GamesRelay

Name: WET

If Quentin Tarantino was in the Video Game business he would have come up with the game WET. There are not many reviews that start out with those words, but, in this case it's more than justified. Developers Artificial Mind and Movement in association with Bethseda Softworks have created homage to the great man of film with their new game, but does it work?

WET see's you take on the role of Rubi, an all out action chick who isn't afraid of getting her hands wet for the money, wet being a euphemism for getting her hands covered in blood. It's a third person shooting game at heart, only one that's been highly stylised, the cinematic qualities of the game are evident right from the very start, we mentioned Tarantino earlier, but that's just the start of the relationship of this game and the cinema world. The game is presented with film scratches throughout, the characters are all introduced with a title that pauses the action and distorts the colours, think of the film Snatch, and each cut scene could have been edited by a director with a very clear vision of how his film should look.

We join the action as Rubi is stalking a meeting between two crime bosses, a case is being transferred between the two for some serious money, Rubi has been employed to retrieve that case. As the transfer is completed she leaps into action from a high ledge guns blazing, and then were introduced to the game mechanics; Rubi has a whole bag of tricks up her sleeve. We're quickly introduced into the gun play of the game, of which like all good action chicks Rubi totes two at a time, using the film analogy again, think of The Matrix; when Rubi leaps into the air, time slows down allowing her to aim her guns at a target and shoot, the game will automatically aim one gun for you allowing you to choose your victim with her other gun; you've also got the option of sliding along the floor on your knees, again the action will slow down and allow you to take aim. In fact, almost everything Rubi does involves acrobatics of some kind and time slowing down allowing you to take aim and shoot bad guys. She can run along walls, up walls, swing on poles, leap from ledge to ledge, all while looking good. As the first batch of bad guys are dispatched in a short but bloody fashion Rubi sets chase after her target, a guy named Simmons, however it would be all to easy to simply catch him so more goons are dispatched to stop Rubi from chasing Simmons down, this is when we learn that Rubi also has a sword and like the guns, she's not afraid to use it to dismember people as she leaps from building to building. Pretty quickly you find yourself in a market place, surrounded by enemies, you'll come to know these as arena battles, an infinite number of bad guys will come at you until you can reach the Spawn point doors, a quick hack and slash of these will close the doors and stop any more enemies coming through, close all of these doors and finish off the bad guys and you can progress so the next section of the game. Whilst you've been fighting, Simmons has found himself a car and is making his escape, no problem, you simply jump on top of a nearby following vehicle and start taking shots at him, more of his bodyguards will follow in their own cars, you have to take these guys out while jumping from car to car shooting as you go. The jumping between cars is taken care of in the form of quick time events, you've to press a combination of buttons as they appear on screen which will allow Rubi to acrobatically weave her way from car to car, run alongside trucks and chop of her pursuer's heads should she get the chance. Once you've caught up with Simmons you retrieve the case (and I think by now you can guess what that entails) and collect your pay, after this introduction the game sets off.

To say that WET is action packed would be an under statement of massive proportions, it really is a roller coast ride of action and excitement from start to finish; As Rubi fights she amasses style points based on her acrobatic kills, these allow you to buy upgrades for Rubi's abilities and weapons which give you access to more stylish manoeuvres as the game progresses making sure you're never short of a new trick to try out. You also gain access to better guns as the game goes on, by the time you're finished Rubi will have Shotguns, Uzi's and a Crossbow at her disposal, all of which she double wields. At numerous points during the game you'll come across a cut scene where Rubi will kill an opponent, normally by shooting him in the face, when this happens her face becomes covered in blood and you'll encounter what's known as Rage Mode, this sends the action into a film noir style black, red and white graphics and Rubi sets about on a murderous rampage, frantically killing as many enemies as she can see, in this mode Rubi's actions become more and more frenzied as her kill count increases, and trust us when we say it can be quite a few before she is finished.