Wet
Review
The game that Tarantino never made?
by Daniel Allison
reviewed on PS3
Grindhouse Galore
If you have seen anything of Wet you will know that the entire visual style has been taken out of a grindhouse film. The game uses a film grain effect over the screen that makes it flicker like it did in old films and has an over the top, grindhouse inspired cast that make it feel like a 70’s movie, quite possibly directed by Tarantino. Artificial Mind and Movement really put a lot of effort into creating a perfect, stylish game, right down to the menu’s. It is the style that sets Wet apart from the competition and what ultimately makes the game, even more so than for instance Stranglehold which had a similar approach.
Over the top, ridiculous fun
In Wet you play as Rubi Malone, a hired killer who will do almost anything if the pay is right. This leads her to take on quite a few dangerous jobs and she ends up meeting some very dangerous people. The main focus in the game involves her travelling the world in search of these people. I won’t spoil anything as the story is very enjoyable and fits in with the crazy, over the top stories that found in many a grindhouse film. The characters are definitely worth mentioning: there are some very amusing people in Wet such as a German cowboy who only uses swords to fight, a midget who likes to torture people and plenty more crazy characters.
I already mentioned Stranglehold and that is no accident. Wet has similar gameplay and can also be compared to for instance Max Payne. The game uses the bullet time that so many other games have used before but has a slightly different approach to it. Rather than press a button to enter bullet time, your acrobatic move will trigger it instead. You simply shoot during a move and the game will slow down to allow you to pull of whatever cool attack you want to. It flows together relatively well and though it can feel clunky at times, stringing moves together makes the experience even more entertaining. The combat works well in slow motion but on the ground it can be a bit inaccurate. Regardless of which weapons Rubi has equipped, one will always auto aim onto an enemy while you will aim and shoot with the other by using the right analogue stick. This comes in handy since you are always firing two weapons at once.
The acrobatics are quite impressive and each move remains fun to perform throughout the game. The most obvious move starts with a jump which then turns into a dive while you are shooting. This helps you get over obstacles and still blast your enemies in the face. However there are a good few other moves at your disposal. The slide is probably my favourite. You can slide on your knees with a quick press of circle and go under objects. Performing it right after a dive is one of the coolest things you have ever seen in a game. If you dive on your side and then press ‘circle’ you will slide on your side. You can do the move backwards as well. Besides the slides you are also able to run along walls; jump backwards from walls and run up enemies. You don’t start off with them all though; you need to use style points (obtained by pulling off more acrobatic kills) to get new special moves.
7.5
fun score
Pros
Over the top, ridiculous, brutal fun
Cons
Short and not much replay value
