In turns great fun and frustratingly disappointing. Play the demo just to be sure.
Total score: 6 out of 10
Gameplay: 6 out of 10
Graphics: 6 out of 10
Replay Value: 7 out of 10
In this continuation of the Hollywood-Molestation of one of comics' greatest ever miniseries, you play as both Wesley Gibson and his father Cross, both in the employ of a Fraternity of Killers that "kill one to save a thousand". Which "one" that is, is determined by a Loom of Fate, which gives kill-orders in binary code. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds. Probably worse. But the story here isn't really the important part. Suffice to say that you will play background flashbacks as Wesley's father Cross, as well as continue the story from the (I'm refraining from an evaluation here) film as Wesley. In your first play-through, you'll also play through some minor tutorial levels every time you progress in the game and unlock a new ability. (Thankfully, these tutorials do not appear again in a second play-through).
Gameplay:
The gameplay is, you guessed it, inconsistent. Which will be the catch-phrase for this game: INCONSISTENT. It's a pretty standard 3rd-person shooter with cover system, a bloody close-combat "system" (run up to someone, press a button: dead) and a few quirks and perks, one of them being Wesley's and Cross' special abilities. Special abilities can give you an edge in combat, but using them costs adrenaline points, which you can fill up by killing enemies. As soon as you get access to the first special ability (bullet curving) you'll also get your first adrenaline point to fill up. As you progress through the game you will get more abilities as well as more adrenaline points to use.
Bullet curving is fun. No doubt about it. Once you get the ability and grow accustomed to the controls, you'll look to bend as many bullets as you can. Bullet curving does cost you one adrenaline point, but for each enemy you kill, you get one back. Meaning if you use one AP to kill, it fills right back up. Which is actually pretty nice.
The second ability, "Enhanced Quick Movements", is a bullet-time like option in which you can move from cover to cover with time slowing down and your fire rate going up. It's fun to use, but I rarely found myself in a situation where I would use this instead of bullet curving, especially since it costs two adrenaline points and doesn't last long (which all changes once you apply some cheats, but more on that later).
Later in the game you'll get access to Cross' double Uzis, which come with their own abilities: bullet curving will now cost two APs but create a shrapnel explosion that kills several enemies.
The second main feature is the cover system ("Main" because you'll be spending 90% of the game in or moving to cover).
The cover system works up to a point, that point being you wanting to move differently as the pre-scripted "Quick Cover"-paths allow you to do. For those not familiar with the demo, WWOF employs a Gears of War like cover system with a few enhancements, namely the ability to move to a different cover nearby, whether it's left, right or in front of you. If a "move to cover" path is displayed you do a nifty move to cover the distance without exposing yourself too much. Once in cover, you can peek out, aim and shoot or blind fire. Blind fire can be used to suppress enemies, which gives you a speed boost when moving in cover and from cover to cover to help with flanking maneuvers (which you will be forced to do when your enemies have a riot shield to hide behind). This so called "Cover-Chain" mode is useful to quickly cover some distance and better position, but is offset by the tantalizing slow movement of the character behind cover. So while you may jump from one cover to the next in a fraction of a second, moving in cover just takes way too much time and leaving the cover breaks the "Cover-Chain". As I said, the cover works fine until you don't want to go where the arrow is pointing. Sometimes you can't move through a door unless you leave your cover and just walk through it. Also, you have to face the cover you want to move to, which is very annoying when you find yourself taking fire from behind. If there are several covers in range, it's sometimes hard to really go where you want to go, but it works well enough most of the time.
One thing that really annoyed me, however, was when the wacky camera angle when popping out of cover stops you from shooting at an enemy you should be able to shoot at. Even though your guns are clear of the obstruction, your cross-hairs are blocked by it and you do not register hits, even if your bullets actually go past said obstruction and should hit the target. There are several of these instances, which in my opinion is just pretty much inexcusable. The only really new thing about the cover, was the fact, that when you're in cover and close enough to an enemy (say, you're on one side of a box, he's on the other), you can do a melee kill around the cover. Which is nice, bloody fun.
