WET - A BETHESDA SOFTWORKS GAME

This game opens with a single simple sentence – Wet (wetworks) A euphemism alluding to hands literally wet with blood. This serves as a perfect introduction to the game where you play Rubi Malone, a sassy gun for hire who follows the money rather than any strict moral code.

You are thrown straight into the action via a tutorial level before getting any story. The tutorial level introduces the way you will be using slow mo and aerobatics throughout the game. The focus is very much geared towards achieving the most stylish kills possibly. Whenever you enter slow motion then Rubi dual wields her weapon with one gun automatically targeting a near enemy leaving you to control the aiming of the second weapon. This seemed a very strange concept to me when I first started playing but this really allows you freedom in shooting and allows you to target enemies at a full 360 degrees while Rubi is sliding or diving in slow motion, allowing you to get precise headshots and cause maximum carnage at every opportunity. You also have to learn how to control Rubi’s movements to incorporate them into your attacks. Rubi can run up and along virtually any surface in the game, making for some truly breathtaking moments as you leap and climb about the levels. There is however not as much freedom to explore as there is to engage in combat. There is usually one route to get from point A to point B and if this isn’t clear to you then you can press the LT button and any surfaces that Rubi can climb upon are highlighted in red showing you a clear path through the level. The range of movements that Rubi can perform can be both breathtaking and frustrating as hell. One minute you will be leaping across a massive chasm with the camera panning out and playing the stunning movement in slow mo, the next you are struggling to jump a few feet and you are getting ready to throw your controller through the television screen as Rubi seemingly refuses to do what is needed and jumps backwards to her death just as you are trying to kill that final enemy on the level.

As you perform stylish kills you gain style points which can be used to purchase upgrades to your weapons and unlock more moves available to Rubi. This seems to give more options that it actually does as you only ever unlock four weapon types as you progress through the story – pistols, shotguns, machine gun and crossbow – and the upgrades you unlock only seem to mildly affect the weapons performance. Similarly with the ability upgrades you just seem to be unlocking abilities that you feel you should have started the game with – like being able to shoot while swing round poles or using your swords during slow motion sequences.

The gameplay initially seems like it will be very repetitive. The majority of the levels follow the same structure .you follow a very linear path through the level with plenty of killing the same few different types of stereotypical henchman over and over again. This is broken up by arenas which again feature on most levels and follow the same rules each time. You are on a fixed map with several spawn doors which enemies continually appear out of, the aim is to stop them appearing by disabling the spawn doors then killing whatever enemies are left on the map. However, as you work through the game there is a few deviations from this pattern that keep the game fresh and interesting. There are levels where you are basically working through a quick time event for the whole level while at the same time still having to manually target enemies. There is also the rage mode. Every so often Rubi enters the rage mode where the whole game is presented in the style of a comic book with the entire screen divided into blocks of different coloured reds and enemies stand out by being white. This is a hyper stylised section where the music plays fast and loud and you get bonuses for chaining together as many kills as you can quickly and consecutively.




It is with its stylish presentation that this game really impresses. The whole game is shaped to feel like a 70s movie that Tarantino in his grindhouse phase would have been drooling over, right from the titles sequence that takes place after chapter two which introduces the actors who will be starring in the game. With a grainy B - film like quality throughout, the gameplay is broken up with fake cinema trailers and advertising. There is also a soundtrack made up of original songs that have been made to sound like they could have been taken out of any cheesy 70s action film. The voice acting is of course fantastic with Rubi being voiced by the always sexy sounding Eliza Dushku and the menacing English baddie being voiced by a very sinister sounding Malcolm Mcdowell.

One of the main drawbacks to the game I can see is its longevity. With no online functions and no plans for DLC you really have to be willing to play the game through a few times to get your moneys worth. The game is set up to try and entice you by offering replay value. The game is quite short and could probably be completed in 6 – 8 hours. You could probably get 500-600 achievement points on your first play through so to get all 1000 points you are looking completing the story mode three times and then completing the challenge mode achievements. Completing the game once through unlocks harder difficulty levels not available on the first play through and it also unlocks the challenge mode. The harder difficulty levels do really crank up the challenge this game offers and you can also try the golden bullet mode where everything is a one hit kill. This was pretty appealing to me to but when I realised how fragile your own health becomes during this mode, I realised that this is quite a challenging and difficult mode to try and complete. The challenge mode is fun, but much like Mirrors Edge’s time trial mode, it is only really a game mode for those you love this game and cannot get enough of Rubis aerobatic gun wielding.

I think that overall this is a very ambitious and enjoyable game that has many good qualities .However; I think that the control issues and sometime clunky camera really let this game down. If you manage to get past its problems you will really enjoy playing through this game and the twisty ending should leave you wanting more. But I don’t think enough people are going to stick with this game long enough to work through its different game modes and to enjoy Rubis gunplay to its full. I think that with some more variance to its level design and a longer story mode this would have had a chance of being a great game but how it is now; it is a long way from being that so I would give it 7 out of 10.

Great review mate!

I have decided to go back to this this week and am now playing through to get the 1000G. It actually becomes a lot better if you fully explore all the harder difficulties and is more fun and a greater challenge. In terms of longevity I reckon there is about 70 hours worth of game to be got out of this if you wanna get 1000 G

Great review niteowl.
I had this game a while back and loved it I started playing it on the hardest setting and got stuck on the 3rd of 4th rage mode where there is 8 doors with baddies coming out of them and after about 50 goes I gave up and sent the game back.
I might get it again soon and start again on an easier level to get through the game.

Once you have done it on hard there are two more difficulty settings unlocked. Ultra hard mode - now thats gonna be a challenge

yeah i know hard was challenging enough, Maybe ill give them settings a miss if I get it again.

It felt like a bit of a grind at times but all five difficulty levels are now done. 1000 G here I come

I'm playing this at the moment and am finding it hard to get into. The camera angles bug me.

There is a magic imaginary barrier that once you push through it all just clicks into place. And you get used to the camera angles especially as you can rotate 360 degrees while in slow mo