GOONL!NE

Developer: Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M)
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Also On: Xbox 360
Console Played On: PlayStation 3
Release Date: September 18 2009
Age Rating: BBFC 18

Female lead characters have been a bit absent in modern video gaming, with Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame and Faith from Mirrors Edge being the two most notable. Along comes WET with an all-action guns blazing female protagonist called Rubi, who like Faith, has an uncanny ability to spot potential avenues in which to scale the environment around her.

WET is what a game would be if it were to be designed by Quentin Tarintino, stylish and very violent (a bit like the Bride from Kill Bill with the sword slashing skills).

So, onto Rubi. Well, she’s tough as nails, and would kill you as soon as look at you. Her story starts with her watching overlooking a meeting between a man in a wheelchair and another man called Simmons, who has a case containing a human heart that Rubi has been hired to recover. Cue some over-the-top full throttle action from Rubi as she moves in to get hold of the case, who has been hired to recover the case. It’s then delivered to Trevor Ackers whose father requires a transplant. Rubi hands over the case and departs much richer than she entered. So far, so simple for her.

However, a year later Rubi is contacted William Ackers and his two bodyguards. He tells her that Trevor has moved to Hong Kong, and has fallen in with a gang of drug dealers. Rubi agrees to track down his son and return him, but as you can guess, things are far from simple in Rubi’s bid to do this.

WET’s third person mechanics are similar to that of the Max Payne series and Stranglehold, with the opening stages of WET being especially reminiscent of John Woo’s action title in its setting. Speaking of parts of the game that bring to mind media that has come before it, WET also has a set piece set on a motorway which was highly evocative of the freeway chase in The Matrix Reloaded, with Rubi jumping from car to car just like the Agent’s did.

There are three main parts to the gameplay of WET, the 360 degree slow-motion shooting (activated any time Rubi jumps, wall-runs or slides), basic, yet well implemented sword fighting and acrobatic elements in the form of climbing, wall running and various other ways of scaling the environment.

Two features of the gameplay that make it a tad too easy at times is that firstly, the slow-motion shooting never runs out, so when fighting multiple enemies, constantly jumping and sliding around makes it easy to dispatch them. Secondly, guns never need reloaded but a logical guess would point to the idea that this is to keep the pace of the game flowing consistently quickly.

The story line of WET is one area where it does fall down, with characters you never connect or empathize with, it’s quite forgettable. Dialogue too is quite basic and is nothing to right home about but with WET‘s B-movie style, it’s forgivable, it never tries to be more than it is.

Gameplay itself is fairly linear, with only the Boneyard area where you can cruise around at your own leisure, the rest of the time it’s a straight path through the story. Most levels are broken up with little mini arena fights, you hold off gangs of thugs whilst trying to destroy the utterances they use to come at you. These parts are great fun, progressively getting tougher as you move through the game. Dying in them doesn’t induce the usual throwing the controller on the ground hissy fit that some games might, as with WET, a simple re-evaluation of your strategy means you’ll probably get past it the second time round.

The presentation of WET is one of the stronger areas, with a brilliant soundtrack, film grain effect (if you don’t like it you can turn it off in the options menu) and the quirky loading scenes. Graphically, it’s solid and nothing more. WET is never going to wow you if you’re looking for realism. There are some issues with the lip-syncing of characters and some graphical collisions that should’ve been ironed out of the game.

WET”s best feature has to be Rage mode. When Rubi enters rage, the red juxtaposed against the white makes WET look like nothing else out there. It’s effortlessly stylish and is a joy to play through, with racking up as many kills as possible being the main aim.

Final Thoughts: WET does what it sets out to do well, which is to have fun. Yes, you can slate the story in it, a lot of the voice acting, the graphics aren’t great and it is very linear but it never outstays it’s welcome, with the game lasting about 4-5 hours. With the short playtime, many little niggles in the title can be forgiven as the quick pacing keeps it fresh. WET has been released at an unfortunate time. Had it been launched during the summer, it may well have been considered to be a good game, but at this time of year when the big hitters are coming out, WET feels sadly mediocre by comparison.

Story: 5 – The story is never engaging, and sometimes borders on being over the top but this is staying in tune with it’s B-Movie premise. With Duppy Demitrius (best known from his work on 24) on board writing, the story should’ve been better.

Gameplay: 6 – A bloody and simple affair here, with nothing complex being thrown into the mix. Sword play is restricted to one button. The 360 degree shooting mechanics work well but the choice of weapons is limited. Replay value is severely lacking, you’ll find no real reason to really want to play back through the story.

Graphics: 6 – The film grain filter on the game does give a unique look, but strip it away and WET is drab and uninspiring apart from when Rubi enters rage mode, which is one of the games highlights.

Sound: 8 – One of WET’s best bits, the soundtrack is fantastic with some fantastic tunes accompanying the frantic gameplay. Malcolm McDowell also does a good job again for Bethesda with the solid voice acting.

Overall: 6 – Worth picking up if you find it for around £20. WET is sadly yet another case of style over substance.