Preview

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is an upcoming third person shooter from developer GRIN, and follows on directly after the events in last years film 'Wanted'.

The preview code available sampled the single player adventure in a near complete status, the game has no multiplayer mode. The game picks up from where the film ends, and over nine single-player or co-op stages, each of which can be played on one of three difficulties, with the easiest being titled "Pussy" and the hardest being "The Killer". Out of the nine stages we saw four being demoed. Two of the stages are "flashbacks" to events from the film.

Initial impressions are that the game is heavily Gears of War-inspired. The over-the-shoulder camera is present as well as a prominent cover system - almost everything in the game can be hidden behind as expected, and with the push of the A button your character can run for the next convenient cover, as indicated by a graphical display at the bottom of the screen of what direction you will run for cover to. Characters crouch behind low items and stand behind tall, automatically changing his height when walking between objects of varied height, such as an upturned car. Blind fire is an option to both you and the enemy who will also use cover and try to flank you - curiously there is a screen effect that occurs when all enemies are behind cover and cannot see you directly (edges of the screen turning white.)

The unique twist to this game is that the main characters have the ability to curve bullets (as they did in the film). By holding the RB button you have a white line directed from your player to a designated target, be they an enemy, a destructible item or even background scenery (when targeting an enemy they will appear red on the screen, or white if the line of fire is guaranteed to hit them.) Using either of the analogue sticks you may change the curvature on this line. Letting go of the RB button will shoot your weapon along this curve. With this you can easily direct your fire around obstacles or tackle enemy weak spots. When used on enemies it will sometimes launch into a mini-cutscene of the camera tracking the bullet(s) as they fly through the air and into the enemy, usually plunging straight down into an unfortunate gunman's skull. This is only usable whenever you have enough Adrenaline, which is represented as a spinning icon in the upper right hand corner. When you run out of Adrenaline (i.e. the icon loses its red pigment) you have to wait for it to build up before it can be used again. Also, certain enemies react differently to these bullets and need a little more cunning to take down - riot guards with bulletproof shields will angle their shield to intersect a Curved Bullet, leaving other body parts open to normal gunfire.

Among normal gunfire in open areas, you also have the option of attacking enemies with melee weapons in other context-sensitive cut scenes - one example is the player leaning over the cover with an enemy crouching behind it and stabbing the enemy in the head with a knife, along with typical gouging and neck-slicing when approaching guards out in the open. There are also various sections where the action will slow down and your character automatically parades around an arena taking enemies down over intense crossfire. The player is given key points during this action to quickly shoot down bullets, enemies, explosive gas canisters and other targets before the action resumes, although it is unclear what happens should you miss all targets. On top of all that there are also mounted gun turret sections where waves of enemies appear and open fire on you. Interestingly you still need to utilize the cover of the turret's bullet shields, which makes a difference from many similar scenarios in other games.

As in the film the main character is Wesley, son of infamous gunman The Killer, and you play him throughout the entire game - however you have the option of unlocking other characters to replay the game with, including some rather humorous characters from the film who shall not be named. While different characters do have different weapons and number of Adrenaline icons allowing for more Curved Bullets, they otherwise play similar (no difference in speed or health) and disappointingly do not appear in story-driven cut scenes. Maybe this will change before the game is released.

As a game tied to a movie license this currently hovers just above average. Some care was taken with the game play to make it a cut above a standard shooter and to use points of interest from the film. There's a lot of varied game play sections and the unlockable characters offer nice replay value. However the curved bullets could become a broken mechanic as you could very easily pick off enemies without having to bother about flanking them or other standard tactics - it will even target enemies that are otherwise completely invisible to you, giving their position away. This could make the game very easy unless they plan for more aggressive AI later in the game. Hopefully WB will be able to fine tune the bullet curving before release, in which case it could be quite good fun.Also, the player animation is iffy in spots where motion capture isn't used, though again this could also be improved before the game comes out.

Wanted: Weapons Of Fate is due for release at the end of March.