Wanted: Weapons of Fate Basics
Guns
Blind fire
While under cover, you can press the Fire button without pressing the Aim button to shoot blindly without exposing yourself. This has fairly limited usefulness as you'll seldom ever hit anything, but there are a few situations where it's beneficial. Blind fire allows you to suppress enemies, and the will remain focused on the source of blind fire. If you blind fire right before a Quick Move, you'll notice your movements take on a blurry Matrix-like effect and you'll be able to get around behind or to the side of your opponent without him noticing. This is especially useful for shielded enemies, but will also prove useful when trying to sneak up on enemies for a Close Combat attack.
Pistols will be you main implements of destruction throughout the course of this game. By now you should be familiar with your basic aim and shoot interface. When your gun is drawn, you'll get an aiming reticule to see where you're shooting, and if it turns red, you're hitting meat. Simple enough. Your range is limited. Sometimes you won't be able to hit enemies no matter how precise your aim, so don't get frustrated when this happens and just move up a bit.
There are two basic gun types in the game, but a few variations along the way, which don't greatly impact technique or strategy. Wesley primarily uses single guns, while Cross can dual-wield. Cross' guns allow him to effective rapid fire, and later on to use the Shrapnel Storm, but they eat ammunition quickly and don't pack as much damage per-hit. They are generally more effective for EQMs due to their high fire rate. In Acts 8 and 9, Wesley can choose between guns and he must balance the two types of ammunition.
Curved Bullets
Close Combat
While Wanted is all about guns, the Close Combat attacks are incredibly powerful and often underrated by players as an effective strategy. All you have to do is get inside an enemies personal space and a prompt will appear on-screen. Press the Close Combat button, and you'll get an instantaneous kill. If you approach an enemy from behind, you can also use them as a human shield, or tap the button again to slit their throats. Close Combat is key in any ambush situation when you're surprised by an enemy, and it's even effective against certain bosses, since it's always a one-hit kill.
This is the main gimmick that distinguishes Wanted from other stop-and-pop shooters. To use it, you must aim at an opponent, hold the curved bullet button (you'll lock on and the enemy will be highlighted), manipulate the trajectory until it has a clear path and it turns white, and then release the button to fire.
The advantages of curved bullets are various. It allows you to attack enemies who are hiding behind cover or around corners, and it's also a fairly powerful hit. It's also a lock-on move, which allows you to locate enemies who might be hiding. This lock on isn't completely automatic the way it is in the Grand Theft Auto games. You'll have to aim within a certain tolerance that varies depending on the difficulty setting you're playing on. On the lower two settings, this still gives you a good amount of give to be sloppy.
Periodically, you'll unleash a headshot with your curved bullet, and the camera will follow your projectile to your target for a one-hit kill. This is mostly random, but if you make high-arcing shots as opposed to horizontal paths, you'll be considerably more likely to land a head shot.
Later on, you'll earn the Shrapnel Storm, a move that can be performed with Cross' guns and releases a hail of bullets that converge and explode. This move eats up a lot of ammunition compared to the single-bullet attack, but it's almost always a one-hit kill, and one of the surest ways take down the bullet-dodging "Elite" units later in the game. Unfortunately, it eats up two Adrenaline units instead of one, so you can't rely on it too much. The up side is that headshots landed with this attack will earn you back the two Adrenalines you spent.
Cover and Quick Moves
Enhanced Quick-Moves
Beginning with Act 4, you'll be able to perform an "Enhanced" Quick-Move at the cost of two Adrenaline units. This is effectively a slow-motion/bullet-time gimmick that will allow you a few seconds to fire away at enemies with impunity. The length of this effect varies depending on the difficulty setting. This move is most useful later in the game when you'll encounter "Elite" units that dodge bullets, and it's also key in certain boss fights. Beyond that, it's most effective when overwhelmed, due to its high cost but flexible application.
If you've played Gears of War before, you should have a good feel for how cover works in Wanted. Tap the cover button to get behind just about anything and perch safely behind it. While under cover you'll have low visibility of the battlefield but be almost completely safe. You can push forward or left or right to peer around cover, but this will expose you somewhat. Drawing your weapon to fire will expose you further and allow you better visibility. Since Wanted's health system requires only that you not get hit for a few seconds to restore your health fully, cover allows you to recover from any injury. Staying hidden whenever the screen goes gray will allow you to avoid death in nearly all conflicts.
Maintaining cover while navigating the battlefield is a useful skill. You can strafe back and forth under cover for as much as room allows, and if there is another piece of cover to the side or up ahead, you can hold up or left or right and press the cover button to quickly shift to a new spot. This also works for diagonals You will be very difficult to hit while Quick-Moving so this is the safest way to move around. Unfortunately, you cannot Quick-Move backwards.
Turrets and Sniping
Bullet-time
These are littered about the game in place of the usual Quick Time Events. You'll go into slow-motion and have a couple seconds to shoot down one enemy (per slow-motion shot) and any bullets he might be sending your way. This is another part people sometimes mess up by habitually holding the Aim button. If you do this you will aim much slower than if you just aim and shoot without holding anything down. Bullet placement is random, so you can't memorize these parts. On Pussy and Assassin difficulty, bullets will be highlighted, but on The Killer you might have to strain a bit to make them out.
Throughout the game, you'll be forced into special sequences where you're pinned down in one spot and forced to use a mounted turret or a sniper rifle. The turret sequences seem to be a particular sticking point for a lot of players. This is because a lot of players develop a habit of holding down the Aim button when they play, and when using a turret, this leaves you exposed. Instead, just release the buttons to stay covered and recover health, and aim blind and then fire in bursts. Note that staying covered the whole time is not effective as your shield can take damage and eventually break off.
Sniping sequences are similar. They always take place from behind safe cover, but aiming the sniper rifle is a meticulous task and it can be difficult under fire. The key here is to develop your ability to eyeball your aim from behind cover so that when you press the Aim button, you'll already have approximated your target's location. In this way you can pop enemies and go back under cover without taking much damage.