Wanted: Weapons of Fate, a new 3rd person shooter being released in 2009, represents Universal's first foray into the video game business. The game promises an exciting storyline that picks up where the film Wanted left off, with unique fighting moves that come straight from the movie and an advanced cover mechanic.
The game does some things very well. Wanted: Weapons of Fate has pretty graphics, easy to understand controls, and difficulty levels with great titles, ("Pussy" instead of "Beginner" was my favorite). It also extends the storyline of the film instead of just rehashing the movie, which is a plus. However outside of these things the game comes across as a bit bland and generic.
For example, the mechanism for taking cover is interesting and very well done, but maybe a little too easy to use. You can automatically move between cover points just by pushing a button and, in many cases, this makes it unlikely that you will be hit. Destructible cover might make the game more interesting as it would prevent players like me from just hiding behind a box forever until the perfect shot becomes available, or until an enemy wanders close enough to be stabbed.
Also, the unique fighting moves are definitely unique, but bland. At least from the demo, none of the skills appear to develop beyond what you get when you initially acquire them. You get three techniques based on combat styles from the film — the ability to bend the trajectory path of bullets to attack hidden enemies (curving bullets), the ability to slow time to attack multiple enemies more easily (assassin time), and the ability to fire many bullets at once which collide mid-air to destroy multiple enemies (bullet explosion). Of the three, the bullet bending is the technique that seems the most unique. It's also fun — finally a video game where YOUR character gets the impossible-to-beat fighting move instead of the bad guys! However, it's not enough to pull the game out of the generic category.
In fact, that's the overall problem with Wanted: Weapons of Fate. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's stuck in the game-with-a-lot-of-potential category. When you play it, it feels like you're working with the core of a game, and someone just needs to do a little bit more to make it exciting. And by 'do a little bit more' I mean add stuff like lots of destructible cover and unique layouts for the levels instead of standard, linear stuff you see in lots of 1st/3rd person shooter games. The preview didn't show anything like developing skills, different types of weapons and ammo, or power-ups, but hopefully the final version of the game will have a lot more to offer in those areas.
All that being said, Wanted: Weapons of Fate does have a few interesting features that are not immediately available in the game itself. There are hidden codes in the Blu-ray Hi-Def edition of the film Wanted that allow players of Wanted: Weapons of Fate to use super weapons, obtain unlimited adrenaline (you must have adrenaline in order to use the curving bullets skill), and even play as a different character.
The Blu-ray Hi-Def version of Wanted looks pretty cool. It is cross-marketed with the video game, and offers great bonus material (such as an alternate opening to Wanted) and a number of interactive features. The scene explorer lets you view the film from three different perspectives, which is nice. The picture in picture feature is also interesting -- you can watch interviews with the cast and crew AND watch the film at the same time.
BD-Live, offered with the Blu-ray edition of Wanted, has a similar issue to the video game: it fits the lot-of-potential category. Some of the features don't seem too exciting -- for example the My Chat feature. My Chat lets you text friends who also own Wanted on Blu-ray, while you watch it in sync with them. My issue with this offering is that if you are enough of a dork to text while watching a film (I am), then you're probably already texting on your computer (me!), or maybe your phone. However, some of the other communication options offered by BD-Live, for instance My Wanted Commentary, show huge potential. The idea with My Wanted Commentary is that you can send commentary on films and film clips to your friends (if they also own the Blu-ray Hi-Def edition). BD-Live will insert your remarks (if you choose to send video of yourself) in a window into the film or film clip. Receivers of your commentary can opt to run it alongside the movie, or remove it. It's like MST3K, but less work for you. You don't even have to go over to your friend's house to share your snarky and/or geeky remarks!
Even though Universal doesn't quite have it together in this round, they have a great start on some innovative ideas. I look forward to seeing what they'll do with video games in the future and how BD-Live will develop.
