WET

Taking inspiration from classic grindhouse movies, WET’s fairly unique visual style is mixed together with some slow-motion based gun combat that’s vaguely similar to both Max Payne and Stranglehold in its execution. Sadly, though, it’s a case of style over substance as the gameplay quickly becomes tedious, instead relying on its grindhouse presentation to hold interest until the very end.

The Tarantino-esque story follows female protagonist Rubi Malone, a ruthless assassin with a penchant for monkeys and dropping F-bombs. Voiced by Eliza Dushku, this angry vixen travels the globe, killing goons with little reason beyond the fairly routine narrative filled with gangsters, money and betrayal. You’re constantly introduced to two-dimensional characters that are quickly killed off before adding anything worthwhile to the story. It’s intentional B-Movie material, but it’d be nice to have some sort of engaging story to follow; and while certain dialogue is good, it’s often times flat trying to serve an uninteresting plot with some dire characters.

But then again, Rubi is almost endearing in a strange sort of way. There’s not much to her character but she’s a bad ass assassin and when it comes to the gameplay that’s all you need out of her. Wielding twin pistols - or alternatively SMGs, shotguns or crossbows - Rubi has a fair amount of firepower at her disposal. WET’s targeting system will automatically lock one of her guns onto a nearby enemy, allowing you to free aim with the other available hand. This may feel odd at first, but it works when faced with the onslaught of enemies charging at you, especially when combined with the ridiculous slow-motion action. Trying to shoot people at regular speed is terrible; the guns have no power behind them, the rate of fire is oddly slow, and the targeting is a clumsy mess. Therefore you will spend every second of the action in slow-motion. Diving through the air, sliding along your knees, swinging from poles, going down zip-lines, wallrunning; all of these actions, and many more, will send Rubi into slow-motion where you’ll have the chance to take out as many enemies as you want.

It’s enjoyable at first, combining the acrobatics with gunplay and the occasional, and basic, swordplay. But the level design and gameplay elements it throws at you quickly leave it feeling monotonous way before the end credits. The majority of WET consists of running through linear levels, killing bad guys before you reach an arena-style area where you’re tasked with killing more bad guys and closing doors so they can’t keep pouring in. You can earn points by combining moves together and collecting multipliers dotted around each area, although the score you’re given at the end doesn’t really amount to anything besides from, possibly, replayability or personal satisfaction. It can be fun the first few times but when the whole game consists of this formula it begins to tire, especially when the actual combat doesn’t have the depth to survive for prolonged periods of time. You can buy upgrades to improve firepower, rate of fire and so on, but these generally don’t seem to have much effect on proceedings, particularly in the latter stages of the game when enemies soak up more bullets than usual anyway.

There’s also some light platforming to break some sections up, and Rubi will occasionally enter Rage mode. This doesn’t change much in terms of gameplay, but it transforms the art style to look like a Sin City graphic novel or the stylish Go with the Flow video by Queens of the Stone Age. It’s cool to look at, but once again it’s all style over substance. If you enjoy that grindhouse look then WET nails it perfectly. There’s plenty of film grain, dust scratches, flickering and dodgy cuts, and even some bizarrely placed commercials you’d expect to see at one of those old drive-in cinemas. It’s a unique style for video games and one that stops WET from dripping into obscurity. It can be a little distracting, but turning it off only reveals how bad the visuals can look at times. For the most part they do a decent job, but it can look awfully drab in places, and characters don’t really emote like you’d expect them to. There are also some rough lip syncing issues and visual glitches that take away from the presentation.

In the end, WET can be a lot of fun in short bursts, but its combat is too shallow when placed in small, arena-based battles. It’s a shame because the limited amount of set pieces on offer are fantastic, they’re just so few and far between in what is a fairly basic third person shooter. Its visual style will definitely be the main pull, and the crazy punk and heavy rock music is an inspired choice that works well with the action and the lacklustre story. But sadly, style over substance rings true once again.