Hands On With WET

Bethesda wowed us last year with its post apocalyptic RPG shooter, Fallout 3 which followed in the footsteps of the wildly popular sword and sorcery epic, Oblivion. Oblivion itself was a follow up to their equally as popular RPG, Morrowind. Their particular brand of RPG has become synonymous with Bethesda so folks were a bit surprised to see them branch out into the action shooter genre with their newest offering, WET. I got a chance to get some hands on time with WET and it was an action packed hour I'm eager to revisit.

Inspired by Quentin Tarantino, Tokyo Cinema and a bit of grindhouse, WET tells a grisly tale revenge starring Rubi Malone, an assassin with an attitude, a samurai sword and two blazing pistols. Voiced by Eliza Dushku, Rubi is one of the most badass gals to hit video games in quite a while. Her acrobatic moves and skill with weapons make her quite a formidable opponent for whatever poor gang members or drug dealers happen cross her path. One thing is for sure, they won't get away alive.

WET is set up like an action movie and is brimming with cinematic moments. The training level of the game takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown and has Rubi crossing swords with a Chinese crime lord who has stolen a case which seems very important to our heroine. Once the training level is completed we are treated to an opening credit sequence and later on we even get a "Let's go out to the lobby and get ourselves a snack" type movie interlude between levels. The whole game has a "scratchy film" overlay that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino made popular in "Grindhouse" and has most recently been echoed in the game world by House of the Dead: Overkill. This cinematic treatment works well for WET and provides a level of grit that seems a natural fit for the game's action.

The battle sequences are terrific and carry on with the film-like quality of the game. Rubi can attack with her sword for close up fights or her pistols for far away, all the while pulling off spectacular acrobatic moves. The visual excitement comes mainly with the use of the pistols. Whenever Rubi pulls out her trusty friends and executes a move, the action slows down, allowing the player to really focus on where they want their bullets to go. This may sound a bit like the "bullet time" we all got so used to (and in some cases sick of) several years back, but WET manages to make it somehow new and interesting and it absolutely works in the context of the game. Rubi can also go into a rage mode which gives the game a highly stylized black, white and red animated comic book feeling a la Kill Bill.

Rubi has three basic moves while shooting: the jump, the wall run and the slide. These moves can be combined together to create devastatingly long shooting combos. The gunplay is great in that Rubi has two pistols to work with. One gun auto locks on to the nearest enemy while the second is manually aimed by the player, allowing you to double your killing pleasure. Once the "locked on" enemy is dead, the auto aim switches to the manually controlled gun allowing the player to then focus the other gun on yet another enemy. When this gun play is combined with the slow motion and acrobatic moves, every fight leaves you feeling like all three Charlie's Angels at the same time.

The early levels I played contained a lot of the type of fighting described above, but it is broken up with other levels that rely more on Rubi's acrobatic skills. For instance, one level takes place on a London beach that has been planted all over with mines. The goal is to traverse the mine field without getting blown to bits utilizing only the geography. Another has Rubi on a busy freeway, jumping from car to car while blasting away at the enemy who is escaping in a speeding car.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with WET and am looking forward to the title's release. If you'd like to get a little taste of what I have been describing, there is currently a demo for the game available via Xbox LIVE. WET launches this Fall on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.