What better way to spend the wee hours of a Tuesday morning than by taking control of an acrobatic gun- and katana-wielding mercenary girl with rage issues and the power to slow down time? Luckily, Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M) and Bethesda’s Wet allows players to do just that in a frenetic and stylish third-person action romp, so I did.
Wet plays much like Total Overdose or Stranglehold, or however one might expect anything directed by John Woo or even Quentin Tarantino to translate to the videogame medium. Gameplay appears to mostly consist of gunning down steady streams of enemies while slow-motion jumping, diving, sliding, swinging, and wall-running in various combination. These combinations are tallied, earning points and multipliers for the player, and even accelerated health regeneration during special arena sections.
While the gunplay was a bit loose, wild, and something like riding a mechanical bull in Tijuana, the acrobatics, automatic fire, and unlimited ammo made it forgiving and enjoyable. An especially nice touch is the split-targetting feature, which locks one of main character Rubi’s pistolas onto a nearby enemy as the player aims the other with an on-screen reticle. Being able to easily direct fire at a single or multiple enemies while gliding through streets and buildings definitely helps drive home the let-you-do-a-lot-without-really-trying gameplay philosophy A2M seems to have followed with Wet.
Rubi also carries a katana — a very useful tool for cutting down foes within melee range. This blade is equally, if not more deadly than Rubi’s guns, but will be used less often than the twins. Aside from combat, however, Rubi tends to whip out the sword to use it as a pry bar, zipline handle, and whatever else seems to make sense at the moment. The katana seems more fitting to Rubi’s moments of blood rage, though — instances where she gets a crimson bath from her slain enemies and the game’s entire visual style transforms into a less detailed noir style in bold black, white, and red. During this time Rubi has double health, stronger, faster attacks, and somehow, her pistols get automatic, uzi-like capabilities.
The most impressive aspect of gameplay, however, should be the high-adrenaline action sequences infused with quick time events and over-the-top, Rubi-does-awesome-things moves. I was only able to play out one car chase, but if it’s any indicator, these segments will be the apex of Wet‘s gameplay experience. Throughout the scene, players fire at moving cars from moving cars using the same slo-motion effect and split-targetting as before, but will also have to watch for button prompts that send Rubi leaping over and across vehicles, maintaining the core shooting mechanics throughout every move. It’s very intense and visually dramatic.
The entire game appears to be very polished in the graphics department. The game has a gritty, striking look, incorporating film grain effects and a stiking color palatte, with character design to match. Menus are all highly stylized and very slick, as well. Rubi is voiced by a potty-mouthed Eliza Dushku, which may or may not e a good thing, and the music tracks are very fitting to the style and energy of the game.
Wet certainly looks promising, with fun, over-the-top action and a this-game-is-cool atmosphere. I don’t expect it to be in the realm of the most elite titles this fall, but it is definitely worth looking forward to.
Wet is scheduled for release on September 15th on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
