This game makes a horrible first impression which is why I think it's reviewed so negatively. Once you really understand how the melee and shooting mechanics intertwine and get some upgrades, the game is actually sick. Most of the complaints that people have towards the game are just flat out false once you understand how to play, like complaints of either the melee or guns being useless, or enemies being too tanky. It ends up playing like a bit of a watered down Ninja Gaiden 2, but switching between the gun and melee depending on the situation makes the game stay interesting. Getting rid of the skill tree would probably help as the first level feels really restrictive, and any negative reviewers should really have atleast experimented with guard canceling before writing the game off. That being said I do have a lot of small gripes with the game, mainly the overuse of slowmo effects during combat throwing off the timing of guard canceling, and the grenade spam with tinnitus sound effects can make the game an assault on the ears at times. I highly recommend turning the sound effects down by 50% as the music is great, but gets drowned out by constant explosions. The game feels like maybe there was another level or two left on the cutting floor which is a shame, as the final mission feels like it came pretty abruptly. I really wish there was a scoring system as well. There's a lot to say about other aspects of the game but regardless, I recommend it on sale to anyone who actually likes to understand action game systems instead of just complaining that it doesn't play like something else (Souls fans).

Wanted: Dead is actually an amazing game and everyone who hates this game is wrong and dumb and ugly and get no hoes, but I'm smart, and sexy and have so much money and everything I say is facts.

This game is unapologetically flawed and it understands that and uses it to improve itself. The writing can be so embarassingly bad at moments that it loops back around to being funny. The team is oddly charming and humanistic despite being war criminals with insane body counts. There's a deaf guy that everyone understands even when he doesn't sign, and everyone verbally talks to him and he just knows. People complain about the voice acting which doesn't make a lot of sense. Our main character is literally swiss, why would a swiss woman be speaking perfect english with no accent? I don't know if I have to explain this, but foreign people typically don't speak flawless english. Also, the loading screen is literally the supa hot fire meme and I cannot make this up. This game came out in 2023 and it was already dated the same year it came out. I won't say more, as to not spoil the fun shit this game does, but just know it gets better. The game is short, I beat it in about 5-6 hours. Full price is kinda crazy, but on sale for 11 bucks is definitely worth.

The gameplay is a mesh of action gameplay and a third person shooter. It is really satisfying plowing through hordes of enemies using both styles at the same time. People say this game is hard, my response is that you all suck, and for some reason, you will give other games more chances but not this one. Y'all will smash your face against the shittiest Elden Ring boss for hours on end, but god forbid you play this comparably easier game and beat it in the same time. Don't call me crazy now, but the gameplay of this game kinda reminds me of Hotline Miami. It's about minimizing damage and bulldozing rooms of guys using every tool at your disposal. You're really fragile and meant to not take many hits. The enemies you fight aren't really diverse, but there is many of them. Bosses go down fast, but can kill you fast too, sometimes in one hit.

I really don't understand the hatred this game gets. Just enjoy the game man, not everything has to be super artsy. Laugh at the incredibly dated loading screen, or the embarassingly bad dialouge. Embrace the weird oddities this game constantly throws at you, and give it a moment to get used to the controls. Gamers make me upset.

Probably one of the most soulful video games ever, I don't think I've been charmed by a game like this in ages. Wanted: Dead can go from being totally nuts with over the top, unbelievably satisfying action gameplay with gore and awesome body dismemberment to a cozy moment where the crew is sitting at their favorite diner just chilling and chatting to a shockingly hard rhythm minigame to an anime flashback cutscene without an explanation or a reason. Minor spoilers ahead

