Wanted Dead Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published February 14, 2023 · Updated February 8, 2023

Our Wanted Dead Review, shows us 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. 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.

Wanted Dead Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
25.87GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Seven save slots.
Two initial difficulties – normal and hard with an unlockable third difficulty Japanese hard.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Subtitles on/off and set the size to small or large.
In game cutscenes and fmv.
Has a deaf character who does sign language.
Optional and repeatable tutorial.
Slasher shooter gameplay.
The melee combat plays a lot like a Ninja Gaiden. (makes sense due to the devs involved but hey)
Shooting allows you to do range or use a pistol to stop enemy attacks.
The full combo system is in play.
You are part of a team and they will follow and fight alongside you.
3rd person perspective.
Customize your weapon attachments and Skins to change the stats of said weapons.
The skill tree is where you spend skill points on unlocking and improving abilities.
Cover-based shooting complete with blind fire.
Hidden Collectibles that grant skill points.
You can fully dismember enemies.
Game over allows you to start at the checkpoint, load the last save, or go to training.
Trigger finishing moves.
Many times you will trigger cool as fuck sequences like slow-mo kills.
You can get killed/downed once and then the next time it’s games over.
Ammo and guns will emit colors to help you see what they are and where they are.
Collectibles glow purple.
Gun drones are used as a shop in level and here you can equip and edit your weapons/loadout.
Elite soldiers.
Police HQ acts like a hub you can walk around, play mini-games and interact with characters.
Unlock and play mini-games like a shooting range and crane machine.
Earn skill points from the mini-games.
You can kick the crane machines to help but too much abuse and it errors out.
In your office, all the collected figures and items get put on display.
The shooting range has 3 modes – time attack, score attack, and practice. Each has its own local leaderboards.
Ramen eating mini-game is essentially a rhythm action game where you time your button presses to the music.
Blood splatters on characters will stay all level and show in cutscenes.

Wanted Dead Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
No graphics settings.
The shooting is really loose and takes some getting used to.
The controls in general have a bit of a learning curve.
The music and the way it’s integrated seem off with a lot of silence and inappropriate timing.
Checkpoints are far apart.
You are very weak and your health bar is rather small.
Only so many times you can hear someone shout “grenade”.
You don’t have a dedicated stick-to-wall button and instead, have to stand near the cover which is both a blessing and a Curse.
After a game is over you have to re-collect any collectibles.
Your Ai teammates kind of get in the way, run in circles and are generally a pain.
There is just so much silence in cutscenes and set pieces.
The voice acting sounds wooden with no real emotion.
When shooting from cover the aiming reticule can be a tad too quick and aggressive.
It doesn’t take long to forget about your skill points as you don’t really get reminders of them and they are very important.
Cannot customize picked-up guns.
Ridiculous difficulty spikes.
The music in the cutscenes is really loud and overpowers the speech.
Subtitles are not always correct.
Checkpoints are so far apart you replay a lot of the level.

Wanted Dead:

Official website.

Developer: SOLEIL

Publisher: 110 Industries

Store Links –

PlayStation

Summary

Wanted Dead is stylish as fuck, swords, ninjas and guns explode into an orgy of blood and aggression. The pedigree of the devs and their history means of course this plays like Ninja Gaiden with its speed and combos. It has so much going for it with gun customisation, hub worlds to explore, and play fun mini-games. Boss fights lifted straight from an action film, dismemberment of your enemies NEVER gets old and looks fantastic in a sadistic way. With all this is crushing to me that the game never sticks the landing. They have this ridiculous life limit where you get one revive, and a set of med kits. Death is quick and a game over boots you all the way back to the beginning of the level, you lose all unlocked skill tree entries, all gained weapons, and battle points. It’s a huge part as to why I gave up, I just got so frustrated, you die so easily, the Ai with you are shit, they take cover and do everything they can to be passive from hanging back or going full Stormtrooper aiming. Replaying levels over and over is demoralizing, especially as enemies can jump in on you from nowhere and kill you or stun you which leads to death. With a constant stream of enemies that clearly have issues staying still, you are always behind in the combat. Skill tree entries can take parts easier but it’s just not fun to stress out and go over and over. I feel like the next entry in this series will be amazing, the groundwork and idea are solid but the execution feels like everyone wanted their idea in the combat and progression and it all culminates into a messy stressful situation that I want no part of. Crazy people who find dark souls easy or can beat double dragon on one credit may be able to tolerate Wanted Dead. Everyone else will rage quit, it is just a question of when.