Soleil has released a launch trailer for Wanted: Dead. The third-person action game from the developers of Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 4, and Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, Wanted: Dead is set to have players hacking and slashing through countless enemies as well as performing stylish take down attacks.
First announced in 2021, Wanted: Dead looks to bring the challenging yet flowing and satisfying combat style of Ninja Gaiden to a near-future cyberpunk setting. Soleil has experience with this kind of satisfying combat as founding member, Yoshifuru Okamoto, has worked on Ninja Gaiden and the studio has since released titles such as Ninjala. While Ninjala did quite well, it always had to compete with the likes of Splatoon, which with the continued support of Nintendo, as seen in events like the Splatoon 3 chocolate splatfest, and a longer history in the gaming world, is somewhat of a juggernaut to face. Wanted: Dead, however, carves out its own niche and is designed by some of the minds that pioneered the high-octane hack and slash gameplay.
Just ahead of its Valentine's Day launch, Soleil has released the Wanted: Dead launch trailer, which details more of the game’s narrative in cutscenes, gameplay, and voice over. Previously fans had been shown deep-dives on upcoming gameplay mechanics, such as the finishers in Wanted: Dead, but this trailer offers more of a general introduction to the whole experience. Leaning on some over the top action movie cliches and extreme violence, the trailer displays a gory world with distinct characters fit for an older audience.
Despite the gratuitous violence and explicit language, there is a chance for Wanted: Dead to pose some philosophical questions in the same vein as Blade Runner; Hannah Stone is faced with taking down “synthetics” and is seen at one point in the trailer asking one of them if they feel pain. If Wanted: Dead does explore this route, it will be a difficult balance, as very few games manage to delve into the realm of philosophy successfully, especially when posed next to such extreme violence. The juxtaposition can work, however, so if the manic fights against various enemies and bosses does come paired with a deeper look into humanity, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Wanted: Dead will also be the first title released by Soleil Game Studios since it was bought by Tencent in 2021. Tencent has bought many studios, or at least has a large share in quite a few of them. Despite any concerns of a big company erasing the core characteristics of smaller studios, there has not been any notable change in studios such as Riot and From Software.
Wanted: Dead releases on February 14 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
