Wanted: Dead review: The most batshit game of 2023

late December, Wanted: Dead A 90-second trailer has been released on YouTube. It is, without exaggeration, a masterpiece of video game maximalism.

As if they’re packing all their Christmas presents into one stocking, the devs have made the most of their little running time with animated cutscenes, live-action cooking shows, and rhythm-based ramen sipping. , a retro-inspired arcade shooter, spliced ​​karaoke. , crane games, and sword fighting and “gun fu”

All trailers sell pitch. As far as I can tell, the pitch here is:What if I played all the video games at once? Well I’ve played about half now Wanted: Deadand I’m both happy and horrified to say that it’s exactly what the trailer promised.

Wanted: Dead is the debut game from developer Soleil and publisher 110 Industries, which includes veterans from the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. You play the role of Hannah Stone. Hannah Stone is a ready-to-play killer with a knack for carving humans with the grace and efficiency of a master sushi chef.

Stone’s penchant for amputating human limbs is interesting for one reason. Stone is a lieutenant for ‘riot response’ for the Hong Kong Police. So why is it that only she and her crew (called her unit of zombies) carry such deadly weapons?

The story of Stone and her team opens with a subdued (almost lethargic) Tarantino-style diner scene. (The game shares Tarantino’s obsession with Pop’s cultural history, especially the history of cinema.) reservoir dog, group chat. and chat. and chat.The longer the scene drags on, the more time I need to notice how off It all feels: Why do these Hong Kong officials all have European accents? Why does Stone’s performance feel lifted from an entirely different game? Probably a Neil Breen movieWhat’s going on with the extended Hideo Kojima-style montage that hints at a global corporate conspiracy and why doesn’t the team talk about it? or?

But just as I settled into the trance of this Jarmski film— trembling — Your phone rings. A professional criminal has taken over an office complex that happens to be a few blocks away. At this point, I don’t think any of my questions matter, because the game finally drops me into Stone’s sneakers, allowing me to annihilate bad guys with swords and machine guns.

But wait, OK, I’m sorry, I know you’re crazy about riddles, but which weapon should I use, a sword or a gun? Pushing in, implicitly suggesting it approaches a level similar to Gears of War and many other cover-based shooters. So, naturally, I charge with my sword, take immediate gunfire, rush to slice-and-dice and take damage when trying to dodge, and usually survive.

I finally found the rhythm. The trick is not to be the perfect assassin. Being covered in a vague mixture of your own and your enemies’ blood doesn’t stop you from moving forward. I have. big level. lots of enemies. repetitive combat. Limited save points and old fashioned health packs. Chopping up enemies earns you XP, which you can use to unlock more powerful moves and weapons. rinse. repeat.

Image: Soleil/110 Industries via Polygon

The 110 Industries website explains: Wanted: Dead As a “love letter to the 6th generation of video game consoles,” including the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox.And if that’s what the devs are trying to achieve, they’ve nailed it – frankly, too good. I unlocked almost a third Wanted: DeadSteam achievements), I go through environments that look new and old at the same time.

Let’s clarify the contradiction. On the one hand, the game makes heavy use of modern hardware, and the graphics are, at first glance, reminiscent of modern day big-budget action games. Still, something is clearly off. The world is a series of giant corridors and cavernous offices. A strange jumble of museum spaces and industrial weapons design labs and other sets that can be pulled out of a video game grab bag.

That’s the problem: the environment looks like a video game level, but it looks like it was pulled straight out 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Earth Defense Force, Matt Hazard. These spaces mirror reality like funhouse mirrors, scaled out to be bigger, more contorted, and more comically scaled out.

That first level lasted so long that on several occasions I wondered if it made up the whole game. Except there was a trailer that reminded us of what was to come: anime, mini-games, live-action cooking shows, and more. I got a grace period and returned to the police headquarters.And like that high-pitched voice trembling As soon as I hung up, I was immediately plunged into a strange world of delightfully non-sexual.

Image: Soleil/110 Industries via Polygon

I was fascinated by the sheer audacity of the creative choices contained in Police Headquarters. why? for whom?

what do i tell youAs for the architecture of the building that looks like a dollhouse, is it 3 sizes too big for a doll? Is it a sipping rhythm game? How are the loading screens between minigames recreated? this reaction gif Starring Hannah and Zombie Unit? Or the only song playing at headquarters is “i touch myself“? Why was a flashback scene from Hannah’s life in the early 2000s animated in anime style? What happened to Hannah Stone? of genuine article four track album Seemingly “Produce” Wanted: DeadWhat is Dower Industries, a mysterious company with an experimental music department?

The closest cultural comparison I can gather Wanted: Dead is a 1960s French New Wave in which a band of critics-turned-filmmakers were intent on destroying cinema in order to make it something new. Traditional structure, framing, camerawork, and all other rules of filmmaking were questioned, blended, or abandoned altogether.

Wanted: Dead Definitely breaking things. Less obvious is intentionality.

Image: Soleil/110 Industries via Polygon

At this point, it probably doesn’t need to be said, but: Wanted: Dead is one of the messiest, most confusing and most out of sync games I’ve ever played. But I can’t say it’s bad. Or I hated my time with its many strange twists and turns.

There is a branch of critical theory that holds that art must be faced on its own terms. That is, review the medium and consider what the creators wanted to do, not what you want.and damn you do Wanted: Dead Benefit from such generous reading. This is the game promised in the trailer. Too many ideas packed into too small a box. In the same way that Cinéfan loved his classic B movies, where big ideas collide with even bigger limitations, there’s something deeply admirable about the audacity of this ridiculous video game.

Put another way, this game falls short of everything, but mostly because it tries to do it all. It’s an anime, it’s a cooking show, family guy– Windy Pop Culture References – Palooza, Acerbic Criticism of the Military-Industrial Complex, Graveyard of Memes, An ode to Tarantino, An ode to Suda51, An ode to Bad Taste.

I don’t recommend playing this video game, but I wouldn’t recommend looking away. And here I am done. All I really know for sure is this: Thankfully you don’t have to assign scores.

Wanted: Dead is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. This game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by 110 Industries. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.