Artifical Mind and Movement, the developers behind such kid games as Happy Feet, Chicken Little, and Ice Age are straying from their normal formula with WET, an action game published by Bethesda Softworks. Does this foray into the unknown end with success, or should the sword be put away?
WET follows Rubi, a gun-for-hire who will take any job so long as the pay is good. However, during one mission Rubi is tricked and must track down the mastermind in order to enact her revenge. It’s your typical action plot with not many surprises, but it succeeds in moving along the story between the action sequences.
The gameplay in WET is all about acrobatics and score points. You can jump, dive, slide, wall run and much more throughout every level, and you have to do it to survive. WET really discourages the player from shooting while not doing some form of acrobatics, as your accuracy is severely hampered when not in the air. Like more and more action games out there, WET incorporates a slow motion mechanic into the game. The slow motion is activated while performing an acrobatic move and shooting. It works well as Rubi can dual wield weapons, allowing you to shoot at two targets at once. When in slow-mo, Rubi will automatically target an enemy, leaving you to move the right joystick to target a second enemy.
During each mission, Rubi will run into Arena fights with simple objectives: destroy the spawn points, stay alive, and kill everyone. These battles are usually pretty fun, and offer many opportunities to jump around and score some big points. During some missions though, Rubi will enter “blood mode” where everything turns red and you go on a rampage. The mode is fun and reminds me a lot of Kill Bill. Even the cue in the music when the mode activates is reminiscent of the film. To switch things up, the game also features plenty of Quick Time Events and timed events in Rubi’s boneyard. The Quick Time Events are not very difficult, and are properly spread out between action sequences, so they never really get old. The boneyard is Rubi’s personal hideout, and it’s where you will test out the new weapons you receive.
