Accept Your Fate
What's this now? A licensed game that doesn't suck? Yep, Wanted: Weapons of Fate looks good enough to get excited about.
Published: February 9, 2009
To hear them tell it, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Swedish developer GRIN (yes, the same GRIN that kicked out the awesome Bionic Commando Rearmed last year and will be releasing the full-blown Bionic Commando reboot later this one) are trying to change the way people think about video games. They're already doing a hell of a job with the notion of how a licensed game is handled, opting to announce Wanted: Weapons of Fate not months before the film is released, but almost a week after it actually hit theatres.
The idea, of course, was that they wouldn't suffer the same fate as nearly every licensed game out there: rushed, buggy, vapid and all but worthless as anything resembling an actual game. Weapons of Fate doesn't mind using the license, though, as it picks up about five hours after the events of the big-screen flick and uses sound-alike (and reprised) voices and some rather impressively accurate likenesses from the movie too. It also manages to incorporate elements of the original comic book that spawned the movie in the first place, jumping back in the timeline well beyond the events of the movie and its lead character, Wesley, back to when his father was a member of the so-called Fraternities that adhered to the Loom of Fate.
If none of this makes any sense to you, go rent the movie (the Blu-ray version even has an exclusive alternate opening). We may not have felt all that great about dropping a full $10 on a ticket, but at about half that price, the movie makes a fine rental, and it'll help set up the events of the game far better than this little hands-on preview ever could. The idea, though, is that stuff just referenced in the movie will actually be explored here, and for those that saw the flick and read the comics, there are even more hidden references. All you really need to know is that Wesley (as he appears in the movie) is just a spineless office drone with a dad he's never really known suddenly dying and the events that follow completely change his life. He's accepted into the Fraternity, a collection of assassins (or super-villains in the comics), trained and taught that he has a power: he can curve a bullet like a spun pool ball. Also, Angelina Jolie's in the movie, and she's pretty hot, so again, check it out.
Without the pressure of a box office companion, GRIN could take their time getting Weapons of Fate right. Not "right for a licensed game" or "right for an action game" but just, well, right. We witnessed this first hand as we played through and watched a couple of levels play out before us, some of which were told as flashbacks to Wesley's dad, Sloan, and his earlier days. WBIE producers were quick to point out that, in a very real sense, the game explores the relationship between Wes and his mother in a way the movie really couldn't for time reasons (instead, it tried concentrated on Wes' father).
In a rather refreshing turn from most other licensed games, Wanted pulls heavily from the comics' tone in addition to the movie, lacing even the most basic menus with fun little barbs (the first level we saw was titled, "Shoot That Motherfucker!" and the three difficulty settings the game offers are Pussy, Assassin, and The Killer -- a nice little reference to the source material). The game embraces its M rating, and as a result, doesn't have to shy away from the occasional bit of rough dialogue and can revel in the violence the flick and comics -- right down to whatever lead character you happen to be using (the game will offer plenty of unlockable skins for some variety, though they'll all play the same) taking a knife to someone's crotch.
The idea, of course, was that they wouldn't suffer the same fate as nearly every licensed game out there: rushed, buggy, vapid and all but worthless as anything resembling an actual game. Weapons of Fate doesn't mind using the license, though, as it picks up about five hours after the events of the big-screen flick and uses sound-alike (and reprised) voices and some rather impressively accurate likenesses from the movie too. It also manages to incorporate elements of the original comic book that spawned the movie in the first place, jumping back in the timeline well beyond the events of the movie and its lead character, Wesley, back to when his father was a member of the so-called Fraternities that adhered to the Loom of Fate.
If none of this makes any sense to you, go rent the movie (the Blu-ray version even has an exclusive alternate opening). We may not have felt all that great about dropping a full $10 on a ticket, but at about half that price, the movie makes a fine rental, and it'll help set up the events of the game far better than this little hands-on preview ever could. The idea, though, is that stuff just referenced in the movie will actually be explored here, and for those that saw the flick and read the comics, there are even more hidden references. All you really need to know is that Wesley (as he appears in the movie) is just a spineless office drone with a dad he's never really known suddenly dying and the events that follow completely change his life. He's accepted into the Fraternity, a collection of assassins (or super-villains in the comics), trained and taught that he has a power: he can curve a bullet like a spun pool ball. Also, Angelina Jolie's in the movie, and she's pretty hot, so again, check it out.
Without the pressure of a box office companion, GRIN could take their time getting Weapons of Fate right. Not "right for a licensed game" or "right for an action game" but just, well, right. We witnessed this first hand as we played through and watched a couple of levels play out before us, some of which were told as flashbacks to Wesley's dad, Sloan, and his earlier days. WBIE producers were quick to point out that, in a very real sense, the game explores the relationship between Wes and his mother in a way the movie really couldn't for time reasons (instead, it tried concentrated on Wes' father).
In a rather refreshing turn from most other licensed games, Wanted pulls heavily from the comics' tone in addition to the movie, lacing even the most basic menus with fun little barbs (the first level we saw was titled, "Shoot That Motherfucker!" and the three difficulty settings the game offers are Pussy, Assassin, and The Killer -- a nice little reference to the source material). The game embraces its M rating, and as a result, doesn't have to shy away from the occasional bit of rough dialogue and can revel in the violence the flick and comics -- right down to whatever lead character you happen to be using (the game will offer plenty of unlockable skins for some variety, though they'll all play the same) taking a knife to someone's crotch.
