WET Demo Impressions

WET is a new action game from Bethesda Softwork, it has a very Quentin Tarantino vibe to the game while also having nonstop action. The demo came out on PSN Thursday and it has been really fun.

WET, from what I get from the demo follows a badass whisky drinking chick named Rubi Malone (Who suspiciously looks like Tina Sanchez from 1up). She is a gun for hire and looking to take down anyone in her way. The demo starts off with a very stylishly made cutscene with a deal between to gangs going down. The whole game has the 70’s film grain look which makes it super stylized.

The action in the game to me feels like a mix of Tony Hawk and Max Payne. Which most likely sounds super weird to all reading this but hear me out. The Max Payne part comes from the slow mo shooting and diving but the Tony Hawk part comes in the levels and the chaining system. Basically the fancier moves your chain together the higher score you get. I’m not sure if the score actually contributes to something at this moment but it is really fun just running on a wall, then grabbing a poll and flipping off that all while shooting dudes in the face.

All the moves are very easy to do and happen with only the press of a single button making it simple and satisfying to pull them off. While you are in midst of doing an acrobatic move like wall running, jumping, or sliding while you’re shooting the game will automatically go into slow motion and will last as long as the move does. While you are in slow mo since Rubi is holding two guns the game will automatically target one enemy with one hand and give you free motion over the other one allowing you to either take you two enemies at once or just smoking one enemy with two guns. Other than guns you also have a sword which is used by pressing the Square button. This is used for close range only but can sometimes also be used in conjunction with the acrobatic moves.

The demo goes through four stages in the game. The first is just the tutorial stage which shows off all of the acrobatic techniques. The second part of the demo is an arena. Enemies will keep pouring out of “Spawn Doors”... the game actually calls them that. The object in this part is to make all these spawn door obsolete by breaking these control panels which bring a steel door over them not allowing the enemies to spawn from there. But the more fun way to play this part is shoot everyone until the game thinks you’re being too cruel and just stops spawning enemies.

Third part of the demo puts you into Rubi Vision. This is an even more stylized than normal part of the game. This parts with Rubi capping a guy running towards her then she gets blood on her face, when this happens it triggers the Kill Bill Esq. siren sound and everything goes red, black and white. The entire environment is Red while you and the enemies are black and their blood is white. In this mode you can just hold down the trigger and watch the bodies pile up. These segments are cool to look at but are not that different from the core game accept for giving you a few extra weapons to play with. My favourite is the duel crossbows which explode on contact.

Finally the last part of the demo is a quick play action event. You are speeding down a highway trying to get the bad guys from the beginning of the demo but the catch is you are riding on top of the car, not in it. The whole event is scripted to don’t expect anything new to happen the second time around but the action of jumping from car to car and wall running on the side of a transport truck while dodging exploding cars around you just make for some awesome visuals.

While WET isn’t the greatest game out there it brings some uniqueness to the table. Its awesome 70’s inspired, rockabilly soundtrack will keep your toe tapping through the whole demo and the look is unmistakable. The demo left a good impression on me and I’m hoping the full game doesn’t just stretch out everything in this demo to a full game. Look for WET coming to a console near you on September 15th.