Men in Black: Most Wanted Review

Men in Black’s world of government conspiracy, aliens living amongst us and fun, often silly tech has always been an enticing world. Does Men in Black: Most Wanted do enough to get you to want to don the shades and suit in VR?

The game opens with you, as Agent I, an established agent suffering from memory loss in an alley. A chase sequence ensues with you trying to escape from aliens called the Cylathians. This ultimately ends with your partner, Agent L, turning up at the last second, giving you a Gatling gun to turn the chase on its head. She informs you that you’ve been neuralyzed, and while they help you figure out what’s going on to keep it quiet from the boss, a returning Agent O.

You then get taken to the HQ, and whilst it tries to channel the reveal in the first movie, it can’t quite match that spectacle. As the hub area for the game, it’s obviously smaller, but it also feels a little lifeless. Whilst you do get to see the popular Worms in the break room like in the movies and other media, there is perhaps less fan service than you’d expect. It’s a little barren, though it does get more populated as you progress.

Fortunately, after the slight disappointment of the hub, following a debrief and an explanation about the shape-shifting Cylathian threat and the fact that the MiB has a mole (again!), the first level thankfully got me excited again. You arrive at a dingy hotel armed with the series’ staple Neuralyzer (a device Agents use to wipe civilians’ memories), your magnet gloves (to pull or repel metal objects), an energy pistol, and the Omniscanner.

The Most Wanted of the game's title are aliens behaving badly, smuggling items, operating logistics around the broader plot. Each mission has you seeking out the alien via a two-stage process: a stealthy investigation, followed by a combat encounter. The scenarios are a lot more involved than that. But broadly, that’s how they are split.

The first target, Wren, has holed themselves up in a hotel. After a little bit of snooping, where you have to make sure civilians don’t see you in places you shouldn’t be,you’ll find a door with some kind of lock tied to Wren’s biology, so you have to hunt down fingerprints using your scanner. The scanner has a wonderfully tactile feel, as to change to tracking mode, you pull up a little antenna. Once through the door, however, the action changes from investigation to combat.

Initially, the game introduces you to the stealth aspects, you can sneak up on the aliens and pull these ridiculous emergency escape handles on their suits that make them blip out of existence, which never fails to make me smile. They generally will also have a weak spot to take them down in one shot. You can also just go in guns blazing, but most encounters are designed so you can at least thin out the encounter with stealth if you think a little.

The guns are fun too: the energy pistol you start with has infinite ammo, but you do need to reload; this is done with the usual “lower to the hip to refill” and then flick the gun to close the chamber. Which is just tactile enough that it can cause panic in a shootout!

As you navigate your way through Wren’s “lair”, you’ll solve small environmental puzzles and take on a bunch of grunts before coming to Wren themselves. Interestingly, not all missions end with a pure combat encounter; some have you intimidate them, like Wren here, by slapping them or making a mess of their beautiful plants.

Once you return to MiB HQ, Wren will now be loitering. This is the basic setup for all the missions in the game, and some of the puzzles along, with associated environmental activities, are very fun to figure out. The game does have objectives that update on your watch, but it doesn’t hold your hand with specific solutions. The second mission, for example, which is set in a shipping port, expects you to solve a code on a post-it note. Whilst it’s not super complex, until you have that “Aha, it’s those!” moment, you can wander around a little trying to figure it out.

The guns and gadgets are an interesting selection, from the Omniscanner and Neuralyzer to the super useful Scoutbug, a remote-controlled bug that can leap to other surfaces as well as short out electrical devices. There are a lot of things to play with. It does a good job of capturing the feel of the IP.

Visually, the game is quite striking; it goes for a cel-shaded comic book style, which, given the IP’s origins, is a cool nod. Lots of simple colours and thick outlines. Similar to the style Coatsink (the game’s developer) used in their Jurassic Park Aftermath release. It works really well here and my only real issue is that the colour schemes are often a little more drab than you’d expect. But it does look nice.

There is also another game mode that you can play solo or in multiplayer called Invasion; this takes the form of a wave-based horde scenario where you earn points for kills, then spend those points on upgrades and installation points around the map. I didn’t get to play this with others, but it feels fun enough. As an extra, it’s a nice thing to bring you back after you’ve completed the story.

Overall, it’s a solid game; if you are a fan, you’ll get a lot out of it, but even if not, it’s just a well-made, enjoyable time. It has clear visuals, great voice acting, an interesting story and is just really engaging when using the guns and gadgets. It’s classic Men in Black: weird, slick, and just plain fun.