WET Review

There was a time when the bullet-time feature boosted the fun factor video games. That wasn't just a freak accident either. We have to remember that a Matrix game did not exist long after the release of the movie and only Max Payne managed to offer an engaging slow-mo shooting mode. After Max Payne, countless publishers saw this as a tremendous selling point and they kept using it in one release after another.

No, not wet enough.

Sorry not wet enough.

Along comes the year 2009, when Bethesda Softworks and development studio Artificial Mind and Movement decide to (surprise, surprise) create a game with a BULLETTIME feature. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me start again.

WET puts you into the role of a sexy, uncompromising female character named Rubi. Now, she's not your ordinary gal. In fact, Rubi doesn't mind getting her hands dirty and drenched in blood, if there's a sufficient amount of cash compensation involved. As our story unfolds, she gets hired to do a series of well-paid, though extremely dangerous, tasks for a number of fishy characters. It doesn't take too long before one of those characters puts Rubi into a rather nasty situation. Hmm, actually, I struggled to follow the thread of the plot, but it gets really confusing from here on. Just when I thought this was a clear-cut tale about money, death and revenge, this weird-ass old lady shows up, instructing you to steal a rare book and... Let me summarize this bit by saying that this game isn't going to win you over with charming characters and an intelligent narrative, because that's exactly what it lacks.

Getting into this game is like watching a very bad action movie that practically rips off everything from Kill Bill to a tone of other video games we've all seen before. True, the female lead looks and sounds cool enough to remind me of characters like Bloodrayne and even Mrs. Kate Archer from No One Lives Forever. The problem with WET is that it's not nearly as fun and engrossing as watching Kill Bill, nor is it does it posses the kind of alluring subtlety of Monolith's NOLF.

The game suffers from a variety of technical issues. The most obvious is seeing the main character jam or freeze in mid-air for no apparent reason. Also, the platform elements weren't tweaked properly, so expect a lot of inadvertent falls and missteps that lead to Rubi's inescapable demise.

What WET has plenty of is blood-covered enemies, waiting to be shot or sliced, and non-stop action. That, in itself, should be enough for some gamers. The action is well-balanced and there's enough content to keep you occupied for a while. Challenges and extras were thrown in to make things a bit more interesting.