“Learning to put a bullet between someone’s eyes is easy. Anyone can do it. The hard part is blowing their brains out without them even knowing you’re there.”

Like Mark Millar’s comic book and Timur Bekmambetov’s movie adaptation to which it serves as a sequel, Wanted: Weapons of Fate draws its charm primarily from its caustic humor and pedal-to-the-metal action. After a brief tutorial section, which introduces the player to familiar third-person shooter mechanics as well as the game’s mildly unique elements of curving bullets and slowing time, the game enters pure action mode as player-character Wesley Gibson seeks resolution on his tangled family history. A skeptical if efficient killer in the film, the video game Wesley has no qualms with leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Whether ducking between bits of cover and popping out for headshots, eviscerating enemies with a bowie knife, or mowing down ranks during rail-shooter sections, there’s little else to do but run and gun until the next cutscene arrives. This is also the case for the flashback segments in which players control Cross—a fellow assassin who was revealed to be Wesley’s father in the film. While the cover-based gunplay is moderately effective (outside of curving bullets from behind cover it’s quite clunky), the game endears itself to the player with exaggerated stylizations and Wesley’s foul-mouthed, fourth wall-breaking quips. Unfortunately, shortly after the player has settled into the low grade storyline and mastered the controls—and by that I mean about two hours into the game—it runs out of steam and then abruptly ends. It gets points for its pulpy mythos and puckish presentation, but in the end it feels pretty lightweight against other games in its genre. Short games can be great (Gunpoint, Braid), but where Wanted: Weapons of Fate might have been tweaked into a speedy high-score shooter à la The Club, it instead only aspires to be a competent extension of a decent comic book action film.