How Wanted Weapons Of Fate May Change Shooters
Following up the big action film hit of last year titled Wanted, developer GRIN have worked hard to bring us a faithful videogame translation, called Wanted: Weapons Of Fate. While at first glance Weapons of Fate may appear to be your typical run-and-gun shooter, gamers have had many a good look at it over the course of it’s development, and I can tell you that this is no ordinary shooter.
Imagine the frantic pace of Unreal Tournament, meets Max Payne’s strategic movement and gunplay, meets Gears of War’s signature cover systems, and you have the game Wanted.
It’s comparable to Unreal Tournament because it’s fast. Players have to be constantly moving in order to stay ahead of dozens of enemies all trying to outflank and kill you at once. Perhaps “pure insanity” may have been a better description, but the fact is that, as many third-person shooters as there have been, none have truly captured the intensity of Unreal Tournament. Weapons Of Fate may be a first in that aspect.
It’s also comparable to Max Payne due to it’s gunplay. In the game you play as an assassin named Wesley, who has some seriously extraordinary abilities. His body can withstand the pressure of his heart beating at the speed of 400 BPM, meaning he can move extremely fast. So in the game, the faster you pick up your speed of movement, the slower your opponents will become until you are in complete control. Also, Wesley can maneuver his gun so that when he fires, the bullet bends, meaning you can shoot around corners and other objects. I’m pretty sure that that’s a first in gaming.
These two elements complement the Gears Of War-esque cover systems. It’s an auto-cover system, so that when Wesley gets near a wall of cover he automatically leans against it without slowing his movement. In each level there are dozens of objects of cover, some of which can be moved with you. It won’t be long before experienced players will be moving from cover to cover with extremely fast gestures, taking out all their enemies as they go. In one trailer of the game, it was showcased that you can approach a table, knock it over and duck so that it covers you, then move sideways rolling the table with you and firing over it.
If this game is as good as it looks, it’s almost guaranteed to make huge impact on the third-person shooter genre. These elements have just never been used together this way before, and if it sells well we may get a sequel, perhaps one featuring an online competitive multiplayer mode. That is, if the game is really as it looks. Anyhow, we’ll find out this March 24th, the date of Wanted: Weapons Of Fate’s release.