Now Wanted: Dead can feel a bit janky for a few reasons: no enemy lock-on, the camera has some collision issues, music with poor looping, tough gameplay on a mechanical level, a rushed final two chapters, and a story that's a bit confusing and obtuse, but I feel the love in it even in some of the bad. The lack of lock-on may seem odd at first but it makes sense with the way the levels are structured and designed makes it work. The camera may have some collision issues but tends to stay in a good spot and they've got some sick angles for the finishers (which are brutal and satisfying to do) plus it's really snappy when you're aiming your gun. The music may loop poorly at times but the OST slaps and is catchy and memorable. The game's tough but it's really rewarding once it clicks, with skills/abilities that synergize, a rallying health system like Bloodborne so aggression with your melee attacks is rewarded, personalization of your guns' stats, different partner combinations in the missions, and a good variety of tools for any situation (I think the sole skill I never made use of was the Charge Attack, and even still thinking back I could have effectively used it in several encounters)

I think the only things that I can't find much positive about are the lack of enemy variety and the final two chapters. While I think the core combat is really fun and satisfying and the overall combat encounters are well designed, there's a only like a dozen enemy types in the whole game (not counting bosses). They're all relatively simple and don't use much strategy to fight you. Melee enemies walk at you and attack with simple combos, gun enemies duck behind cover, ninja enemies slash at you and get distance after being hit to throw their kunai, big guys charge and shoot at you while throwing grenades. I think this isn't a major issue with the game since it's so short, but I still would have loved to see more enemy types in this cyberpunk world. The bosses are overall really solid though, they keep with the game's combat mantra of being punishing but you always have the tools to take care of them so none of them feel unfair

Now the final two levels, they're designed with way more enemies and combat encounters with less story to them and it's kind of obvious the budget was dwindling, leading to a clumsy rush to the end. The few present cutscenes feel very rigid and mechanical, the voice acting is generally somehow worse (with the third to last boss has some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard) and the second to last boss is just the very first one (but you fight two so it's somewhat different I guess). Even still, the game still wraps the plot up (unlike another charming, mis-maligned game D4) so there's still resolution for what main plot there is upon getting to the end. The story's definitely wishy-washy, the anime flashbacks can come out of nowhere, the final pre-credits cutscene comes out of nowhere, and there's rarely more than a sentence that explains what you'll be doing next, but I feel it's completely feasible to make all the connections required to understand what's being told

Besides the silly tone and the fun action, the minigames are another major strength to this game. I really like how they change the tone at the drop of the hat, plus they aren't just shoved in with barely any effort put into them. Target practice lets you feel how good the gunplay is on a precise level. Seeing all the various models in the crane game is really silly and it's nice to get new music for the jukebox or the noodles minigame. Karaoke, despite having a single song, has some great animation work, a high difficulty floor, and a very obvious joy put into it by the actors. The random history of noodles before the minigame had me cackling and they do a good job at adjusting it so it's different from karaoke in how it plays. The Space Harrier homage plays shockingly well and feels like it was made with a lot of care. They all feel completely random but I'm glad every single one of them is present

I think one of this game's strengths that I haven't seen talked about much is the game's ability to slow things down and show you the world. The character interactions and moments between chapters are bizarre, lengthy, and don't serve a major plot purpose and yet they stood out to me. Not for those reasons, but because they're very intimate and make the world feel more lived in. Games don't do this very often, even in ones with character-driven plots (which this one doesn't have, I couldn't even tell you what really drives the story). I feel like all of these nonsensical choices were incredibly deliberate and exactly what the developers and writers wanted even at the expense of other aspects of the game

Wanted: Dead is anything but boring. It feels like a lost PS3 game with an uncompromised vision and no corporate mismanagement. I can't say anything about the game at launch (I heard there were a ton of performance issues and people thought it was too hard) but I think the current post-patch reception is far too negative. This game is silly, extravagant, unrefined, satisfying, bizarre, and has no quality through-line and I absolutely adore it.

