Raise your hands, how many people have heard of the game Wet? Originally licensed by the now-defunct Sierra, picked up by Vivendi, bought up and then dropped by Activision, and now in the hands of Bethesda Softworks. Wet was supposed to join the vaporware community alongside Starcraft: Ghost and Duke Nukem Forever, but apparently the developers managed to put together something of a finished product with a release date. As for me, I stumbled upon it while skimming the newest demos section on XBOX Live, so I decided to give it a shot.



It starts with a deal gone bad and a chase through some 70's Chinatown. As Rubi (above, voiced by Eliza Dushku!) there's several different ways you can shoot the hired goons that you come across: Diving through the air, leaping off a ledge, swinging around a pole, skidding across the floor, running on a wall, or even sliding down a ladder. Granted, it is a bit difficult for the camera and the aiming reticule to keep up with all of this, there's so much you can do that you're just as likely to slide into an unmoving table as you are to shoot a guy while doing it. Even so, I had quite a bit of fun.

One thing that irked me was the unexplained enemy spawners that could only be destroyed by whacking them with your sword (yes, you have a sword as a melee weapon). It kind of ruined the atmosphere of the level, as I don't remember many exploitation flicks suddenly throwing up enemy spawners in the hero's path while the bad guy waited patiently for them to be destroyed (unless the game later includes zombies, then we'll talk). Even so, it did give me some time to work out more of Rubi's skill set on the hired goons until the evil black vans drove away and this section of the demo was complete.

The second part of the demo involved Rubi shooting a guy in the face and getting some blood splattered on her own. For some reason, this triggered a strange trip where everything around Rubi was painted in three colors. What's black, and white, and red all over? This real twitchy level where random guys in muscle shirts with swords and other guys in suits with pistols all become slaughtered by a high-speed mix of sword-swinging, wall-running, twin-uzi-blasting action. There were a couple of parts where it became difficult to see where I was supposed to wall run to advance, but I figured it out pretty quickly and the killing resumed until I reached the ending door where a scary-looking Rubi kicked it open.



The third part of the demo was both the most exciting and the most frustrating, as you're car-surfing down a highway trying to chase the lead car. Most of the movement is controlled by quick-time events, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view, but the animations look pretty cool in this section. There's one time where Rubi is running alongside a stalled tanker truck as a flaming car spins in the air right behind her, then she leaps off the truck and cuts some gunman's hand off in one swift motion.

However, most of this level, you'll be spending your time shooting at guys, and they'll be shooting back. Unlike the first two parts, unless a QTE pops up, Rubi's feet will be glued to the car and you won't have the slo-mo advantage you had before, which made this part kind of frustrating. It was difficult to hit the gunmen as the cars kept swerving, yet they had little problem shooting back.

Granted, this game could have been "just another shooter," but the thing that sold me was the atmosphere. The Tarantino-esque action (including Dushku growling, "Fuck you, door!" if you take too long to open it), the soundtrack in the background as you cut down those who stand in your way...hell, even the game's interesting twist on health stations where Rubi drinks a bottle of whiskey, tosses it in the air, and shoots it in half in the span of about three seconds. Not to mention the sheer amount of ways that Rubi can kill someone in the game.

Having said all that, I'm still not sure how the final cut will turn out. It could turn out to be another Oni, or another Jet Li: Rise to Honor. But based on my impressions from the demo, it looks like a solid rental if nothing else. Give it a shot and see if it makes you Wet as well.