So here’s the deal. You’re not one, but two bounty hunters. A prison ship has crash-landed on a planet that houses the research facility of a high-profile pharmaceutical company who hires you to go in, arrest all the fugitives, and protect their assets. On one side you have Neal Maddogg; master hunter and heavy weapons expert. On the other side you have Irina Zimoy; master of psychic abilities with the power to call down lightning. You use both of these craft masters at the same time to defeat enemies, solve scenarios, etc. Sounds good right? When I first heard of Wanted Corp I thought this could make for a great game. Sadly, I have to report to you that it did not live up to my expectations.
I first sensed I was in trouble from the moment the dialog of Maddogg and Irina started. While Irina’s voice was fine, Maddogg sounded like he belonged on the Disney Afternoon. But honestly, it didn’t even matter if I thought Irina’s voice was fine because the dialog was not. It was filled with bad jokes, snarky remarks that didn’t go over, and a sense of attitude that just wasn’t conveyed well. In fact, no emotion was conveyed well.
Even in moments where the duo was supposed to be surprised or tension was supposed to be high, the voice acting never brought that across. For example, when a giant appears Irina is meant to say,“Giant! Giant! Giant!” The problem is that she actually says it more like, “giant. giant. giant,” almost in a whisper. You hear a lot of repeating dialog as well which doesn’t help. Still, even with the poor voice acting, I had hope.
Both Maddogg and Irina have a vast arsenal of weapons and abilities. Maddogg has dual laser pistols, grenades, a rail gun, and a gun that shoots arrows short range in a spread formation. Irina has lightning, a ring that binds enemies, telekinetic abilities, and a shield. She can also make herself light up, but that’s a trick needed only a few times. All of Maddogg’s weapons have an alt-fire that will freeze an enemy instead of kill it so it can be captured, where Irina uses the psychic ring to hold her foes. Why capture instead of kill? Each enemy has a bounty, and you get quite a bit more credits for capturing an enemy alive. The catch with a bound enemy, though, is that if enough time passes they can break free; something that can really ruin your day if you’re not careful.
You need credits for several items. First, so that you can upgrade your weapons, abilities, and health. A second function is that if both of the bounty hunters go down, you can spend credits to revive them; but the cost is hefty. There are teleport stations around each level that allow you to bring back one of the hunters if the other is still alive. Switching between hunters is fast, and while in control of one you can efficiently command the other. You can have them keep their distance or stay close to you. You can also have them only use capture abilities, only attack when you’re in danger, or just eradicate everything they see. So far so good. All of the elements discussed so far made me feel like this could still be a good game.
There are several types of enemies across multiple environments. Throughout the game, from start to finish, you will be introduced to new enemies that bring different elements into combat scenarios. Some enemies may just try to melee you while others hold you down, shoot projectiles, electrocute you, etc. There are sub-bosses, which you will probably fight at least once each stage, and major bosses in some stages. So with a nice arsenal, unique game play mechanics, and varying enemies why didn’t I like the game? Here we go.
While there are many mechanics to this game that should have made it great, there are others that just weigh it down too much. I mentioned that there were various types of enemies to engage, but I had to wonder if the developer remembered that. Each area has a primary enemy that you see over and over and over again. In the jungle it was lizards, in the swamp there are EXTREMELY annoying swamp creatures, and in the lower levels some electrical spiders (also EXTREMELY annoying). They didn’t make the game challenging by mixing and matching various types of enemies for combat scenarios. It felt like they just threw a whole bunch of primary enemies on the screen, then sprinkled some of the others on.
The reason the swamp creatures and spiders were so annoying wasn’t just about the type of attack they did, but more about there being so many on the screen at one time doing the same move. Swamp creatures curl into a ball, spin, and then charge at you. Once they start spinning they are pretty much unstoppable. Yes, I can dodge the attack. But when I dodge the attack only to get hit by another one of the four or five swamp creatures doing the same exact move, it becomes annoying.
Enemy placement and combinations definitely need to be more thought out. For example, there is an enemy that will run up to you and jump on your back. The game managed to get three of these guys on the screen at the same time. One jumps on my back and proceeds to bludgeon me for a few seconds. The problem was that while he was doing that the other two formed a line and when I got the first one off, I was immediately attacked by the second, then the third. This continued for a few rounds as the ones that got knocked off would get back in line. The lack of creativity when it came to enemy combinations is something that made the game boring because it felt like you’re mostly fighting the same things over and over again. By the time you get to the third or fourth stage, you are looking at about 30 minutes of repetition. After getting about 15 minutes into a stage, I was definitely looking for the exit.
Angling is also another item that created frustration for me. For Irina it only affects the strength ring, but for Maddogg it affects all of his weapons. There are areas you come across that have a higher or lower elevation, and to hit enemies with projectile weapons you have to be at a certain distance. If you aren’t at the correct distance you’ll find yourself either firing above or hitting the ground below the enemy. There are several areas in Wanted Corp where it feels like there are endless enemies coming, so for you to miss shots because of an angle issue while other enemies are spawning and coming at you causes much frustration.
While there were various weapons to choose from, both the grenades and the rail gun were pretty much useless. The rail gun takes so long to charge and fire that most enemies will have attacked you by the time you get a shot off. The grenades really should have been a utility or second weapon where you can just fire them off quickly. As it stands now you have to switch to them, aim, fire, then wait for them to explode. No enemies in the game stay still for that long so if you throw it at a current enemy location, they won’t be there when it goes off.
The combination of boring combat scenarios and frustratingly cheap enemies really soured my experience with Wanted Corp. Adding to that, the friendly AI wasn’t the brightest. There were many times where it would get stuck or not help me when I was in trouble. I will admit that the game was a bit more tolerable when I played with a human player, but it wasn’t enough fun to play it over other co-op arcade games I have. The concepts found in Wanted Corp could have definitely been used to make this a very memorable game. Instead, they get drowned out by boring combat, frustrating scenarios, and terrible voice acting.
I would love for Zoo Entertainment to take another crack at this series and work out these issues. Until then however, I cannot recommend Wanted Corp to the Mash Nation.
