The new 3rd person action title Wet (short for Wetwork, which is a euphemism for “an operation likely to result in casualties in close contact” – which means killing people personally) isn’t a particularly innovative or unique game. But ‘m playing it constantly nevertheless because I like it so much.

KID FACTOR:

Lots and lots of blood and violence. Lots of uses of the mighty F-word. M-Rated and I’d agree with that. This one is meant for the 17+ crowd.

The game feels like the famous 5,6,7,8’s carnage scene from Kill Bill Vol. II. If you’d let your kids watch that, with all that death, blood, killing, style and music, well, you won’t find much offensive here then.

Sp, why do I like Wet so much ? It’s not as acrobat-puzzly as Uncharted or Prince of Persia, the combat isnm’t as realistic as any game with a cover system. Instead the raven-haired beauty  (whose name eludes me … doesn’t that say something? I’ve spent maybe 10 hours playing this game (I started over at higher difficulty about 1/2 the way through) is able to climb, swing, vault, slide and leap without regard to realism or actual physics and with that overused cliche – bullet time. When she fires her guns times moves more slowly. This is typical of many old games – Max Payne – newer games – John Woo’s Stranglehold – and many other games too. Here it’s more interesting, because your character immediately auto-aims one gun at an enemy but you can control the other gun by aiming with the right stick. It’s ingenious because the game is fairly hard unless you’re able to consistently head shot – or at least distract and wound – enemies while flying through the air.

In any given situation you might have options. Do you slide forward or backwards while firing? Leap forward, away, or left or right? Wall-Run at or adjacent to the enemy? Swing on a pole? Or slide down that nearby ladder? Lots of options, which makes the action and combat – which is pretty much the entire game – fresh and exciting even though almost everything about it is tired and cliched.

The game also has a terrific sense of style. The presentation, much like the recent Grindhouse flavored House of the Dead, is like an old Drive-In era exploitation movie. The story doesn’t matter. In fact the only thing I care about it is the character Zhi, a large, childlike, possibly retarded man0-child.

Other highlights include Malcolm McDowell as the bad guy, hilarious period advertisements (“Let’s Go Out to the Lobby!”) and some really, really cool music. There are some funny touches, but they’re rare. Having the house band in one scene feature a singer that makes Yoko Ono sound like an angel and in one scene a guard with a bullhorn announces your presence by saying “Wauaughauaugh!”

Good game, lots of fun – mindless and nasty.

Once again, here’s Cary’s take

Tags: Misc