WET Review

Kill Bill has clearly been an influence

The stylised violence is supported by an even more stylised art style. A film scratch effect is layered on top of the base graphics, reinforcing WET's B-movie feel. At first it looks cool, but after a while it starts to grate, annoy and even irritate, almost getting in the way. Thankfully you can turn it off in the options menu, but when you do, WET's graphics have nowhere to hide. It's a bit like when the lights are turned on at the end of a club night - everyone's not as sexy as you thought.

At times WET looks good, with detailed, vibrant environments, especially in the Hong Kong levels, but more often than not the textures, character models, animations and enemy faces are nothing but poor. You'll end up turning the film scratch effect back on just to cover up WET's ugly last gen underbelly.

WET's biggest problem, however, is that despite the ability to purchase new acrobatic moves and upgrades at the end of arenas and chapters, there's little variety and hardly any depth to the carnage. Jumping and kneel sliding are the two basic acrobatic moves Rubi can perform at the beginning of the game, and you won't need much else throughout. Rubi unlocks shotguns, SMGs and crossbows, but nothing's as good as the default twin pistols she starts off with. Spend some points increasing the damage and rate of fire of the pistols, and you've got what's probably an overpowered weapon. Put simply, the novelty of jumping and sliding and wall jumping and killing in slow motion soon wears off, and when it does you'll be tempted to quit.

The gameplay, too, doesn't change all that much. WET is basically a trawl through one arena after the other, with the odd cutscene thrown in for good measure. You'll soon tire of this repeated challenge - the same enemies types always appear, and you'll hardly notice the subtle environment and layout differences.

WET's fun in short bursts, but doesn't have enough about to make it great.

A2M was clearly aware of this fact when developing the game, and so chucked in exploration-based sections, Rage mode moments and movie-inspired quick time heavy sequences to add variety. Unfortunately these don't hit the mark. The first almost Tomb Raider-like area, which sees Rubi infiltrating a gangster mansion on the English coast, only serves to shine a light on WET's clumsy platforming controls. This is doubly disappointing because Rubi's acrobatic abilities had the potential to enable much more enjoyable and rewarding gameplay. There's little free form acrobatic exploration possible - the levels are too linear for it and only ledges highlighted in red are open for use. Assassin's Creed this is not.

Rage mode is perhaps WET's clearest nod to Kill Bill (although an area that's got an all-girl band playing on stage while you go to work runs it close). Rage mode begins with a short cutscene that ends with Rubi's face covered in blood. Sirens blare, the environment turns red and black and she goes berserk. Ring any bells? The problem is that Rage mode doesn't fundamentally change the gameplay. You're still using the same abilities to kill the same kind of enemies, it just looks a little different.

The movie-inspired scenes are similarly disappointing. One sees Rubi leaping from car to car in a highway chase reminiscent of that scene from The Matrix Reloaded. It's designed to be watched more than played - all you have to do is shoot a bit and press the action button when the on screen prompt tells you to (the game's too quick time heavy, with boss battles a particular disappointment). Another sees her sky diving from an exploded aeroplane - you control her, killing falling enemies and dodging bits of plane on route to a parachute. Again, the controls are clunky - the collision detection seems way off and you'll die when you clearly dodged shrapnel.

With no multiplayer to speak of, the only reason you'll play WET once you've finished the campaign is to hunt down all the collectibles (including mechanical monkeys), unlock all the extras, dabble in Points Count mode and better your Challenge Mode score. Some will enjoy this, but for most the game won't keep their attention long enough to justify forking out full price. WET is good fun for a couple of hours but ultimately it's a classic case of style over substance.