Game Card
Wet (Xbox360)
- Publisher:
- Bethesda Softworks
- Developer:
- Artificial Mind
- US Release:
- 18.09.2009
- EU Release:
- n/a
- Number of players:
- n/a
- Type:
- Action Adventure
- Perspective:
- Third-Person
- Age:
- Modern Times
Preview
Wet Preview
Kill Bill never received the videogame treatment, but if it had, chances are it would have been a lot like WET. Not only is its main protagonist a katana sword wielding uber-assassin, but she’s a tough, remorseless killer who’ll put a bullet between your eyes without a second thought. And like Uma Thurman’s kick-ass Beatrix Kiddo, Rubi is truly a force to be reckoned with, dispensing violent slow-mo death at every given opportunity.
The game itself adopts a familiar, intentionally dog-eared grindhouse aesthetic with filters; grainy lines and saturated colours creating a stylised look in keeping with the notorious exploitation flicks of the 70s. WET doesn’t quite embrace the grindhouse image in the way The House of the Dead: Overkill did on Wii, but it does still manage to produce genuinely cinematic action moments that would fit perfectly into a John Woo movie. In fact, the celluloid influence runs deep through WET’s DNA, right down to the dynamic camera angles and juddering film cell effect when you’re low on health, which eventually burns out when you get yourself killed.
Initial impressions may lead you into thinking that WET might play something like Stranglehold when in reality the game is a happy mix of that game and Max Payne. Fundamentally though, WET has absolutely no presence beyond its remit to provide a thrilling action experience, freewheeling from one insane shootout to the next. Like Stranglehold and Max Payne, there’re plenty of opportunities for bullet-time assisted kills, except Rubi is able to slow time while both leaping through the air or sliding across the floor on her knees.
Bethesda has ensured that they keep the controls tight and streamlined, so initiating moves require only the simple push of a button. Playing the E3 demo on Xbox 360 at Bethesda’s London office, we found that pulling off stylish kill combos became effortless once we’d gotten to grips with the mechanics. Every time you fire your weapon while in a slide or jump, you’ll immediately slow time giving you the chance to draw a bead on enemies with the aiming reticule. If you’re dual wielding weapons, Rubi will automatically lock on to another bad guy with her left hand, leaving you free to control where she aims with the right. This means you can pull off a ‘Double Dealer’ combo and earn yourself some extra style points with ease.
The game’s opening tutorial explains all this to us clearly and by the end of it, we’re wall running, sliding along tables, smashing through champagne glasses and causing general havoc. As our hands-on with the game progresses, we encounter instances where Rubi can run up walls with the left trigger and then utilise the same move to spring off enemies before falling backwards to let off a few rounds of gunfire. Alternatively, she can unleash her sword, slicing Yakuza cronies asunder, sending limbs flying in fountains of claret.
Open arena sections allow you to flex your moves freestyle, cleverly designed to include pole swings, walls to sprint across and ramps to launch off of. Gun toting gangsters constantly spawn from multiple entrances in the arena that you have to close off using the environment where designated by an icon. There are two arenas that we get to check out, the second of which includes a ludicrously resilient man mountain with a minigun. We’re advised to jump up into the rafters and rain down bullets from above, which proves to be effective. Meanwhile, the house band play along with Tarantino inspired jaunty guitar music, while the slaughter plays out as we swing around high in the rigging.
After unloading an inordinate amount of lead into the big guy’s head, he attempts to limp off prompting our cue to drop down and initiate a short QTE to finish him off. Pressing X begins a run up his chest where Rubi then plants her boot into his head. Dazed, he stumbles forward where Rubi lands in front of him and thrusts her katana into his crotch causing an unsettling, cringeworthy gush of blood. Now that’s just not cricket. Minigun man duly dispatched, we mop up the remaining villains with more elegantly balletic gunplay, activating the final teasing cut-scene as the band’s lead singer grabs a minigun of her own. Truly, this is relentless.
