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Wanted: Dead

A cult classic love letter to PS2 era action from ex–Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive devs. Slice and shoot your way through a neon Hong Kong conspiracy as the Zombie Unit featuring brutal combat, over-the-top gore, and a ramen break between the carnage. Proudly not for everyone.

Developer
Release
February 14, 2023
3 years and 260 days ago
Steam Reviews
Mixed2,166 reviews65.1%
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Game contextLatest: IGF Team
ContextThe evidence factors used to assess whether this game belongs on IndieGame.Fan.Status
Notes
Latest Contributor: IGF TeamEdit notes
Updated: Jul 10, 2026Developer scaleThe operating scale of the game's developer.
Soleil is owned by Tencent through Wake Up Interactive.
Updated: Aug 13, 2026Publisher scaleThe operating scale of the game's publisher.
Viv's Final Day Off Ltd has a material publishing relationship with this game.
Search Google: Is Wanted: Dead self-published or published by Viv's Final Day Off Ltd?Publisher statusHow the game's publishing relationship is classified.
Updated: Aug 13, 2026FundingThe known source of funding behind the game.
The game received corporate-funded support.
Search Google: Who controls the creative direction and IP for Wanted: Dead and Soleil Ltd.?Creative controlWho appears to retain creative control of the game.
Updated: Aug 13, 2026Release statusWhether and how the game has been released.
The game released with a separate publishing relationship.

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About the Game

A cult classic that knows exactly what it is.

Wanted: Dead is a hybrid slasher-shooter made by veterans of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. It's a hard, weird, good-looking action game with a devoted following and no interest in being for everyone. Sorry! It plays like a lost PS2 disc someone finally decided to finish and features razor-sharp swordplay and third-person gunfire wrapped in neon, grime, and buckets of blood.

Combat with teeth.

Chain melee and gunplay into brutal combos. You will parry, dismember, and end fights with over-the-top executions. You can also slow the chaos to a crawl in bullet time and then punish everyone on screen. The fights are demanding, occasionally unfair, and completely unique. This is combat craft for people who miss when action games actually fought back.

A week in the life of the Zombie Unit.

Play Lt. Hannah Stone leading an elite Hong Kong police squad through a neon rich corporate conspiracy. Enjoy a story-rich campaign that lurches without warning from grim ultraviolence into something even stranger.

Gloriously, unapologetically weird.

This is a game where you finish a savage boss fight and then sit down to a lovingly rendered ramen-eating minigame, or karaoke, or an arcade cabinet. It's scrappy, pulpy, self-aware, and cool in a way polished AAA can’t fake.

Rough around the edges. On purpose.

Wanted: Dead is niche, distinctive, and proud of its jank. If you grew up on Deadly Premonition, Vanquish, and Lollipop Chainsaw and you've been missing games with this much attitude: welcome home.

Niche, distinctive, and proud of its jank. If you grew up on Deadly Premonition, Vanquish, and Lollipop Chainsaw and you’ve missed games with a lot of attitude: welcome home! 

Key Features.

  • Melee that means it: A deep hack-and-slash system with a huge move set and finishers built to slice, dice, and dismember.

  • Guns in the same breath: Flow straight from the blade into a handpicked arsenal of assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs, and grenade launchers. Melee and gunplay are one nasty rhythm.

  • 50+ brutal finishers: Over fifty unique execution moves, each more grotesque than the last. Deeply unnecessary and yet absolutely the point.

  • Neon and grime: A cyberpunk Hong Kong where high-tech hardware collides with retro '90s futurism.

  • A story that swerves: Ride with the Zombie Unit as they pull apart a massive corporate conspiracy in a dystopian Hong Kong. Linear, story-rich, and prone to going somewhere strange.

  • Genuinely hardcore: These fights will not be kind to you. Steel up and use everything around you to cut through hordes of mercenaries, synthetics, and private security who very much want you dead.

  • Old-school beat 'em up, modern edge: Wade in, take everything down, keep moving. It's the beat 'em up you grew up on dragged into the present with more blood and better toys.

  • A love letter to the sixth console generation: Made for anyone who still misses the PS2 era when action games were weird, scrappy, and cool.

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