Episode 187 - Only Rock and Paper - Wanted: Dead

What this episode covers

I’m a gourmet. Place your bet and let the Wheel of Fortune make a choice for you. We’re back with our last fan suggested game this year, Wanted: Dead! This game surely is something. Mechanically, it’s probably best described as a throwback third person action game, having a focus on melee combat in addition to gunplay. The two seldom overlap or string together in a meaningful way, however and the whole process just feels a little clunkier than it probably should. Combine that with enemies who take far longer to take down than they should and spawn near constantly and the combat in this game can be kind of a slog. And it’s not like the levels are full of other interesting things to do to make up for it, either. The game is still kind of great though, despite being a mess. Because where the sloppiness and weird juxtapositions hurt the game mechanically, they make the narrative elements of the game a real marvel. With scene transitions that contrast heavily in mood and tone, sometimes abruptly cutting into minigames without any relevant context, you are being taken for an unpredictable ride. The dialogue only occasionally drives the story and the game’s levels have objectives that are wholly different from one another. I realize that this isn’t “selling it” to a lot of people, but I think if you have an appreciation for the strange it might be worth at least looking into this game. We’re going to be talking about the odd intentionality of the choices in the game, where the lack of cohesive design helps versus hurts the game, and we realize that this falls into a category of game we didn’t think about: Classic Katana Games. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game I was aware of and wanted to at least try out, so I jumped on the suggestion when it was made. It really is baffling to go through, so just know that it isn’t going to make a ton of sense if you decide to try it out. Did you hear about this game and were intrigued? Did you not hear anything about this game, particularly anything good, and so ignored it for a year? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be looking at Immortality, which probably couldn’t be further from the Wanted: Dead experience, so we hope you’ll join us for that and not suffer a grievous neck injury from the tonal whiplash.

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