WET Review

Slow motion action shooters are cool. Watching everything blow up around you as your enemies bleed to death is something no one should get bored of. That is why Bethesda Softworks came up with Wet. From the moment we started playing this one we noticed how much potential is flowing in the air. Ten minutes into the game and we are already running on walls in slow motion killing multiple enemies. The scene is defiantly set for something special here, but how far does Wet really go?

The star here is a Rubi Malone, an attractive lady based in Texas who happens to be mean and pretty awesome. Rubi has a soft spot for money and will basically do anything, anything that has to do with killing others, to get her hands on a good chunk of cash. The story itself is really simple. You are after a gang and you will end up killing half the population of China trying to get to the leader of that gang. The twists are cool and the unique graphical effects in this game surely do help as well.

The game will ease you into the action at first, telling you what to do, when to do it and how to do it. So things will be simple enough to kick start this one. The controls might seem a bit confusing when you first start though, thanks to the various moves introduced at once. After a level or two you will start getting used to the controls featured in Wet. Rubi also interacts with other objects and can jump or slide from one area to another. Here the controls can start getting a bit annoying. Trying to precisely jump from one side to another can get pretty messy. Another issue we faced with the controls is when shifting from slow motion to normal play. Rubi looks like a rabbit when she goes from running slowly to running around instantly fast. In some action packed scenes that quick transition can lead to massive frustration on the player’s side.

Wet starts with a bang and will keep you hooked for a while. It will however start getting boring pretty fast.  A few hours in you will start wondering about the purpose of all of this. 2-3 hours of shooting, killing, sliding and collecting kill points does somehow get boring. Do not get us wrong, the game does not lack depth. But we felt that the introduction of all the moves from the get go and the lack of any amazing upgrades for Rubi does limit the game’s potential. One of the biggest flaws in this game is the unlimited slow motion. Slow motion action takes place every time Rubi jumps, slides, or climbs down a ladder.   Games like Max Payne and Stranglehold were fun because they made you wait or work for the slow motion to come and help you out.

To buy upgrades for Rubi you need to collect kill points. Collecting those points is entirely based on your killing style. Killing each enemy separately will barely get you any points. Linking the kills and collection combo points on the other hand gets you a ton of points to spend. To link a move you simply have to click the slide or jump button right after completing the previous move. Collecting these points is a ton of fun. Unfortunately though, the moves and abilities you can buy are defiantly not worth it.

A few levels of this game will have you fighting in a moving environment. In Uncharted 2, you actually had to jump and move during the action scenes in moving environments. In Wet though, despite all the cool action going on, all you will be doing is pressing a button when told so. Rubi will be swinging between cars on a highway, yet all you have to do is press B or X when told so.  We are certainly not asking Wet to compete with one of the biggest title of the year in Uncharted 2, but why the lack of creativity?

The game overall feels like an old movie with both the graphics and music chipping in to build that environment. The graphics is not that great if you ignore all the old film effects going on. The colours overall are a bit too dark too. Every time Rubi is pissed the whole screen turns into 3 colours in Rage mode: Red, black and white. Unfortunately Rage mode offers nothing new to the gameplay itself. Simply everything becomes red. A cool addition here would be the introduction of some new power or ability for Rubi to exploit during her Rage periods.

The sound department is defiantly the second best thing about this game after the presentation. The music is spot on during every minute of gameplay or loading. Even the voice acting job is one well done, with the characters filling in with some pretty good quotes and lines. The sound effects can be a bit on or off playing this game. Sometimes everything seems to click on the spot, but sadly during other sequences that isn’t the case.

Wet can use a ton of different excuses for not showing up perfect. One excuse can be the release date. Coming with and before some of the best video game titles of all time is not exactly good timing. If this game was released during the early summer months, we could defiantly see ourselves coming back trying to beat this one on various difficulties. We still feel however that the unlimited slow motion is behind most of the problems here. We have no idea if a sequel is planned for this one, but if some work is done on the controls, graphics and some gameplay aspects this game could be something. Until then though, enjoy the vast number of other choices in the market.