by MattW - October 31, 2004

The hero of this story, Fenimore Filmore, rides into town to find that a rich bully named Starek plans on obtaining all the land in the area by any means necessary. Upon hearing the farmer's story, Fenimore decides he's going to take it upon himself to stop Starek by any means necessary. Wanted: A Wild Western Adventure puts you in control of Fenimore as you collect items, solve puzzles, and try to save town. Glitches aside, players who have enough patience to get through it will find Wanted to be an amusing, nostalgic title.

Pointin' and Clickin' at High Noon

The gameplay in Wanted is completely driven by the mouse. You can click spots on the ground to make Fenimore walk in a general direction, or click on an object to get him near it. Object interaction usually has 2 options, Look or Use, which are toggled by the left mouse button. This can sometimes be frustrating and you'll occasionally get close-ups on objects when trying to use them. A bigger concern is that the pointer doesn't always detect objects that you can use until you get a different view, which is frustrating and can also prevent you from finding things that are otherwise in plain view. The 3d landscapes are easy to navigate, and Fenimore rarely gets caught on objects. The only real problem with navigation is the camera - while it lends itself to a more cinematic feel by giving dramatic angles (especially outdoor environments), it jumps around and can make directing Fenimore rather difficult at times.

The game itself is fairly straightforward, never offering any puzzles which don't make sense, and most of the time speaking to NPC's will get you the information you need to progress further. This process can wear out one's patience, however, since the dialogue ranges from clever and cliche'd to repititous and just bad. Some characters will talk amongst themselves while you explore, but you'll quickly learn that they don't have more than 2 or 3 sets of dialogue to exchange and you'll reach for the volume controls even faster. Thankfully, that kind of thing doesn't happen very often.

The areas in the game, which include a town, Starek's Ranch, and a schoolhouse, are seperated by a map where you ride your horse between locations. Just click on the one you want to go to and you start riding. Easy, right? Well, it would be, except your horse gets hungry and needs to be fed carrots. Carrots are obtained by watering crops at different locations, or can be found or bought where they can't be grown. At first it seems like a one time thing, but you'll begin to need to travel a lot to talk to different characters as you learn new information, and you'll find yourself devoting 5 or 10 minutes to feeding your horse every 2 or 3 map visits, depending on how far you travel. This becomes tedious very quickly and could have easily been left out of the game without taking away from the overall experience.

The Name's Woody... I Mean, Fenimore

The promotionals for Wanted boast that the graphics match those of the best 3d cartoons and movies, and that statement isn't far from the truth. If you're familiar with Jimmy Nuetron or Toy Story, you'll know what to expect, although the level of detail isn't nearly as high. All of the character designs are vibrant and well animated with a few exceptions, with the animations often being one of the most comical elements of the game. Kids will especially love the visuals.

There's a Snake in My Boot!

The sound in Wanted will never catch your attention the way the visuals might, but it gets the job done. Music is very fitting to the old west theme, and changes with in-game situations to add to the cinematic feel that the camera tries to pull off. NPC's voices tend to fit the character, but some of them will drive you insane the moment you hear them. Add to that some repetitious dialogue and you get some moments in the game that you can't wait to get past. Characters rarely speak out of turn, though, so it's a mild complaint.

Lots, and I Mean Lots, of Items

Wanted has a very slow beginning, having you collect a ton of items long before you have a use for half of them. Those who are willing to stick it out will find that it picks up a little, but a point and click adventure game can only go so far. Older gamers who remember titles like the King's Quest series might appreciate the gameplay, as it is a little nostalgic, and younger gamers will probably enjoy the visuals enough to keep playing. Wanted's slow pacing might put some people to sleep, but that's the genre, not the game.

Nobody's Perfect...

This game could have gotten a higher score if it wasn't for all the glitches and bugs I encountered. Common tasks, like alt-tabbing back to the desktop, make the game crash, as does recieving messages from Windows or someone on an instant messaging program. Granted, you could just take the necessary actions to prevent those things from happening, but we shouldn't have to; stability issues such as those are more or less inexcusable. I wasn't able to finish playing the game because I exited a location, tried to go back in, but the black screen that greets you during the load time never went away. I made sure to save to an empty slot and restarted the game, but when I got back in I found it had overwritten my old save game instead. Wanted would also benefit greatly from a quick save option and some free look camera control.

Off Into the Sunset

Players with the patience to get through some of the slower parts of Wanted will find a decently entertaining title with some very humorous moments wrapped up in some nice visuals. Sometimes it feels like it's marketed towards younger gamers, but that doesn't detract from the gameplay. The glitches, however, do, and anyone who plays this game needs to make sure they save often.