Third person action shooters are always a good time, and Bethesda’s new star-studded WET looks to be no exception. I got to play through a sizable demo of the game at E3 the day before Eliza Dushku showed up to pimp the game. Had I been there near her, I probably wouldn’t have paid as much attention to the game. Since she wasn’t in my airspace, I got to focus a bit without diverted blood flow.

WET is all about gun play, acrobatics and sword play. You take the reigns as Rubi who is tasked with “Wetworks” (missions that get messy, with WET being the shortened version). The controls and game’s art style feel a lot like Stranglehold, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. Where it changes, and goes a step ahead, is the Tarantino-esque film effects. When you’re dying, you see film slide stylings on the left and right of the screen. When Rubi gets all pissed off, you’ll enter Rage mode where everything is blood red, you move faster and can’t die (these events are scripted in specific sections of the game). Rubi is definitely a bad ass, shown even more by health packs coming in the form of whiskey.

I have two issues with WET based on what I played. The game seems very linear and scripted, with areas that you’ll run through eliminating enemies before entering an arena section, followed by a Rage mode portion. Lather, rinse, repeat and you’ve got yourself a bit too much repetition. Sure, there’s some on-rails stages where you jump from car to car chasing down bad guys, but those really just take the place of the run-through areas anyway. My other issue is the length of the game. I was told by a few developers that it would last an average of 8-10 hours for a single play through, which various upgrades and new moves giving a bit of replay value.

With these issues in mind, I’m not sure this will be a killer app for any platform upon release. I think it may fall into that Stranglehold / Wolverine area, where the game is very fun but just too short to warrant a purchase. It’s certainly worth playing and I’m looking forward to the full release this Fall.