Wet
Review
The game that Tarantino never made?
by Daniel Allison
reviewed on PS3
Very bloody, gory and wonderfully noisy
Wet is very bloody, brutal and gory. Whether you are slicing arms off or blowing people up, there will be blood visible on the screen at pretty much every moment. Rubi likes this though, the constant waves of enemies are slaughtered where they stand. Some of the guys are taken out by a stab in the crotch, making you wince every time she pulls that off. She just doesn’t care, as far as she is concerned it is fun to chop up people in tiny bits and to be completely honest it is. In Wet anyway.
At certain points in the game you will enter rage mode. This happens when Rubi is well and truly pissed. Everything goes red, white and black and anyone who comes near you doesn’t stand a chance. Once again this fits in with the grindhouse visual style which is so apparent throughout the game.
No matter if you love or hate Wet, there is no denying that the music is great. Even if you aren’t into 50s Rock & Roll, it fits in well with the game. I had only heard of about two bands from the soundtrack but was pleasantly surprised when I heard the music. Unlike most games, Wet relies on actual songs rather than original music. All the best moments in the game are accompanied by some crazy, more or less familiar song to get you worked up and ready to kill whatever comes towards you.
It is not just the music that is great though, the voice acting is very solid too. Eliza Dushku does the voice of Rubi and she does a very good job of bringing the ‘sexy badass’ voice to her. Malcolm McDowell does a good job with his characters too.
What goes up must come down
Time to grind
As much as I enjoyed Wet, it does have its faults and quite a handful at that. Graphically it doesn’t look very good at all. Compared to most games of this generation it doesn’t hold up well and even with the great presentation, it just doesn’t cut it in this day and age. The environments don’t look too bad but pretty much everything else is just very average.
Gameplay wise it suffers too. I’ve already said the gameplay is fun but it won’t blow your mind and it could have done with a bit more variation. The majority of the game consists of running about until you reach an area where a wave of guys will attack you. Your aim is to destroy their spawn points and when you have accomplished that, you simply go on to the next wave. Repeat this for more or less the full game but throw in some rage sequences, some gun turrets parts and a few different scenarios. Spread this out over about 7 hours of gameplay and you know what the game is like. It doesn’t get too repetitive though. The first playthrough is an absolute blast and if you like the challenge, your second game can be played on a higher difficulty.
There are also a few platform-only sections which don’t help the game much. The platforming is fine in combat but there are moments where there is no combat and then it gets boring. They lack atmosphere too as the scenes are devoid of music.
Will Wet make you wet?
I couldn’t review this without having one quick joke involving the title, could I? I really enjoyed Wet. It definitely could have been better and a few tweaks here and there would have gone a long way. Yet it captures the grindhouse feel perfectly with its over the top story and gameplay, along with a great selection of music. It is this that makes the game a fun experience, one that I can easily recommend to anyone who loves an action-packed game.
7.5
fun score
Pros
Over the top, ridiculous, brutal fun
Cons
Short and not much replay value
