Men In Black: Most Wanted Review

Men In Black: Most Wanted, the latest pop culture IP to make its way to VR, mostly succeeds by remembering that a recognizable franchise means nothing without good gameplay to back it up. Read on for our full review.

In mid-November, Coatsink, best known for stealth thriller Jurassic World Aftermath, surprised VR players with the reveal of Men In Black: Most Wanted, a new title coming exclusively to Meta Quest today. This 1990s-based action-shooter has players donning the franchise’s famous suit and sunglasses for a mission-based campaign set in the titular world of extraterrestrial law enforcement. One could be forgiven for approaching this title with trepidation, given the short time between announcement and release, coupled with previous entries like Stranger Things and Attack on Titan being divisive at best.

You play as Agent I, who has been part of the organization for some time when the game begins. A brief VR tutorial teaches you how to walk, turn, run, and climb using your controllers. You also learn how to use telekinetic grab using your magnet gloves. After this, it’s right into the fire (literally) with a brief tutorial mission. Here, you wake up with no recollection of who you are and your partner, Agent L, quickly informs you that you have been neuralyzed, a franchise term for having your memories erased with a tool called a neuralyzer, and you’re under attack from aliens.

What follows is an exhilarating, albeit brief, chase sequence through back alleys that reinforces the artificial stick-based movement and culminates with a Gatling gun shootout against a wave of aliens. This whole sequence lasts just a couple of minutes and effectively sets the tone of the rest of the game.

From here, the game settles into a familiar loop of briefing, mission, debrief, and repeat. Between each mission, you spend time at the MiB headquarters, interacting with transient aliens and fellow agents. Players familiar with the franchise will find several hallmarks here, most notably the infamous worms hanging out in the kitchen and the armory. Your supervisor is Agent O, transplanted from the 2019 film, Men In Black: International. You’ll wield several items from the films as well. For anyone who is a fan of the franchise, the wish fulfillment factor is high, other than driving the car. You can also change the appearance and voice of your character via a terminal in your office.

Your partner, Agent L, has an injured shoulder and hangs back in the car, communicating with you via radio. Your loss of memory at the start of the game works as a serviceable B plot, while also allowing the character to unravel the game’s mysteries alongside the player. I found myself longing for a way to replay conversations. It’s quite easy to get distracted in early parts of missions when you’re trying to find your way and there is no option to revisit prior conversations to see what you overlooked. I found myself reloading my save a few times because I forgot what my partner told me I needed to do next, and the single-line objective that is always accessible does not paint a clear enough picture.

The ‘Most Wanted’ moniker in the game title refers to the murderer’s row of aliens each mission tasks you with tracking down. Several missions also end with a boss fight with the aforementioned Most Wanted, most of which require more than just a “shoot until they go down” tactic. This world isn’t just chock-full of aliens looking to kill you though. The game is based out of New York and hosts a colorful assortment of characters, human and alien, to interact with. The story itself is rather perfunctory and it’s really the voice performances, particularly all of the aliens, that keep the entertainment up when you’re not in shootouts. It’s not groundbreaking by any stretch, but the campaign stays entertaining throughout its six to eight hour runtime.

Several missions have you infiltrating various locations, talking to and sneaking around NPCs to gain access to hidden areas. If you are somewhere you should not be, a ‘trespassing’ warning flashes. Being caught doesn’t result in a game over and reset, though. Instead, you’re either attacked by aliens or you have to neuralyze the innocent humans that spotted you. Occasionally, you have to ‘interrogate’ an alien to get the information you need, which involves either destroying some of their possessions or slapping them around.

Once you make it past the opening location, stealth and investigation immediately give way to action, with shootouts against numerous aliens, most prominently a race called the Cylathians. There are about a half dozen different versions of these foes, all with different weapons and some requiring a specific takedown method. These aren’t your only enemies, but they comprise the bulk of your opposition.

Each mission also has a slew of hidden collectibles, including artifacts and comic books to display in your office, aliens disguised as coffee mugs that bolt if you come up on them too quickly, and discs that can be used to upgrade your weapons. After finishing a mission (and getting a rating), it becomes immediately replayable from the assignment screen, so completionists will be inclined to dive back in to get top marks and find all of the hidden goodies.

You start with a basic set of tools, a pistol with infinite ammo, a radar for scanning alien remnants, a healing spray, and the neuralyzer. As the game progresses, you’re summoned to the Armory between missions to acquire and learn to use new tools and weapons. As you acquire new tools, subsequent missions present obstacles and relatively mild puzzles those tools are required to solve.

There is some VR jank, particularly with opening and closing doors, and occasionally I would get stuck on an object and have to physically step aside to ‘free’ myself, but the overall experience is refreshingly bug free.

Visually, the game has the same cel-shaded art style as Jurassic World Aftermath. Aesthetically, it feels like being in a comic book which, given the original source material, is fitting. Anyone seeking a more realistic looking game is likely to be disappointed here. I should also point out that the settings offer sliders to change the brightness and contrast levels of the visuals. You will want to do this as missions alternate between night and day. There were points where I turned the brightness and contrast up during a nighttime mission, only to turn it back down when I got back to the notably bright MiB HQ. It’s a very welcome comfort setting, particularly on the Quest, which can sometimes struggle with darker scenes. It would be great to see more games offer such settings.

Finally, there’s the single and multiplayer Invasion mode that is essentially a wave based horde mode. I did not get a chance to try the Invasion mode with other players for purposes of this review while playing prior to release. You eliminate enemies in waves and earn points for each kill that can be cashed in during the 90-second break between waves for upgrades, perks, and heals. Occasionally, you have to stand within a specific zone to charge a device to clear a level. This is nothing revolutionary, but like the collectibles in the campaign, it gives anyone who enjoys the game a reason to keep firing it up.

Men In Black: Most Wanted Review – Final Verdict

Overall, Men In Black: Most Wanted is an enjoyable, if somewhat lightweight, action game. Nothing in this game reinvents the wheel, but it’s all executed very well, with smooth performance throughout and responsive controls. That’s enough for me to easily recommend it for fans of the MiB franchise and anyone looking for a solid action game to hop into.

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