Publisher 110 Industries and developer Soleil have announced Wanted: Dead, a high-octane third-person action game in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. It will launch in 2022.
Wanted: Dead promises “spectacular melee combat and exciting gunplay,” and is set in a “dark and dangerous version of science-fiction Hong Kong where you will need sharpened skills to survive.”
The game’s key staff includes:
- Director: Hiroaki Matsui (Ninja Gaiden series director)
- Producer: Yoshifuru Okamoto (producer of Ninja Gaiden II and Devil’s Third)
- Lead Designer: Natsuki Tsurugai
- Composer: Dasha Rush
Matsui and Tsurugai shared the following comments during the 110 Industries Tokyo Game Show 2021 Online Showcase:
Hiroaki Matsui, Director
“[The protagonist is] a strong woman with a large build. But just because she’s powerful doesn’t mean she gets to be happy ever after. Much like she would in real life, she has her own problems. She’s supposed to be an ordinary human, but she winds up with a dangerous set of skills. Those talents wind up throwing her in life-or-death missions.
“Obviously, that comes with its own type of hardship. And she isn’t just running around going ‘Oh God! I’m so scared!’ She just takes it all head on. At least on the surface, she doesn’t appear emotional as she takes on her challenges. I think that gives our heroine a somewhat hardboiled appeal. That’s her character. I think the fact that she’s both strong and beautiful is appealing. But at the same time, she’s very human. She hides that humanity within herself. She’s filled with that hardboiled attitude I previously mentioned, where she barely lets her humanity show. She’s a very cool character, I think. I think that’s appealing.
“Of course, since I’ve been making action games for a while, I have lots of parts I’d be picky about. Especially in action parts themselves. I’ve been doing cutscenes and story scenes in games like that for a long while. So I wanted to get the storytelling in this one JUST right.”
Natsuki Tsurugai, Lead Designer
“We’re trying for a very hardcore game too, very different from Japanese clients. Most Japanese publishers are headed down a path where they want a lot of casual games. But 110 Industries was straightforward from the get-go and said they wanted a hardcore game. They were very passionate about it. And since we’d been making difficult action games for a long time… we were able to settle on things very easily.
“We both wanted to make a hardcore game. It felt like we had very similar wishes. It felt like we were able to figure out what sort of hardcore game we wanted to make, and that for all the big policies, we were all on the same page. Since the scenario and IP are all original work, they’ve got all this passion for what they’re doing. We can’t really interfere with that. But we really want to take the charm that their ideas have, and their passion.
“And since we’re making a hardcore game, we don’t have to worry too much about definitions. With a Japanese publisher, we’d have screen reader support enabled to figure out what exactly ‘casual’ means for a specific game. And it’s difficult. With a hardcore game, we don’t have to do that. And it’s been really easy so far.”
Watch the teaser trailer and “Vivienne’s Late Night Chow” below.