Now Playing: Wet

The most impressive thing about the new pulp action game Wet is the presentation - from the promo videos to the incredibly imaginative in-game elements. There's a scratchy film filter over everything, images are bright and washed out, and the "film" occassionally melts or comes completely off the reel at the end of a scene. Levels are broken up by drive-in movie theater commercials.



The story revolves around a hired gun named Rubi who specializes in "wetwork" (hands literally "wet with blood"). Think Laura Croft from "Tomb Raider" meets The Bride from "Kill Bill." Eliza Dushku ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dollhouse"), who plays Rubi, feels like the perfect fit here, and it's obvious that she inspired the concept of the character in both personality and look.

For the most part, the action itself is as tongue-in-cheek pulpy and over the top as you'd expect. You flip and dive around levels in slow motion, raining down a hail of gunfire on nearly neverending waves of hapless, vaguely European foes as driving surf rock bangs away in the background. Dying or failing levels is rarely much of a concern - it's quite easy to advance to the next area and keep progressing through the story. But the focus here is on carving through levels stylishly. You're graded on (and rewarded for) your performance, getting bigger boosts if you pull off a fluid John Woo ballet of death. Doing so takes practice and patience.


Some outrageous set pieces and staged moments break up the splatterfest. You'll find yourself in cinematic old-west style duels with your nemesis, jumping from moving car to moving car during a gunfight in heavy traffic, and shooting at enemies while dodging flaming debris as you fall from an exploding plane. Many of these segments are presented as movies that require you to hit a certain button when prompted, a la Dragon's Lair. It's usually a nice change of pace after the shooting segments and really helps immerse you in the story.


Because the game feels so scripted, there's a lot of emphasis on replaying segments once you know what you're supposed to be doing and where you're supposed to go. The levels are big and open, but the game is linear - requiring you to follow a set path through those levels. That path rarely feels obvious or intuitive the first time you play a level. "Rubi Vision," which highlights all of the ledges, lightpoles, and so on that she can use to bound through the area, helps somewhat. Still, it can be frustrating to have to stop all the slow-motion gunfighting fun while you stand there and try to figure out where the game wants you to go next. Choose the wrong path and you instantly fall to your death and have to replay the level. Note to the developers: Pls keep your platforming game out of my pulp action game. Thx.

Provided you can handle a little frustration, Wet is mindless, bloody fun and has some of the most clever presentation I've ever seen in a game. I could easily see it becoming a franchise and eventually a movie. Here's hoping.