Publisher 110 Industries and developer Soleil announced the Wanted: Dead release date, with the hybrid slasher/shooter launching next year, February 14, 2023, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. This is a marked departure from its previously planned release window of Q4 2022 announced in June. To celebrate the full release date announcement, the publisher released an exclusive new trailer for Wanted: Dead, which you can check out below.
The new trailer features a weird mix of visuals, from the actual gameplay footage to anime cutscenes, and even (surprisingly enough) live-action segments. Soleil also shows some of the game’s more lighthearted aspects, as the footage highlights claw machines, karaoke, and more, aspects that are highly reminiscent of SEGA’s Yakuza series.
Wanted: Dead is a new, upcoming hybrid slasher/shooter action game developed by Soleil, the same studio behind Valkyrie Elysium, Ninja Gaiden, and Dead or Alive. It follows a week in the life of the elite Zombie Unit, a Hong Kong-based police squad on a mission to uncover a major corporate conspiracy. This alternate version of Hong Kong mixes future tech cyberpunk with low-tech 90s retro-futurism, a very interesting combination. You play as Lt. Hannah Stone, a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop as she and her squad plow through mercenaries, gang members, and dangerous private military contractors in this weird and spectacular cyberpunk adventure.
Wanted: Dead blends two gameplay aspects; Lt. Stone can use a wide variety of deadly melee moves with dozens of unique finishers to simulate hack and slash melee combat, and she can also wield many guns, from assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs, and grenade launchers for a third-person shooter experience. To cap it off, she can use over 50 unique finishing moves for a bloody and gory combat experience, as shown in the new trailer.
Soleil also describes this game as a “AAA love letter” to the sixth generation of consoles which most notably include the original Xbox and PlayStation 2. It will be interesting to see just how exactly that plays out, and players will have to wait until Valentine’s Day next year to finally see Wanted: Dead in action.
