Ok, I didn't get a chance to play yesterday. But today, I played for a few hours. I read a number of reviews. Which like I figured, the game has mainly mixed reviews, with some positive and some negative, but mostly mixed.
Here is my thoughts and early impressions. This game is without a doubt, Devil's Third 2. It doesn't play like Ninja Gaiden, DMC, Bayonetta, etc. Doesn't play like Wet. Which I seen a number of people try to make comparisons to, before the game was released.
There's so many similarities to Devil's Third. From having similar mechanics, to the main protagonist being recruited from prison by the government, to having a similar storyline. It's like they took the Devil's Third formula and try to build on it. Which isn't saying much, because Devil's Third was a mediocre game with extremely poor performance. The game does feel way more polished than Devil's Third. But suffers from a similar game design. For whatever reason, the idea of Gun Kata combat (melee/3rd person shooter) sounds good on paper. But they just fail in the execution of getting the mechanics to flow naturally and perfectly.
The combat, as with Devil's Third, is very basic. It's not combo heavy. Which it was never meant to be. I could never understand why people expected these games to be like Ninja Gaiden or any other character action game for that reason. The melee combat is great, although limited. It feels satisfying. The 3rd person shooter elements, feels under developed, and useless at times. Like it's just there, for the sake of being there. There's a skill tree, that improves the variety of the overall combat. There's also a learning curve and requires some skill to perfect certain techniques. As you'll need them on certain enemies. The game can be challenging, but it's not overly difficult. At least, not in my opinion.
Visually, the graphics are good. But low budget. Think Suda 51 type budget. Lollipop Chainsaw, Shadows Of The Damned, No More Heroes, etc. So if any one expecting this AA game to have high-end AAA graphics, they will be greatly disappointed.
The music is good. It has some pretty good tracks. The voice acting, is your standard B-movie level quality. Overall it's ok. I've heard much worse before. The sound effects on the other hand, leaves much to be desired, as some of the gun sounds and explosions come off as weak and underwhelming.
There's mini games, that you can play at the headquarters and they are quite fun to play. There's anime and live action cut scenes, that blend in with the story. The game is very over the top and has a special charm to it. The main protagonist Hannah Stone is actually a likeable and interesting protagonist. Which is something that I find ironic. That Wanted Dead, has a more interesting main character and team mates over Devil's Third. But, Devil's Third have more interesting boss characters.
Depending on your gaming preference, you may or may not enjoy this game. I tend to enjoy the AA, more linear niche games. Even more so than the huge AAA open world games, that's filled with the same formulas of having different side content and objectives all over the map. Most recently, I just couldn't get into Hogwarts Legacy. Not my cup of tea. So far, I've been enjoying myself and having a lot of fun with Wanted Dead. It's far from having a modern game design. Definitely feels old school. Definitely feels low budget, as well. Once I finish the game, I'll actually be able to put a score to it.
