So I got my copy of WET in the mail yesterday, and I was impressed by the story, and then immediately underwhelmed by the gameplay. The story is good. Not awesome, but good. Rubi is a “fixer”. A better description would be a “Kill whoever, or GET whatever, at any cost, as long as you pay me” type mercenary. I like this aspect of the game, because you get the feeling that Rubi is only in it for the money, and nothing else. Just cold hard cash, and her sense of righteous indignation. Right off, you are hired to procure a steel briefcase from a low-level Chinese drug pusher who double crossed someone to get the case. This is the opening cinematic, and also the tutorial level of the game. After this, the story changes drastically, and gets much, much better. I REALLY don’t want to divulge anything further, because the story is really one of the best parts of the game and redeems it somewhat for me.

The gameplay is your typical hack/slash/shoot ‘em up, and really isn’t anything super special. To gain upgrades for weapons, and abilities, you MUST string together your kills and combos with your acrobatic jumping, running, sliding, flipping skills to get points multipliers. Getting a good handle on all that took me a while. Once you figure out the controls, and get a few upgrades, the game is a lot more enjoyable. Basically the end of every other level is either an Arena style combat mode, or a Rage Mode. The Arena Mode is basically one large room, with many acrobatic possibilities, and lots of bad guys. There are a set number of spawn points in the room, and Rubi must deactivate them all to finish the mode. Not bad, and it’s a great concept. Rage mode, or “Period Mode” as Justin called it, is where everything turns red, and Rubi basically gets her murder-on, going nuts on everything like it’s her 28th day.

Now, on to the bad parts. Despite the all-star cast of acting talent, including Malcom McDowell, Alan Cumming, and Eliza Dushku, WET manages to fall woefully short, with the voice acting being mediocre at best.
My biggest complaints about the game involves the Rage Mode and the in-game cinematics. During Rage Mode, It’s really hard to see where you are supposed to go when everything turns red. Since your score is based partially on the time it takes you to complete the level, I got lost and was a little annoyed. The last thing, and this really bothered me, were the in-game cinematics, and a few actions that are repeated over and over. For instance, when Rubi comes to a locked door. You hit Y, and she jams her sword into the crack of the door. Then you hit X about 20 times, and she slowly pries the door open with her sword. This little cinematic/action happens the same way at every door. There aren’t a lot of locked doors, but after 5 or 6 times it gets old. This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the game, as there are several other instances just like this. All of this could have easily been changed up just a little bit, but no, super-lame.

Overall, this game has a lot of good features, and some very neat original content (the soundtrack is pretty wicked), but they need improvement. The killing and action are totally over the top, and the overall style of the game is a big bonus. It’s obviously heavily influenced by Grindhouse type, B level cinema. Tons of bloody action, limbs flying everywhere, and lots of acrobatics, slo-mo assassinations, and climbing on ledges and walls. But the repetitiveness of the cinematics, and the re-hashed “hot mercenary chick that kills everyone” theme is just a little played out. The length of the story mode is pretty weak too. I played through the whole game in one session, totaling less than 6 hours. The Xbox Live rating (shockingly) was 4.5 stars, but WET only gets 3 stars from me. Not a purchase, but a solid rental for killing a Saturday afternoon when it’s raining, and you can’t mow the grass instead.