WET

It’s hard to talk about WET without talking about Max Payne, Devil May Cry, Stranglehold, or a half-dozen other action shooters for that matter, simply because it borrows so heavily from it’s predecessors in the genre.

As WET’s heroine, Rubi Malone (voiced by Dollhouse‘s Eliza Dushku), you’ll find yourself shooting and slicing through endless waves of fodder in the name of vengeance. What could make Rubi so angry, you ask? Oh well being set-up and nearly killed by her former boss, of course. Sound familiar? It should, seeing that it also describes Kill Bill. In fact, when you play WET, you may  be inclined to assume that Artificial Mind and Movement’s planning meetings for the game simply consisted of them watching Tarantino’s entire filmography,. The music, the action, the supporting characters, and of course the star herself - they’re all very reminiscent of the famed director’s work.

WET’s combat system centers around Rubi’s proficiency with dual-wielded firearms, a single katana, and various acrobatic maneuvers. Rubi can do crazy dives, run and vault off of walls and enemies, slide under obstacles on her knees, slide down ladders upside down, and swing from poles - all while slinging bullets at her foes. Firing your guns while performing one of these daring feats will trigger slow-mo, making you harder to hit while making it easier for you to take out the bad guys. The shooting mechanic is one of the more interesting components to WET’s gameplay, allowing you to target two enemies at once while in slow-mo. Once slow-mo is activated, a large reticle will appear on a nearby enemy. While the gun in your right hand pumps bullets into that target, you’re free to aim at others with the left-hand firearm. It can take some getting used to, but it’s one of the finer points to WET’s combat. Unfortunately, it also highlights one of WET’s greatest flaws: its reliance on slow-mo. Shooting enemies without the use of Rubi’s acrobatics is a fruitless endeavor and an exercise in frustration, and with no limit to the slow-mo you’ll spend the majority of the game watching Rubi slowly flying through the air back and forth to clear a room. It can get incredibly repetitive, especially when many of Rubi’s acrobatics are flashier than they are useful.

Of course there is also the swordplay, and while Rubi has access to a number of interesting sword attacks (such as coming out of a knee slide with an upward rising sword slash on the closest enemy), the sword seems to get the most use during the game’s “arena fights”. These sequences find Rubi trapped in a confined area with an infinitely spawning amount of enemies. The only way to keep them from coming and complete the arena is to find all of the spawn doors and close them by destroying a fire-embossed switch next to it. Most levels also include “Rage Mode”, a semi-hallucinatory sequence in which the game switches to a black and red cel-shaded visual style, similar to last year’s Gears of War 2 announcement trailer. The game also has its fair share of platforming, although these sections are usually pretty straightforward and aren’t anything you haven’t seen in a Prince of Persia game. WET also has a Challenge mode, where Rubi must use her abilities to pass through several checkpoints while shooting out targets. While players can play these challenges outside of the main game, they’re often forced upon the player during the game’s story, usually after unlocking a new firearm. The challenges can be extremely monotonous, and considering they can’t be skipped, it can really kill the momentum of the game.

Even though many people loathe QTEs, some of my favorite parts of WET were the quick-time car chase sequences, in which Rubi must hop from car to car taking out baddies as they shoot at her from other cars on the highway. In fact, WET probably makes more attempts to break up its action with less combat-heavy sequences than most games in the genre, albeit with mixed success. In addition to the QTEs, one level has you being thrown from an exploding plane, where you find yourself taking out enemies mid-freefall. Once those goons are dispatched, you’re tasked with maneuvering Rubi towards an unused parachute still attached to a piece of the flight’s cabin, all the while avoiding the flaming pieces of plane wreckage.

As mentioned before, the game is coated in head to toe with a grind house aesthetic. The screen is covered in film grain for the duration, although this can be turned off. Players are treated to old-school film intermissions inbetween levels, sometimes featuring a talking hot dog encouraging them to visit the snack bar to devour one of his brethren. WET’s visuals aren’t terrible, but they’re certainly not going to win any wards either. Rubi’s character model is highly detailed, and most of the supporting cast is uniquely designed even though they aren’t all terribly memorable. Most of these characters deliver cheesy dialogue, and like any good action movie, the villains do most of the talking. Eliza Dushku’s Rubi is usually restricted to profanity-laced one-liners, and it’s not uncommon to hear her shout “go fuck yourself!” as she guns down her targets.

WET is not a terrible game by any means, it just often just feels too unfocused. The game borrows on a ton of great concepts, but does so in so much excess that it fails to find its own identity.