Wanted

You'd be forgiven if you mistook GRIN's adaptation of comic book/Hollywood hit "Wanted" for Dark Sector. It's a good-looking game that's filled with a fair share of hard-hitting, flinch-worthy violence. It's got specialized one-hit, one-kill projectiles that have a stylized "killcam" to accompany the attacks. It's got attitude in spades. And that's coming from someone who hasn't seen the film. In conjunction with the movie's home video release, we got a chance to try out three brief levels from Wanted: Weapons of Fate at an event yesterday. We doubt it'll be a perfect game, but the snippets we played seem to form a fairly mindless, if not spectacular, shooter. Not too different, we imagine, from its Hollywood source material.

The three levels showcased different environments and effects. Each was rather short and seemed designed to show different elements of the game. Wanted's difficulty levels seem designed to cajole the player into playing tougher levels, as the easiest bar of entry is called "Pussy," and medium is "Assassin." I'd like to admit that I picked "Assassin" mainly because I default to medium difficulty when I play, but I'm sure no one would believe me. In any case, "Assassin" didn't seem to mean that I was the assassin. "Assassinated" would have been a more apt description, as Wanted is hard. Almost too hard, in fact.