WET Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 9th October 2009

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Time to get WET.

WET Details:

	Third Person Shooter
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Artificial Mind & Movement
	Bethesda

18+

Out Now

People often say first impressions are often a true representation of what lies ahead. But in the case of WET this is definitely not true. Initially I thought the game was just your standard run of the mill third person shooter, however after playing past the games early stages I realised it was far more then that and ultimately I'm glad I stuck at it.

In WET you take up the role of problem fixer Rubi Malone, a sassy Lara Croft-esque femme fatale, the story is one of set-ups, betrayal and revenge. Rubi is hired by an international crime lord but little does she know that things aren’t as they seem and she soon becomes a marked women. This as you would expect upsets her and off she goes travelling the world to exact revenge putting her on a collision course with the games main villain. Who is incidentally voiced brilliantly by actor Malcolm McDowell, which really helps portray him as a sinister character?

Earlier in the article I referred to Rubi as being Lara Croft-esque when really the two characters are nothing alike. Although there are similarities between the two ladies games! Both characters leap across various ledges to reach the end of levels, using zip lines, spinning on poles, performing wall runs and numerous other acrobatic feats. Secondly both are armed with dual pistols that never seem to run out of ammo. This however, is where the similarities end! As we all know Lara Croft is a well groomed, well spoken tomb robber who has some tremendously huge assets to rely on when things get tough. Rubi on the other hand is the complete opposite. Firstly she’s voiced by Eliza Dushku of Buffy the Vampire and Dollhouse fame, so from the off she has more of a street wise edge than Miss Croft. Then there’s the character design in general! It is utterly different! Everything from her outfit to her tattooed arm makes Rubi a much more gritty, yet believable character, plus her no nonsense attitude generally makes WET a lot more fun to play.

Tomb Raider is not the only game WET has similarities to as when performing acrobatic moves and firing Rubi’s weapons the game has a Max Payne style slo-mo feature. This allows you to pull off some pretty impressive moves, enabling you to target two different enemies at once, perform full 360° turns and land into slides to avoid enemies all the time still firing your weapons and disposing of your foes. As you progress through the game new weapons are acquired as you would expect from any shooter and the game also allows you to unlock new abilities pulling off ever more impressive gun-play combos. However, for that up close and personal touch is also armed with a sword, which can be used with her acrobatic abilities to great effect.

Despite its similarities to the aforementioned games, WET is very much more than a couple of ideas from video games history that have been thrown together. Instead WET is more of a homage to violent b movies every where, right down to the grainy pictures as used in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and in SEGA’s excellent House of the Dead: OVERKILL which released earlier this year. The game is unashamedly violent yet, it’s not really gratuitous despite the fact you’ll rack up huge body counts by the end of each level. It just seems to fit in perfectly with its B-Movie styling.

The majority of the game is made up of simple run and gun levels, however with Rubi’s acrobatic abilities and the slo-mo camera this never seems to feel tiresome as you concentrate on pulling off ever more impressive looking combo’s. Despite this though the developers have also thrown in quite a bit of variation, firstly most levels have an arena segment. In these sequences Rubi is locked in a room with various doors in which enemies will pour in through in ever increasing numbers until you can block the entrances and move on. These segments can last some time however, its not where you will scratch up the highest number of kills. That’s left to rage mode! In these short, highly stylized sequences the screen turns red after Rubi is almost caught off guard and has to eliminate a bad guy at close range getting her face covered in blood. The rage mode sees an upping of the games tempo as enemies come from every direction and Rubi uses her skills to score long kill chains. The rage mode sequences may sound a little over the top, however the almost cartoon style they are done in with a red overlay and only black and white character silhouettes representing the various enemies prevent things from becoming too distasteful. To further mix things up some of the games levels completely do away with this formula, imagine a chase scene on a freeway with Rubi jumping from roof’s of moving cars or free falling from an exploding plane avoiding debris all whilst still having to take out enemies. These are just some of the ways the developers have mixed things up offering a more complete playing experience.

Despite its strengths WET isn’t the perfect action shooter, there are a number of flaws that stop this from being a true top title. Firstly the games camera at times is nothing short of crap. For some reason the developers at certain points decided to use fixed camera angles which make it extremely difficult to look around the games beautifully crafted levels. It’s almost as if they didn’t want you to explore the game world. It also makes it difficult to judge enemy positions and jumps. This brings me on to my next point the games jumping system can be extremely infuriating. It’s usually a problem in games with the character not jumping far enough however WET seems to go in the complete opposite direction. Far too often you will find yourself plummeting to your death as Rubi often over jumps a gap. Another slight annoyance comes in the games graphics department. Rubi herself looks flawless and has been crafted brilliantly. However the character models for bad guys don’t seem to have had as much care taken over them and look kind of square which is a little disappointing. The games sound design thankfully does not have any of these misgivings, as I’ve already mentioned voice acting is strong throughout, and weapon sounds are all over exaggerated in typical B-movie style. The game features a high tempo rock soundtrack which fits in perfectly with its visual look and really helps set the mood in the levels.

WET may take a few ideas from video games past, but the developers have implemented them brilliantly and served up a fairly original playing experience in what must be said is a celebration of B-movie violence. The game most certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste but third person shooter fans will definitely want to take a look and get WET with Rubi.