‘Wanted: Dead’ is the Closest Thing You’ll Get to a True John Wick Game

If you’ve been craving some PS2-era action, without all the frills, convoluted menus, and superfluous trimmings which can plague games these days, Wanted: Dead is the scratch that’ll satisfy your itch — but be warned, it comes with a punishing price.

And that price is in the form of a learning curve that essentially asks you to master an admittedly tricky combat system (despite it appearing simple), along with some perseverance for when you inevitably die. However, this should actually come as no surprise, given that the cyberpunk Hong Kong-inspired action shooter/slasher comes from the minds behind the beloved yet brutal Ninja Gaiden series.

Much like its spiritual predecessor, Wanted: Dead makes you feel like a one-man (or in this case, woman) army, playing as loose-cannon police officer Hannah Stone, but you’ll have to work for that moniker. The game is a straightforward, fast, visceral shooter/slasher hybrid, where you’ll be alternating between your sword and firearms to wipe out everything that moves in relatively linear levels. The trick is, however, that enemies don’t hold back, and even the normal footsoldiers will need to be watched closely and approached cleverly. Running in guns blazing and sword-swingin’ is only going to send you to the Game Over screen.

That’s because the game wants you to feel like John Wick with a clever combat system that utilises guns and blades in tandem. Gunshots and sword slashes can be linked together in combos, but it’s the parrying system that makes Wanted: Dead‘s combat what it is.

Normal attacks can be blocked, but this leaves you open to a follow-up attack. So, it’s best to parry them with a tightly-timed button press. Of course, it’ll never be that simple in a game like this, and most enemies have a heavy attack (signified by a red shimmer) that can’t be blocked and must be dodged. However, you can use a swift shot of your pistol to break the attack and open up those enemies for a counter. This quick decision to block, parry, dodge, or shoot plays out like a dance and requires you to be very observant, develop your muscle memory, and make very speedy decisions in combat.

Once you get a hang of the ‘basic’ combat (and we use that term lightly), you’ll need to use finishing moves to regenerate health, and kill enemies in infinitely awesome ways that, to be fair, never get old. If an enemy is staggered enough or has lost limbs, you’re able to trigger an execution move, which ranges from long-range headshots and throws to acrobatic samurai slices and limb dismemberment. Chaining these together with the aforementioned parrying system will make you feel like an absolute badass when timed right, and getting you into that groove is the key to success in Wanted: Dead.

Of course, the game is not without its faults. The game features a very stylish 90s-2000s aesthetic that’ll hark back to games on the PS2 generation, but that period’s notoriously iffy camera has come along with it. Many labyrinthine areas will have the camera putting you into a corner, not knowing what you’re slashing at, which can be frustrating and lead to unfair deaths. On top of that, the story has some interesting elements, but some of the voice acting does seem quite shlocky and can’t be taken seriously. Perhaps this was intentional, but some of the delivery feels incredibly unenthusiastic and lacks the tongue-in-cheek punch that other odes to the genre have done.

With that said,Wanted: Dead is a fantastic throwback to the era of shoot-’em-ups like Dead to Rights, while also appeasing those Ninja Gaiden masochists. The nostalgia does come with the cost of some clunky camera angles and movement mechanics, but for a game so confident in what it wants to be, along with a tricky but satisfying combat system, Wanted: Dead delivers an enjoyable experience that should at least be tried by those with a slight interest.

Wanted: Dead is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.