It all takes a bit of getting used to though as normally you’re used to manually controlling the bullet-time moments, as well as having limits imposed upon the length of time you can use it. There’s no such option available in WET. Every time you execute a move and pull the trigger, time slows, which isn’t nearly as jarring as it sounds. Clearly this isn’t a game that wants to impose restrictions of any kind, so ammunition is infinite, there’s no need to ever reload your weapon and worrying about depleting gauges is banished. Your only concern is your health, combo counter and style points each of which are proudly displayed on-screen. They all tie in too; so stylish gunplay rewards a little extra health in addition to a high score.
Rubi can also replenish her health with booze, which she knocks back in one swig before tossing the bottle into the air and shooting it. Unnecessary? Yes. Cool? Definitely. Which just about sums up the entire game really. This is every overblown action movie brought to life with all the excessive trappings you could ever wish for. There’s even a ridiculous car chase that combines an extended QTE with fast-paced shooting against an entire fleet of rival vehicles on a busy freeway. Cars explode, articulated lorries flip over and amid all the chaos, Rubi lithely pounces from roof to roof, landing on her feet to dispense another consignment of hot lead. There’s no concession to something as trivial as reality here. If it’s cool and it works, chances are it’s in the game.
Once we’ve bested the freeway chase sequence, we get to sample the Rage mode next. In the demo, a machete brandishing maniac runs towards Rubi who instinctively blows the fella’s brains out. Blood splashes across her face and the screen turns bright red. Welcome to Rage mode. Like an iPod advert, enemies are black and white silhouettes against the red background and as Rubi blasts and cleaves her way through them, they dissolve into particles. Your rate of fire and speed is ramped up considerably too, so sprinting through the corridors executing enemies is immensely enjoyable. We became so addicted to the Rage mode demo that once we were told there were a total of 30 bad guys to take out, we were compelled to keep on trying to finish in one unbroken combo. Three attempts later and we nailed it.
WET is shaping up very nicely indeed, promising to deliver a massively entertaining action game that’s simple to play but challenging to master. When performing an inverted slide down a ladder and plugging two bad guys at once is standard practice, you know you’re in for a treat. Some interactions and the collision detection are a bit woolly at this stage, but then the game isn’t due out until late September giving Bethesda plenty of time to refine and sharpen the overall experience. If they can pull it off, then this Rubi could be a very special gem indeed.
The game itself adopts a familiar, intentionally dog-eared grindhouse aesthetic with filters; grainy lines and saturated colours creating a stylised look in keeping with the notorious exploitation flicks of the 70s. WET doesn’t quite embrace the grindhouse image in the way The House of the Dead: Overkill did on Wii, but it does still manage to produce genuinely cinematic action moments that would fit perfectly into a John Woo movie. In fact, the celluloid influence runs deep through WET’s DNA, right down to the dynamic camera angles and juddering film cell effect when you’re low on health, which eventually burns out when you get yourself killed.
 |
 |
|
| Rubi’s swift and deadly with a katana, cutting limbs free from their owners with precision. | During Rage mode, Rubi’s speed and rate of fire goes through the roof. It’s a quickfire massacre. |
Initial impressions may lead you into thinking that WET might play something like Stranglehold when in reality the game is a happy mix of that game and Max Payne. Fundamentally though, WET has absolutely no presence beyond its remit to provide a thrilling action experience, freewheeling from one insane shootout to the next. Like Stranglehold and Max Payne, there’re plenty of opportunities for bullet-time assisted kills, except Rubi is able to slow time while both leaping through the air or sliding across the floor on her knees.
Bethesda has ensured that they keep the controls tight and streamlined, so initiating moves require only the simple push of a button. Playing the E3 demo on Xbox 360 at Bethesda’s London office, we found that pulling off stylish kill combos became effortless once we’d gotten to grips with the mechanics. Every time you fire your weapon while in a slide or jump, you’ll immediately slow time giving you the chance to draw a bead on enemies with the aiming reticule. If you’re dual wielding weapons, Rubi will automatically lock on to another bad guy with her left hand, leaving you free to control where she aims with the right. This means you can pull off a ‘Double Dealer’ combo and earn yourself some extra style points with ease.
