What you need to know
- Wanted: Dead was developed by Soleil Ltd and published by 110 Industries, and released in 2023 to a cult following who found it charming despite instability issues.
- One particularly stubborn achievement, titled 'Severance Pays' was so difficult to unlock that players could not legitimately complete the achievements for the game.
- A new update for Wanted: Dead will go live on Xbox on January 25 at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET, adding stability fixes, adjustments for the Severance Pays achievement to make it easier, and more.
Wanted: Dead players on Xbox, rejoice! The hack-and-slash title from Soleil and 110 Industries is slated to get a much-needed update on January 25 at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET. The patch is intended to improve the game's stability, lessen the number of crashes, and ease the struggles of those who want to acquire the 'Severance Pays' achievement on Xbox.
There's no denying that 2023 was a wild year for gaming, with massive titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Hi-fi Rush dominating the news cycles. It was also a banner year for gaming disasters, with releases like Lord of the Rings: Gollum and Skull Island: Rise of Kong still fresh in player's minds. Somewhere between the genuinely bad releases and the massive AAAs grabbing everybody's attention, there are the quirky, the unusual, and the experimental AA games that just want you to have a good time. Wanted: Dead falls into that category.
The game garnered a cult following after its release for its outrageous story and cyberpunk-themed aesthetic, with brutal hack-and-slash gore. Despite complaints of instability and game crashes, especially during the advanced levels of Wanted: Dead's ramen mini-game, Wanted: Dead still won its way into people's hearts with sheer charm. While the game garnered goodwill with plenty of players, it also developed a reputation for being one of the hardest games ever to complete among achievement hunters.
Wanted: Dead features an achievement titled "Severance Pays" that requires the player to see all the possible Finishing Strikes featured in the game. Several months after Wanted: Dead's release, the game has yet to be completed by any tracked players on the achievement tracking site TrueAchievements. This was due in part to the sheer number of finishing strikes included in the game and the fact that they were not cumulative across multiple play-throughs, which were required to accomplish other achievements.
With the upcoming patch on January 25, the achievements for Wanted: Dead will receive a much-needed adjustment. Players can now unlock "Severance Pays" through progress across multiple saves and play-throughs, no longer requiring all finishing strikes to be witnessed in one shot. The number of finishers has also been reduced, as chainsaw finishers and some available wall finishers have been removed from the requirement. The developers have also adjusted the chances of seeing previously unseen finishers, making it more likely that the game will activate the finishers you are missing.
The "Severance Pays" achievement fix is not the only improvement players can look forward to with the impending update. 110 Industries patch notes also include stability fixes game-wide, along with a fix for an issue where players would experience crashes during the aforementioned Ramen minigame and stability issues caused by picking up or dropping the game's chainsaw. Players can also look forward to collision adjustments, and an issue where certain cutscenes would pause at the start has also been fixed.
110 Industries has also shared that additional bug fixes are in the pipeline, with the next patch for Wanted: Dead expected in February. That patch will add FSR support on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles and make changes to FSR and DLSS implementation for PC players on Steam. A new checkpoint during the Dauer HQ Ninja fight will also be coming to all platforms in February's patch.