Sprinkled throughout the game are also some turret-scenes, some sniping and the Assassin-Time events, which are pre-scripted scenes in which you don't move but only shoot at enemies and/or their bullets. I am assuming that it was bullets I was shooting at, but it really wasn't clear. The events are a nice little change of pace, but generally you'll be wishing for them to be over or that you could've played through the settings yourself normally (one of the parts seen in the demo I was having the most hopes for, the vertical airliner, is such an event, and it cheated me out of climbing from aisle to aisle like I so much wanted to). On the Hard difficulty these tend to be some of the most frantic and exciting parts of the game, if only because you have to do start over if you make a single mistake.
All the while, in between chapters, you'll learn some of the story in cut-scenes, which are sometimes pre-rendered, but mostly in the in-game shabby graphics. Some of them might also seem a little disjointed, as if part of it was missing - which might be due to the annoying order of cut-scenes and constant loading screens; but as I said, this game is not about the story.
Graphics:
The graphics, well, they are... inconsistent. Depending on the lighting in the level, graphics vary from good to "WTF, did my HD just go off or something?!". Pixelated lines, rough textures, even some artefacting can be seen, along with minor frame rate problems. Some of the pre-rendered cut scenes look actually pretty good, but what you've seen in the demo is pretty much what you get. Which I think is pretty embarrassing, considering what can be done with the 360.
Replay Value:
Once you've finished the game on the normal difficulty, the hard difficulty will be unlocked, so you can do it again. Which you could, since it really doesn't take that long, even if you do not retain your weapons, APs or skills. Also, the game gives you some more skins to play with, but unfortunately these do not alter game play in any way, except for those strange moments were you change back to the main characters in every cut-scene.There are also some minor collectibles to be found which unlock concept art, comic book covers and so on. But honestly, why bother? Why? Here's why : There are 13 8-digit binary codes hidden in the game and on the Wanted DVD which give you access to tweaks like "unlimited adrenaline" (01101101 if I remember correctly, which is the binary code for the letter "m" - the codes are case sensitive, "M" has a different code - and also appears on the collectible poster of "Arana"), "Super Weapons", "Invulnerability", new Player skins etc. Activated, these give the game a whole new level of fun. With unlimited special abilities and really cool weapons, you can actually feel like the super-assassin you're cracked up to be right from the start. I found myself enjoying the game the most, playing with unlimited AP and the Super Weapons in the Hard difficulty with the cinematic mode (every time you kill an enemy with bullet curving you get a nice little cutscene, not just every once in a while) on. However, activating the in-game gameplay enhancements deactivates the achievements and stops you from picking up in-game collectibles.
Point of interest here, if you activate one of these enhancements just once your current game from this point on is spoiled - meaning no achievements any more, no matter if you deactivate the cheat or load a checkpoint from before you activated it. The only way out is to start a completely new game. So if you want your achievements, do not activate any cheats until you're done with the game.
(Cheats: All 13 binary codes are 8-digit codes that form Letters from the Roman Alphabet. The Letters that activate the codes are: C , D , L , O , T , W , a , e , g , m , o , r , t - So, if you want them, you just have to look them up ;) )
Total Score: 6 out of 10 -- why?
The judgment on the full game will be as differing as the opinions on the demo have been, but in the end, here's what I think counts:
The game is a decent shooter, but lacks consistency. Controls can be buggy, sometimes even frustrating, but if you don't expect too much, you'll have fun, especially when you get the hang of your special abilities. The Real Fun starts when you unlock some of the "gameplay enhancements".
The game suffers from substandard graphics and presentation. The intro and the main menu are, graphically speaking, the highlights.
The game is too easy. Normal difficulty wasn't difficult at all, with the "Assassin Time"-Events the most challenging. Hard difficulty seems to be the way for a decent challenge, but the ATEs can be frustrating.
The game is too short. It's nine chapters, about 20-45 min each, which brings it to a full length of about 4, maybe five hours.
For everyone even mildly intrigued I recommend playing the demo. If you like that and you're not above using a little "Gameplay Enhancement" you'll enjoy the full game for quite some time.