Com certeza um dos jogos já feitos.
Gameplay é boa, mas só se upar tudo no máximo.
A trilha sonora é boa, remete a um estilo vaporwave anos 80
História não é boa, é confusa e é de suma importância ler os coletáveis pra entender o mínimo.
O desempenho é ruim em alguns momentos.
Os gráficos são decentes, mas a modelagem de alguns personagens é estranha.
A dublagem é HORRIVEL, HORROROSA, ESQUISITA.
No fim de tudo o jogo é bem bacana se vocÇe encarar como um arcade, desliga o cérebro e vai matar inimigos.
Enfim até que me diverti bastante.

wanted: dead makes 'em like they used to. soleil was on some mandate of heaven shit here.

haters will talk about shallow combat, about only having three combos or whatever, but to find simplicity here is to be mechanically disengaged, forever scratching the surface. it’s a system that gives back only what you put in: you can have a bad time playing a cover shooter, a better time playing a crusty hack and slash, or fluidly mix your kit to become stronger than god. you think you've mastered it – no new tricks for this old dog – and then you figure out guard cancelling. the world shatters as you explore its synergies, and all those spongy freaks melt like butter. when it clicks, it clicks loud. just don't be lured into a power fantasy; you’re built like fine china. death comes quickly, and one overextension might end you. or a ninja just walks offscreen mid-engagement like joe fucking biden to go beat on your squad, only to rematerialise an inch from your rear and cut you down faster than you can say "lmao." stay sharp.

level design may confound at first glance – stages can feel neither here nor there while workshopping an ideal melee/gunplay balance – but love won’t always occur at first sight. i’m obsessed with these shiny corridor levels. i could run and slide through them for days, and i did. goons spill out of an offscreen clown car and into a hallway, ready to be liberated from their limbs. each fake door along the path holds an allure not felt since before i developed object permanence—i wanna poke around their nonexistent crannies so much it's unreal. maybe that's where these bozos live? who knows. hitting an even slightly open area finds you surrounded by more thirsty dudes than cloud strife at the honey bee inn, and they’re here to share a bloodbath. stages expand and contract yet remain full-to-bursting with thugs in all states, tense hallway rushdowns giving way to large-scale deleted john wick scenes. once it comes together, you understand that their geography creates a love language only weapons know how to speak.

even between massacres, soleil wrung so much juice from barely ripe fruit. i love everything about the station. that your hub area is a ratchet ass maze of an office makes no sense, until it suddenly makes perfect sense. i love playing the shitty crane game for an hour straight. i love how well realised the shmup is but i especially love that there’s only one karaoke song. i love this freewheeling, idiosyncratic indie film vibe voice acting as much as i love hearing my squad mate tell a literal mute not to make noise. i love these out-of-place-yet-perfectly-fitting covers of donna summer and divinyls and frickin’ KISS. i love the honesty of shoving glowing purple documents in my face. other games' in-world computers with their oh-so-special thematically consistent interfaces are cowering in fear; for all their flair they know they’ve got nothing but an email slapfight between derek chungus and hitler evilman. turns out the devil's greatest trick was putting a living, breathing world inside a five-hour action game.

i think i'm in love; it's all just so refreshing. don’t get sold on the undercooking allegations, they come straight from the mouth of Big Polish. this thing reeks of ambition and clear purpose, confident and confounding all at once. even at its most uneven and busted, it’s not that uneven and busted, and if we pine for games with rougher textures and jaggier edges, we must also be willing to accept that they'll bite back from time to time. for each swipe taken – an insubordinate camera here, some sawtooth pacing there – i never grit my teeth, i smiled and sliced some more freaks. i don’t wanna hear any “so bad it’s good” nonsense either, ‘cause wanted: dead is so pregnant with intentionality that it’s lactating. if you can’t engage with things on their terms, it’s probably not worth engaging at all. the insistence on featuring the maserati shamal – an utter flop of a car, performant as it is beautiful yet maligned upon its release – feels like a goddamn rosetta stone. this team know quality when they see it, they know what they’re doing.

that wanted: dead even exists, in this form and in this time, is truly wild. it’s a generous loyalty prize for Bullshit Lovers Anonymous members, equal parts fresh and hallucinatory relic. i hope soleil keep swinging this hard.

you know the saying: gotta make devil's fourth before you can make devil's fifth