Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: A2M

Release Date: 9/15/2009

Available On

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WET is one of those gritty, trying-to-be-bad-ass-but-doesn’t-concentrate-on-other-aspects type games. The feeling of the game is its strongest point, and ironically, not the acrobatics that the game boasts about. The developers tried to nail the 70’s Quintin Tarantino/Wild West feeling and did it perfectly. Everything from buildings to clothing has a bad-ass, dirty brown scheme to it. There is even an old ’70s film reel filter over the screen that adds to the atmosphere. The music is also a big help in this, thanks to its classic indie feel.

But the atmosphere isn’t anything if the game has bad gameplay, and this game does not. What it does have is unfinished gameplay that seems rushed. There is a lot of thought behind it, but it seemed quickly tossed together, which is also really shallow. The whole idea of the gameplay is based on slow-motion combat. Yeah, I know, we’ve seen this before in countless games (Max Payne started it all), but to be fair, they add a little twist. Whenever your feet leave the ground and you start shooting, you enter slow-mo mode. In this mode, you have a red circle that auto-locks onto an enemy, and then you aim your reticle at another. This was executed brilliantly, so you don’t have to worry about aiming both weapons. You can go into slow- motion when you slide on your shins, jump whichever way in the air, shoot from zip lines, poles, ledges—you name it.

Another addition to combat that really felt shallow was the swordplay. A simple one, two, or three combos, and that’s it. There could have been so much more to this, but it seems the developers were more worried about atmosphere and style than actual gameplay. You can swipe out your sword from a slide, wall run, or dive, but little does this do in turn with guns. Over the course of the game, you get three additional weapons aside from your dual revolvers: a sawed-off shotgun, an explosive crossbow, and sub-machine guns. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but overall they are not used, as they should be used sparsely and with limited capacity. You can, however, upgrade all your weapons and buy more abilities via balance points, but you will not be able to buy everything through one playthrough simply due to the fact that points are given in too small increments.

It is also very linear, and acrobatics tend to take a slight tumble thanks to this. You can hang from ledges, jump gaps, swing on poles, and what seems like everything Lara Croft can do, but the somewhat cramped environments hamper this a tad. Sometimes you will wall run and jump over to a ledge only to find out you can’t hand from there. You will sometimes try to wall run and jump to a different wall only to find out you forgot to keep the L trigger held down during this transfer. If you think acrobatics are a tad cramped, try the arena events. These are what really break up the game too much. Most shooters have “arena areas,” where you have a closed-off area and must defeat all enemies to advance. WET takes a little turn and has you close off spawn points before advancing. These seem simple at first, but later on, there are so many guys that concentrate on slow-mo, acrobatics, and finding the right paths to these doors and get very frustrated, and many restarts will be required.

Another addition to the game is Rage mode where Rubi will see in a red vision that kind of reminds me of Killer 7 and is faster and stronger. Enemies are weaker and die faster, but there are more of them. Both arena modes and driving modes (explained below) apply in rage mode. Rubi also gets to get her counter up faster (which I find useless) by scoring more points. The more style you use, the more points you’ll get that will add to your multiplier. There are a few other events, like turret events, that are fun, and the driving events are pretty awesome and epic. You ride on top of cars and shoot at enemies while jumping and diving around cars to avoid getting killed. This is both epic and fun, thanks to its simplicity and cinematics.

One thing I have yet to mention is the story, and WET delivers strongly on this. You play Rubi Malone, who is a hired mercenary/assassin who gets involved in the wrong deal between a father and a son. The voice acting is superb, but the graphics are a little technically underdeveloped. While the art style is top-notch, the graphics aren’t up to par with the most recent next-gen games (Gears of War 2, Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, BioShock 2—yeah, all the twos!!!). However, the awesome art style makes you see past this, so it’s not so bad. WET is a great weekend rental and has fun gunplay and a few different events to keep things mixed up. With the hot eye candy that is Rubi Malone, you will want to follow this sexy protagonist through the twists and turns that are WET.

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