Action movie junkies were greeted to a nice surprise last year with the movie Wanted. Incredible special effects layered onto an interesting storyline gave a new, refreshing action series. What came next was the obvious video game adaptation. Video games to movies often means complete disaster, mostly because the game is insanely rushed to meet the movie’s release. Wanted: Weapons of Fate however was an exception to this rule. The game was released months after the movie’s release and even after the Blu-ray release. Was it worth the wait?

Wanted: Weapons of Fate takes place after the end of the events of the movie. Without spoiling the movie, if you have not seen it, the main character Wesley goes on to learn more of the secrets of his past and take on some more assassins in Europe.  The game does a good job acclimating you with past events, but I recommend you watching the movie to have a real idea of what is happening, because often the game will assume you know who is who and why they are trying to kill each other. This is a third person shooter in every sense of the word. The weapons are not varied as you will use your pistol and machine pistols throughout the game with some Sniper levels sprinkled in to break up the monotony. The campaign consists of you playing through the levels, which are both repetitive in design and action. You go from point A to point B shooting enemies while in cover. That is the premise. It is fun because you can learn assassin powers along the way that increase your killing power. Nevertheless, it is repetitive. The controls are better than expected, but the aiming of the special bullet shots can be frustrating because you are aiming a parabola on a linear plane. In non-nerd talk, curving bullets is not natural so aiming is a pain in the ass.

My issues with the game is that it is short. Very short. 6 hours is a conservative estimate if you play on the normal setting or higher. With a game with basically a limited multiplayer, 6 hours is an issue. There are a few Easter eggs in the game, but very little reason to warrant a second play through outside of collecting concept art and things of that nature. The enemies are cookie cutter and will repeat ad nauseum. There are only a few different types and they will come at you for the duration. The boss fights are very easy and only require you to figure out when to use your powers and attack from there. You feel like you are fighting the same boss over and over.

Overall, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a fun game that fans of the movie need to play, especially if you really identified with the themes of the movie and its characters. Fans of third person shooters should also give this a try.  The graphics are better than decent, the voice acting is great, but outside of a few sniper levels, the game is the same from start to finish. This is a very good rental that you can beat through on a lazy Sunday, like I said, in about 6 hours. Give it a look. For video games based on movies, this is one of the better I have played in some time.