Wanted: A Wild Western Adventure

"A Good Adventure with a Decent Story and Memorable Characters."

Whenever I think about western-themed third person adventure games, Wanted! always springs to mind first. That might not seem like such a prestigious thing, but Wanted! is actually one of the best adventures to be released in the past year. It's charm, humor and colorful 1800's era Wild West setting create a very fun and lively place to have an adventure.

You play as Fenimore Fillmore, a cowboy who, along his travels, managed to wind up at the home of the Bannister family. Fenimore walks in on the Bannisters as an evil man and his henchmen are attempting to take over their farm, as well as the farms of everyone else in the immediate region. After scaring them off, you'll learn more about who this man is and why you should help out the Bannisters, as well as the rest of the town.

One of the most striking aspects of Wanted! are the graphics. The 3D, almost pastel look of the game is very easy on the eyes and a joy to wander through. Not many games get released that look like this, which really makes Wanted! a treat to play. The character models are all very detailed and you'll be hard up to find any character model clones. Still, with the graphics as nice as they are, you'll find that the camera sometimes makes moving around using the point-and-click interface a chore. Fenimore will occasionally do something or go somewhere that isn't quite the place you wanted. Still, you can't deny the fact that the game looks great.

Another thing that makes Wanted! great is the storyline. You'll be compelled to complete the game as the story progresses, yet it also manages to make you laugh with the sometimes ridiculous characters and their witty remarks to everything. The colorful characters that make up this nineteenth century frontier town also have decent voice actors who actually sound like they might have taken an acting class once or twice in their lives. This is definitely a nice change of pace considering the terrible voice acting that can be found in too many games. Also, the music fits perfectly with the time period the game tries to convey.

While the game is fun, there are certain aspects of the gameplay that could have easily been left out or terminated. One of these is raising carrots. The horse that you ride between areas requires carrots to keep going just like a car needs gas. And in order to get these carrots you either have to buy them (which isn't recommended considering the scarcity of dollars) or raise them yourself on one of two farms. To raise carrots you have to place water in a bucket, throw the water on the garden and wait for the carrots to grow. Wait... and wait.... and wait. The time you spend growing carrots feels almost as long as the actual gameplay you get to experience when you have a supply of them.

Another gameplay feature that I disliked greatly were a few of the almost mini-game like experiences thrown in. One, where you have to get a trout to jump into a basket, took me over an hour. I was ready to flip my computer desk over when I finally got the sucker to jump in. I wonder if any of the people at Revistronic realized just how agitating this task was?

While the game definitely has a few aspects that aren't exactly enjoyable, anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for adventure games will definitely want to give Wanted! a try. It's graphics, characters, storyline and music are all enough for any adventure fan to be won over.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/05