Wet Review
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SpectralShock
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There has been no shortage of games that have attempted to capture the bullet time gameplay mechanics first popularized by Max Payne all those years ago. As many have tried, very few succeeded and even then, it was barely an adaptation of the mechanics. Enter the candidly named “Wet”, a project from Artificial Mind and Movement published by Bethesda Softworks. Featuring the presentation style of classic grindhouse B-movies, this is an action shooter that not only successfully implements bullet time and slow motion as a core gameplay pillar, but also adds new features to the formula that make it feel fresh and fun. Though the platforming isn’t always smooth and the game begins to repeat itself towards the end, Wet is still an interesting project that makes for a fun, if brief, experience.
In the game, players assume the role of Rubi Malone, a professional bounty hunter for hire. Rubi specializes in all types of weaponry, and always dual-wields to ensure that she can shoot back – when her other hand is often used to hang from ledges and perform other acrobatic moves. For melee, she has a nicely sharpened sword that slices enemies in close quarter situations. As we meet Rubi, she is on assignment that doesn’t go as planned – but through skillful dispatching of enemies, she is able to come out on top and get the job done. After getting paid, some time passes and Rubi is once again called in by the same man, for another task. Once completed however, she realizes it was a setup in a much bigger conspiracy plot – leaving her in the middle of the problem. The story of Wet is a mix of survival and personal revenge, with both odd and interesting characters and a fairly strong protagonist. There aren’t many twists or revelations, but overall the narrative is enjoyable enough to follow along and see it through to the end.
The title of the game, Wet, is derived from “wet work” – defined as a messy job or task that involves one’s hands becoming wet with blood. As such, the game does indeed feature a lot of action and lengthy shootouts. Rubi can dual wield pistols (which are always available and never run out of ammo), machine guns, shotguns, and explosive crossbows. These weapons become unlocked as the story progresses, and can be found in the game’s various stashes. Rubi also always carries around her sword, which has a dedicated controller button and can be used at any time. All of the weapons feel respectably powerful, but unfortunately don’t pack much damage towards the later levels.
The gameplay is mostly separated into two parts – shootouts and platforming. The action in the game is satisfying and chaotic. As mentioned earlier, Rubi has the ability to perform acrobatic moves, and when firing, this initiates bullet time. The choreography in the game is very well done, as Rubi can pull off great flips, dives, and knee slides in great fashion. Once in bullet time, everything slows down and Rubi auto-locks on to an enemy with her left hand weapon. Meanwhile, the player has the ability to manually aim the right hand weapon and fire both at the same time. This is a well executed and unique mechanic that makes the game stand out. Double kills feel hugely satisfying, while allowing the player to shoot in two completely different directions. Overall the flow of the shootouts is satisfying and well designed.
Issues do exist though – in particular the difficulty spikes in later levels, resulting in many deaths and requiring tons of bullets to put down even the basic enemies. There’s also no way to dodge or block attacks of any kind, so the only option is to find a hiding spot on the level and hope that health will regenerate. The game also heavily relies on acrobatic maneuvers to evade enemies and perform creative kills – which causes some frustration due to the spotty platforming (mentioned below). Though AI is basic and sometimes has too much health – to its credit, the enemies constantly dodge and attempt to block player attacks.
In between the shootouts, Rubi is often tasked with finding a path through a level by jumping, wall running, and climbing around the environment. It all works at a basic level, as the progression through the game is quite linear. There are some problems though, as platforming sometimes simply doesn’t work well – missed jumps, awkward vertical wallruns and other annoyances often creep in. While it never gets too unbearable, it’s still an annoyance that haunts the experience all the way through.
All of the action in the game translates into a score-based experience, with a prominent multiplier that plays a key role. When killing enemies, Rubi earns points – the more creative her acrobatics, or when hitting specific enemy body parts, the higher the score earned per kill. All kills also add to the multiplier – so stringing kills together brings incrementally greater rewards. An additional function of the multiplier is to determine how fast (if at all) Rubi can regenerate health.
The points earned in the game can then be spent on two categories of upgrades – weapons and abilities. The abilities range from being able to shoot while swinging and wall running to increasing your overall health. Some abilities have multiple tiers while others are one-time unlocks. Weapon upgrades act in a similar fashion, allowing you to increase the damage output, firing rate, and ammo carrying capacity for the various guns in the game. The system is well balanced, and players will be able to upgrade most of Rubi’s abilities through playing the campaign. Unfortunately, even with fully upgraded weapons, the enemies towards the end of the game take a ton of damage to kill, making the whole upgrade system feel futile.
The game’s overall progression is linear. Levels don’t have any alternate paths, but there are some decently large areas to run around in. The usual shooting and platforming combination is often broken up by arena areas. These areas are a locked environment, where Rubi must destroy 3 or more entrances from which enemies consistently appear. Various multiplier powerups are also scattered around, promoting vertical exploration and acrobatic moves. To the game’s credit, the enemies do stop spawning after a few minutes, allowing the player to close the doors afterwards.
Wet also has a few levels where Rubi enters a sort of berserker mode – the whole screen becomes stylized in only red and black colors, enemies die quickly, and the multiplier is replaces by a consecutive kill counter. These sections also provide extra points depending on speed and killstreak achieved, and are fairly short in length. Still, it’s another way to break up the gameplay and add something unique to the experience. The downside with this and area modes is that they do begin to repeat themselves towards the end, with arena sections becoming increasingly frustrating due to difficulty spikes.
Outside of the main story, there are a couple of challenge modes to try, as there is no multiplayer – only leaderboards. The points count mode lets the players play through the entire game again, this time trying to earn a certain amount of points per level. There’s not much value to this mode since nothing is different, except for the overall point requirements. The second mode allows players to try their hand at beating various challenge runs at Rubi’s home base in Texas under a certain time limit. This is again entertaining, but doesn’t bring anything new to the experience as players complete a few of these challenges during the course of the main game.
One thing that will immediately stand out to players is the visual style of the game. Set in a grindhouse-like setting, the game’s graphics are full of stylized effects, a strongly visible film grain, and many other nuances. The style works, and it also does a good job of hiding the game’s rather outdated visuals and low resolution textures. Having said that, the game runs very well and without any slowdown. The soundtrack is excellent, packed with grindcore list of groups full of catchy and stylish tunes. Unfortunately, for music played during the arena sections, the chorus and a few lines of the song are on a constant loop, making even great songs become extremely repetitive during the longer battles. Most of the sound effects are also sub-par, such as the very poor sound of fire in a burning building, or Rubi’s overly loud footsteps.
At the end of the day though, Wet is fun. It may not be the most original or well-paced game, but it does enough things well to warrant a look. The acrobatic bullet dodging and violent enemy takedowns will remain satisfying until the end, and the manual-aim mechanic is unique and works as intended. The story is worth following along, and the bonus game modes offer a decent distraction. Though platforming and some of the presentation isn’t great, these are minor complaints in what is overall a good package. Wet comes recommended to action and shooter fans looking for a unique visual style and their fix of slo-mo shootouts.