it’s good” range. The characters are focused on quite a bit through Wanted: Dead, with lots of time spent with them through longer character-driven (not plot-driven) cutscenes. This character focus gives the game some levity, as you can’t help but shake your head and laugh at the absurdity the voice acting gives the lines being delivered.

I was surprised by this character focus and, by extension, the out-of-mission gameplay of Wanted: Dead, having expected a game that was more mission → cutscene → next mission. Instead, between missions, you get lengthy cutscenes and a four-floor Police HQ to explore. The uniformed officers say silly little things as you walk past, and the HQ has a lot of collectibles to be found within it—one of which triggered a cutscene flashing Stone back to a previous case she had covered. My favourite part of HQ time was the minigames (there are five to unlock). Two are ostensibly the same rhythm gameplay with different set dressing. The minigames are where Wanted: Dead’s zaniness goes into overdrive, as Zombie Unit lets down their hair by doing karaoke of “99 Luftballons” (in German) or having a ramen-eating contest down the street. These are fun little distractions and are almost presented in a better way than the rest of the game—and in a vibe that I was much more on board with. Lumped in with this are some well-done anime cutscenes sprinkled seamlessly through the game that hint at a more interesting and serious story, but they’re strangely juxtaposed against the rest of the game’s storytelling.

Of course, not all of the game can be spent inside Police HQ playing arcade and claw machines. Stone and the Zombie Unit also spend much time slogging through hordes of enemies to complete their mission. Stone comes equipped with a katana, assault rifle and pistol, and you can loot enemy weaponry for temporary gains. Wanted: Dead is more focused on the katana-wielding gameplay, which at least gives it some edge as it features a dismemberment and finisher system that results in a lot of blood splatter. This focus is mainly for the better as its third-person shooting systems land on the average side of things, meaning I always preferred to slide in and start slicing instead of staying in cover mowing down enemies. However, the guns benefit from extensive modding capabilities, allowing you to tune them to your comfort.

The moment-to-moment katana gameplay is best described as janky but serviceable. In motion, there is a pleasing visual nature to the combat, and it has its moments of dumb fun when you can gracefully move around, slicing and dicing enemies and leaving a trail of blood in your wake. Other times feel like you’re moving through gel, spamming your single melee attack button and coming up naught as enemies mindlessly run away from you. Executing finishers—of which there are dozens of different gory animations—also seems random, as you have to “stun” enemies with no consistent way to do so.

Wanted: Dead often throws difficulty spikes at you to keep things interesting, but due to the jankiness inherent in the combat system, these mainly serve to frustrate rather than challenge. The game will throw an oppressive amount of enemies at you in some parts and it will be fine; in others, you cannot keep up with the dozens bearing down on you. Some of the more complex enemy varieties seem only “cheeseable” and don’t work in a way that feels fair or fun to contest. Resource management is added to some of these spikes, as you have limited resources (ammo, health packs and grenades) frequently replenished at a checkpoint. However, Wanted: Dead will occasionally double the typical length between checkpoints, which had me repeating identical sequences over and over until I had mastered them.

There are flashes of potential that could have elevated Wanted: Dead to be greater than the sum of its parts, but these are drowned out by its mission to be a throwback experience—jank included. While it achieves that vision through its combat and charmingly stupid dialogue, it doesn’t deliver in a way that will sit well with most modern players.

Wanted: Dead code provided for review.