Wanted: Dead Critic Reviews

A genuinely gleeful throw back to a time when gaming was jsut starting to bring the best of out the fifth and sixth generation console era. Wanted: Dead draws on eighties and nineties influences and dives head first into a riotous hack and slash that screams style.

Wanted: Dead has an anachronistic flair that I am incredibly fond of… So, if you don’t exactly hate that Wanted: Dead seems like a game wholly out of time, I wholeheartedly recommend Hannah Stone’s B-Movie shenanigans.

Like its inspirations, Wanted: Dead also gives you the entirety of itself as upfront as possible. It may require a certain amount of nostalgia for its predecessors to truly enjoy, but the package seems poised to stand well enough on its own for the audience and budget it is aiming for.

An engaging story about a group of dirty cops in cyberpunk Hong Kong, Wanted: Dead is a modest but highly enjoyable game dripping with the atmosphere of violent B movies and full of intense, memorable shootouts and swordfights. Be prepared to die often, because the game’s difficulty level is a throwback to the PS2 era.

Wanted: Dead has a very entertaining combat system based mainly on the use of white weapons, full of ultra-violence, blood, dismemberments, combos and particularly devastating final techniques, but it limps in everything else: the AI of our team and the enemies is not efficient, the minigames are sometimes a pretext to unlock some collectible, other times an interruption between one mission and another, and the story, however interesting to follow, continuously breaks the action. The final question is: is a triumph of blades enough to justify the purchase? Definitely yes, if you loved the slasher films of the early 2000s, otherwise you might find the offer a bit scarce.

Despite not living up to the character action games it clearly draws inspiration from, Wanted: Dead is a competent action game in its own right.

Evaluating Wanted: Dead means coming to terms with the past of the action genre. We repeat: we had a lot of fun during the most excited moments, fighting against some of the more particular bosses, or noticing the constant references to pop, cyberpunk and the history of video games from the 2000s. Unfortunately, however, the weight of technical inaccuracies and the The inconsistency of the plot, the slowness of the interludes between one explosion of violence and the next, are evidently out of tune and condition the charm of an experience which in any case is capable of entertaining the most irredeemable action fans.

Wanted: Dead is a great action game, it has flashy visuals, violent combat full of blood and dismemberment, and mostly it has a great interesting if unusual story, carried by interesting characters, external influences and sinister plot. The world is built in a cool, refreshing way and the moment-to-moment gameplay is engaging though sometimes simple. It promises something unique, and it delivers something not only unique but recommendable to fans of futuristic worlds and action games.

Wanted: Dead is certainly an experience. It's a weird game with occasional flashes of something great. It's difficult to recommend it solely based on that. It's disjointed, repetitive, and feels more like a collection of ideas stitched together into the rough shape of a game rather than anything cohesive. For a certain kind of gamer, this is going to be catnip, but for the average person, it's probably going to be too weird to work, and unfortunately, the gameplay isn't strong enough on its own merit to overcome that.

Wanted: Dead will make several admirers of old-time action-shooters happy, but it seems like a wasted opportunity and many gamers will find it frustrating and unrefined.

Wanted: Dead is evocative of a mid-tier 6th console generation hack & slash game in all the right ways, as well as all the wrong ones too.

Wanted: Dead starts off strong with plenty to learn and enjoy, but towards the end bogs itself down by trying to be difficult, forgoing what made it good to begin with.

Wanted: Dead is an intentionally messy throwback, one that some people are going to adore while others lament. All the AA jank of a PlayStation 3 action game wrapped up in a janky 2023 modern gaming bow.

Wanted: Dead has glimpses of greatness but is held back by mediocre systems and design choices that keep it from flourishing. Brief flashes of brilliance can’t help but be overshadowed by combat that feels repetitive, and voice actors that sound bored despite the surrounding chaos. Its difficulty, combat style, and visceral style will bring it some attention, but it more than likely won't be enough to keep most players enthralled for long.

Wanted: Dead is marred by issues in its gameplay, story, and characters, but most of all its main downside is its short length with credits rolling only after around 6-7 hours.

Nice try. Wanted: Dead disappoints in every aspect, and it’s heartbreaking. You can see there’s an amazing game right there. But the gameplay is not precise enough to be fun. The game doesn’t have the time to tell the story of its goofball characters: it’s so short you’ll feel it hasn’t really started when you’re done with it.

A trip back in time in both good and bad ways, Wanted: Dead is bad, but intentionally so. There is sure to be a crowd that will enjoy this PS2 throwback, but it won't hold the attention of modern gamers for long.

The fact that it successfully revives the 2000's style of games, along with their problems, doesn't mean it deserves any kind of a pass. Wanted: Dead is aimed at a strictly specific audience and no one else. It doesn't even have impressive graphics to grab the attention of the rest of us, and the voice over is mediocre and irritatingly repetitive. The fact that, price-wise at least, it's being marketed as an AAA title can only be described as another joke by its creators.

Violent, ridiculous, and occasionally fun, Wanted: Dead misses a lot of its marks but is still worth a look for the devoted.

Wanted: Dead is a bloodthirsty romp with challenging gameplay, but it feels unduly harsh, and more frustrating than fun. Accompanied by an inconsistent narrative, poor presentation, and repetitive boss battles, it results in a mediocre experience overall.