The game’s opening tutorial explains all this to us clearly and by the end of it, we’re wall running, sliding along tables, smashing through champagne glasses and causing general havoc. As our hands-on with the game progresses, we encounter instances where Rubi can run up walls with the left trigger and then utilise the same move to spring off enemies before falling backwards to let off a few rounds of gunfire. Alternatively, she can unleash her sword, slicing Yakuza cronies asunder, sending limbs flying in fountains of claret.
 |
 |
|
| Rubi may kick ass, but getting this close to a shotgun can be suicidal if you’re not quick on the draw. | Rage really lets Rubi off the leash. These guys don’t stand a chance. |
Open arena sections allow you to flex your moves freestyle, cleverly designed to include pole swings, walls to sprint across and ramps to launch off of. Gun toting gangsters constantly spawn from multiple entrances in the arena that you have to close off using the environment where designated by an icon. There are two arenas that we get to check out, the second of which includes a ludicrously resilient man mountain with a minigun. We’re advised to jump up into the rafters and rain down bullets from above, which proves to be effective. Meanwhile, the house band play along with Tarantino inspired jaunty guitar music, while the slaughter plays out as we swing around high in the rigging.
After unloading an inordinate amount of lead into the big guy’s head, he attempts to limp off prompting our cue to drop down and initiate a short QTE to finish him off. Pressing X begins a run up his chest where Rubi then plants her boot into his head. Dazed, he stumbles forward where Rubi lands in front of him and thrusts her katana into his crotch causing an unsettling, cringeworthy gush of blood. Now that’s just not cricket. Minigun man duly dispatched, we mop up the remaining villains with more elegantly balletic gunplay, activating the final teasing cut-scene as the band’s lead singer grabs a minigun of her own. Truly, this is relentless.
It all takes a bit of getting used to though as normally you’re used to manually controlling the bullet-time moments, as well as having limits imposed upon the length of time you can use it. There’s no such option available in WET. Every time you execute a move and pull the trigger, time slows, which isn’t nearly as jarring as it sounds. Clearly this isn’t a game that wants to impose restrictions of any kind, so ammunition is infinite, there’s no need to ever reload your weapon and worrying about depleting gauges is banished. Your only concern is your health, combo counter and style points each of which are proudly displayed on-screen. They all tie in too; so stylish gunplay rewards a little extra health in addition to a high score.
Rubi can also replenish her health with booze, which she knocks back in one swig before tossing the bottle into the air and shooting it. Unnecessary? Yes. Cool? Definitely. Which just about sums up the entire game really. This is every overblown action movie brought to life with all the excessive trappings you could ever wish for. There’s even a ridiculous car chase that combines an extended QTE with fast-paced shooting against an entire fleet of rival vehicles on a busy freeway. Cars explode, articulated lorries flip over and amid all the chaos, Rubi lithely pounces from roof to roof, landing on her feet to dispense another consignment of hot lead. There’s no concession to something as trivial as reality here. If it’s cool and it works, chances are it’s in the game.
 |
 |
|
| The freeway chase is a mix of real-time action and QTE. It’s pure, OTT fun. | Rage mode is visually striking, transforming the game’s palette into just three colours. |
Once we’ve bested the freeway chase sequence, we get to sample the Rage mode next. In the demo, a machete brandishing maniac runs towards Rubi who instinctively blows the fella’s brains out. Blood splashes across her face and the screen turns bright red. Welcome to Rage mode. Like an iPod advert, enemies are black and white silhouettes against the red background and as Rubi blasts and cleaves her way through them, they dissolve into particles. Your rate of fire and speed is ramped up considerably too, so sprinting through the corridors executing enemies is immensely enjoyable. We became so addicted to the Rage mode demo that once we were told there were a total of 30 bad guys to take out, we were compelled to keep on trying to finish in one unbroken combo. Three attempts later and we nailed it.
WET is shaping up very nicely indeed, promising to deliver a massively entertaining action game that’s simple to play but challenging to master. When performing an inverted slide down a ladder and plugging two bad guys at once is standard practice, you know you’re in for a treat. Some interactions and the collision detection are a bit woolly at this stage, but then the game isn’t due out until late September giving Bethesda plenty of time to refine and sharpen the overall experience. If they can pull it off, then this Rubi could be a very special gem indeed.
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Teaser Trailer
Posted 23.08.07
Length 01:13 Views 668
User Comments
By Jake_SI (SI Veteran Member) on Jul 20, 2009
By stuntkid (SI Core Veteran) on Jul 25, 2009
