The trailer for Wanted: Dead during the IGN Expo 2022 livestream caught me by surprise. It did what any good trailer sets out to achieve: It got me immediately excited to not only see more, but to also get my hands on the game.
From developer Soleil and publisher 110 Industries, Wanted: Dead is a third-person action game with an emphasis on gun and katana combat. It focuses on the character Hannah Stone, a police officer in a cyberpunk, futuristic version of Hong Kong, battling all manner of gonks.
It’s hard to pin down everything Wanted: Dead throws at us in the trailer, but it seems like portions of the game will play out in an anime art style, possibly limited to cutscenes, while there is also some sort of a live-action commercial or infomercial that pops up at one point in the trailer. There is also a character that communicating via Sign Language, which isn’t something you see in games all that much.
Here’s a list of features pulled straight from the game’s Steam page:
- Hack-n-slash melee combat: Use a wide variety of deadly moves and dozens of unique finishers to slice and dice
- Third-person shooter: Battle indoors and outdoors using a curated selection of projectile weapons – assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs and grenade launchers
- Brutal finishers: over 80 unique finishing moves
- Cyberpunk: a crazy mix of advanced weaponry and lo-tech 90s retro futurism
- Gripping storyline: The Zombie unit uncovers a major corporate conspiracy in a dystopian version of Hong Kong
- Truly hardcore experience: the fights are not going to be easy, steel your resolve and use everything around you as you battle through hordes of mercenaries, synthetics and private security forces.
- Beat ’em up the old school way: Take down enemies to proceed further, revive the nostalgia in a modern twist on the established genre
- A AAA love letter to the sixth generation of consoles.
There is no firm release date, but Wanted: Dead is slated to launch at some point in the Q4 window of 2022 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. I can’t wait to go hands-on with this one, so you can bet your sweet bippy I will be watching close for when a more specific date is finally announced.
You can check out the story trailer for Wanted: Dead below.
