Xbox 360 - Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate from Grin/Warner/Universal

Game Type: Third Person Shooter
Rated M for Violence, Language

I purchased this game hoping it would be a reasonable shooter. Unfortunately, this game is relatively one tracked, repetitive and hard to control. But, it does have a few redeeming merits.

Story

The story is simple. Your character's mother was killed by an assassin and this has forced your character to become a killer in retaliation. So, now the character is a trained killer. Unfortunately, most of this game feels like a rip-off from Harry Potter. It kind of reminds me of Harry Potter with guns. The character even looks a little like Harry Potter. From Warner Brothers, I can understand why they might want to recapture that success with that formula. So, enter this game: Wanted.

Gameplay

This is where the game fails to work. Basically, you traverse each level by hiding behind cover and killing everything that moves. In between each level, there's a cinematic that tries to tell the simplistic story and then takes you right back into another level where you end up hiding behind cover and shooting everything that moves. As the game progresses, it expands your abilities with the weapons. So, you get to do creative things like curving bullets.

The repetitive nature of the game is really disappointing. You end up doing the same thing over and over. You don't really accomplish much during the level and there's no side quests to speak of. So, it's all one-tracked.

There are also times where you enter into certain situations, like Sniper or Gattling Gun where you can't exit. You must complete this part of the game in order to move on. The problem is, it's difficult because there may be 20 enemies in the play field who all have perfect aim. Bad bad bad!

Controls

The cover hiding gimmick is just not enticing. It's far too sticky when it doesn't need to be and you pop out of the stickiness when you least want to. It's difficult to get the game to recognize the next piece of cover so you can move there when you need to. So, I wasn't impressed by this gimmick. Worse, between this and the curving bullets, these are the real gimmicks in this game. Creating gimmicky controls is not the answer to producing an enticing shooter.

Overall

This game isn't really worth the money, so I'd recommend renting. I felt that it was way too gimmicky, but not in the way that matters. The curving bullet cinematics are kind of cool, but that's not enough. The game is not really that compelling to play. The characters aren't built up enough to care and overall the story is weak and ripped off.

Score:

• Sound: 6/10 (average)
• Graphics: 8/10 (textures are done well enough)
• Gameplay: 6/10 (a bit too gimmicky)
• Story: 6/10 (too much like Harry Potter)
• Bugginess: 10/10 (no crashes yet)
  
• Controls: 7/10 (game relies too much on hiding behind cover)
• Bang-to-buck: 2/10 (not enough game)
• Play Value: $5 (rent it)
• Overall: 4/10 (needs a lot more work)

Xbox 360 - Quake Wars: Enemy Territory

Quake Wars: Enemy Territory by id

What's to say about this game? It's a straightforward level based shooter. It doesn't do anything special. Really!

Gameplay

There are two teams. The aliens and the soldiers. You are tasked to choose a class (type of soldier) to complete the campaign. You either win or lose.

Think of Quake Wars as a Capture The Flag style objective multiplayer gaming style. So, that means that you need to be the right class, then get to the objective spot to do whatever. So, you might be tasked to drive a vehicle to a specific location, place charges or hack something. In order to do this, you have to switch between classes.

On the other hand, the enemy doesn't seem to do that. All they do is run around trying to prevent you from that task. So, there's lots of dying.

The Good

If you like multi-player objective and team based play, you'll like Quake Wars. Other than that, there's not much else.

The Bad

Far too simplistic and too expensive for what it is. Each level has objectives, but your soldier character is constantly killed by the enemy. It takes too long waiting around for medics to fix you and even longer to respawn with a new wave of troops. The game's battling and running around is just like Wolfenstein (old school). The graphics aren't particularly spectacular and the movement is, again, old school.

When you win, all it does is say, GDF Wins. Not particularly thrilling. There's actually more hurrah when you lose than when you win.

Commentary

I was expecting more from this game. It's very simplistic in its design. It does what it does well, but still very simplistic. For me, this style of gaming has limited appeal and limited play value. This means that after a short while, I'll get bored and want to play something else. Note that I am not a big fan of multiplayer level based combat play. I'm just not up for running around on a play field hunted and killing. It's mindless gaming at its best... not my thing.

Score

• Sound: 8/10
  
• Graphics: 6/10 (way too old school and simplistic)
• Bugginess: ??/10 (N/A)
• Controls: 9/10 (control works well enough)
• Bang-To-Buck: 4/10 (limited replay value)
• Play Value: $15
• Overall: 5.5/10 (simplistic, not enough to it, limited play value)