Summary
Men in Black: Most Wanted is a faithful but modest adaptation that prioritizes accessibility and franchise flavor over mechanical depth. Its core gameplay is built around simple shooting, gadget use, and linear level progression, making it easy to jump into but rarely demanding. The game’s biggest strength lies in how well it captures the tone of the animated series, from its alien designs and humor to its overall presentation.
However, the simplicity that makes the game approachable also limits its longevity. Enemy variety is thin, challenge remains fairly low throughout, and missions follow a predictable structure that leaves little room for experimentation or mastery. Players looking for complex combat systems or layered progression will likely find the experience shallow.
Developer – Coatsink
Publisher – Sony Pictures Virtual Reality
Platforms – Meta Quest (Reviewed)
Review copy given by Publisher
Men in Black: Most Wanted delivers a straightforward, action-driven experience that captures the humor and style of the animated show. You play as an agent in the 1990s, and the Cylathians have infiltrated every part of the city. You, your partner, and Agent L must combat this new threat by facing dangerous aliens on the planet. The mixture of investigation, infiltration, and occasional alien takedown unveils the strengths and the limitations of the game’s pacing. I feel that the game may feel shallow for players who prefer deeper stealth, richer investigation, or more challenging gameplay.
You’re playing as an agent of the MIB, and you have lost your memory. Together with your partner, who has broken her arm, so it’s just you in the field as she guides you via voice chat. I get the immersive experience while hunting down the galaxy’s most wanted and dangerous criminals. You get two game modes: normal story mode and survival, where you have to survive as long as you can against enemies, but you’re given different things to do each wave.
There’s a great chase sequence testing your knowledge of the game’s movement speed, culminating with a shootout with the Silathians using the Gatling Gun. You can interact with other agents and the aliens wandering about in the Black HQ. I feel that the worms and use of a neuralyzer are just a couple of the wish-fulfillment moments this game provides.
The game offers an armory, where you can train with and upgrade weapons and tools. You start the game with a few items like a scanner, a neutralizer, and a pistol with infinite ammo. You can collect different items while completing the missions. You can replay the missions to gain all the items. Dive into the invasion mode, where you and your friends fight against the devastating aliens.
Get away from the suspicious eyes and deep dive into any of the facilities while exploring the environment. Find the clues related to alien activity or the solution to complete the puzzles. You will end up in an alien world where you’re taking out aliens after completing the puzzles. Bring your left hand to your temple to pull up your mission status. Use your wristwatch to pull out and store your equipment. The game actually lets me go through the whole experience of a MIB agent and allows me to investigate for the clues.
You earn additional tools that can be handy in the next missions. I also have the ability that allows me to move metal objects around. There’s not a great deal of interaction in the environments. You can pretty much just touch what you’re expected to.
Once you’re in the middle of the investigation and not sure where to go next, that limited interaction is very helpful. Any item you can operate with your gravity gloves will be outlined in yellow if your hand swipes across it. This actually helped me get from point A to point B several times when I got stuck. Every enemy you kill earns you credits to then buy new weapons or upgrade your guns’ health, ammo capacity, and ammo damage. However, you can only do this between waves.
For me, the game feels a lot like Jurassic World, Aftermath, and Retronica. There are eight levels to work your way through, and each level is medium to large in size. They are filled with lots and lots of details. On average, each level will take around 15 minutes to complete.
Within each level, there are a few collectibles and things to find, such as mode discs, magazines, and mugs. Your Partner, Agent L, routinely communicates with you on a call, skipping you on the right path. In my playthrough, I had to reload my save because I straight-up forgot what my partner or an NPC said.
I really like the gadget that it throws and lets me teleport it where I have thrown it. The game allows you to equip one mod at a time on each weapon. Puzzles in this game are pretty easy to solve, as most of them include door codes or sending your robot spider through a vent to open up a door. One puzzle also requires you to hack a terminal to take control of the gun turrets. I also like the customization options that allow me to customize my character’s hairstyle, face shape, skin tone, eye color, hair color, and voice between male and female.
There were some audio issues when I finished a mission and moved back to the base; there was constant, like white noise, going on. This makes me quit the game and restart to make it go away. I really don’t like how the guns are placed on your holsters. The one on the right is simple enough, but the one on the left can be a little bit tricky as it’s a little closer to your body. The only thing that caught me out of the weapon; when you mod it, you have to hold the A button to arm that mod.
The music and sound effects feel ripped straight from the films. From a performance standpoint, I didn’t have any real issues in my run. The frame rate would hitch a bit on the scene load, but that’s fairly common in VR these days. I had no game-breaking bugs, zero crashes, and the only real issue was that I got stuck against an object.
In a time when a lot of games have been released and still need more development time, this was a pretty smooth experience. Man in Black uses artificial stick-based movement with no alternative teleport option. If you’re new to VR, the settings do offer several options to help keep you comfortable.
Snap and smooth turning have multiple speed options. The game also offers brightness and contrast sliders, giving you a smooth experience on the Quest. Men in Back: Most Wanted doesn’t reinvent the wheel at all, but it offers a very well-executed action game.
