WET DEMO IMPRESSIONS

I‘ll admit that there was something about WET that intrigued me. Yes, besides the name of this new title. And for you adolescent pervs out there, just because the main character of the game is female does not mean you will see her get WET. It has a completely different meaning and Artifical Mind and Movement makes sure to explain it in the very beginning. The screenshots that were teased early on in their marketing campaign, had me very hopeful that I would see a new artistic take on the 3rd person shooter genre. In the end, I think I got what I wanted. Though I am a bit skeptical that WET will be something that I, and other gamers like myself, will actually end up purchasing. Because let’s face it, if a new IP comes out, you automatically want to know if the game is worth “buying” or if it’s “just a rental.” No sense on buying a game that doesn’t accomplish its overall goal of establishing itself with the must have games that are currently out and competing for the number one spot. Let’s just jump right in and get WET shall we?

The Bad:

First off, I found the old fashioned western film “screen flicker” to be extremely annoying. I get what the developers were trying to do, but it’s not necessary. There is so much movement on the screen when the action begins, I don’t need the screen to be constantly flickering as it makes it too chaotic for my taste. I felt like it was going to cause someone to have a seizure or something. Even when the action stopped, that damn flicker was still there. Which was an automatic turn off for me though I soldiered on and tried to ignore it.

The game starts off like a mix of the movie Kill Bill, blending into a Lara Croft Tomb Raider-ish action sequence with a large dose of John Woo’s Stranglehold. Sounds like a decent mix right? With the wild and weird music to put it all together, it took a while to get used to. Though the gameplay controls were instantly intuitive. The gameplay itself was a bit too much for me as each time you jump, slide, or wall run to shoot your enemies in slow motion, it left me feeling like the Max Payne “bullet time” limitations could have been enforced to cease the endless fast pace-slow pace of taking out your opponents. Moving on.

As you quickly progress into the next stage, you can tell how films have heavily influenced this game. Even including, I’m sorry but really not a fan, Eliza Dushku as the main characters voice. I couldn’t help but think the demo could have been better without the cheesy and typical movie dialogue. Do you ever watch a movie with big name stars and think to yourself, “y’know, this movie would have been a lot better if there was a different actor or actress playing that part.” No? Well I do. I’d much rather hear a unknown talented voice behind the main character of a game or movie as I couldn’t help but think of Dushku’s previous movie roles. So it seemed to take the immersiveness out of it for me. Using an unknown voice, ends up establishing that exact voice as the main character. Makes it more believable. Think, Cortana from the Halo trilogy. Could you imagine Cortana’s voice as, say.. Angelina Jolie? No. It would totally kill it and would no longer be Cortana. It would be Angelina playing Cortana, and that’s how I felt with the main character, Rubi.

One last note on the bad before the good begins, the actual enemy characters you face, just so happen to be twins. Around every corner, the same guy. Sometimes even triplets. I don’t know how so many of these clones got there but it’s as if game engine limitations and technology have not been increased over the last 10 years. I don’t want to be fighting 2-4 guys at the same time and have them all look the same. Game studios need to manage this more efficiently in my opinion. Cut a couple of texture resolutions down to free up memory. Take out some irrelevant geometry taking up ridiculous amounts of space. Do whatever you have to do to not show the same character on the screen at the same time. I hate it. If the enemies are not a bunch of underground species of Locust’s from Gears, there is no need to look exactly the same. I don’t want to see it. Especially when they perform the same robotic actions when you’re fighting them.

The Good, and the Surprisingly Awesome:

I was fully prepared to rip this demo a part with all my heart and soul. If that were actually possible of course. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was going to try it though. But then the WET demo kicked into a gear I did not see coming.

Once I got past the beginning stage of diving, wall running and sliding all over the place in bullet time to take out repetitive enemies, something bad happened. Something bad ass is more like it. The main character, Rubi? Well, you see, she ended up getting blood on her face. She got WET. Which set off a chain of events that at first looked over the top to me when I saw prior footage of this on YouTube, but this WET mode actually ended up being so warranted. I found it to be unsettlingly satisfying. Way more than my old conservative soul would like to admit.

You still get to perform the overdone, yet somehow still relevant bullet time to kill off the massive amount of enemies, but all of this is in a simple color palette of plain black, red and hints of white. That’s it, and this is where the stylized art from Artificial Mind and Movement really jumps out and screams at you, “Hey you! Kid!? Look at this shit! aaaaahahaha!” Awesome. That’s what it feels like going through this WET sequence of events, bullet time, shooting and even slashing away at your enemies. Slashing you say? Yes, she does have a sword and using it is probably one of the most rewarding parts of this games action. That part, was spot on.

Finally, the developers switched gears yet again which made me sit more up-right as laying down was not the ideal position to be in when going into the final act. There seemed like there were three whole parts to this demo and each one made me pay more attention. Almost like I was experiencing multiple different games as I progressed. This time, you go through a series of Quick Time Events (QTE) which immediately reminded me of Indigo Prophecy. But the way this part was pulled off, may have been better executed.

You finish the demo by riding on top of a car driving down the freeway while shooting at enemies in vehicles driving next to you. The car you’re riding on just happens to crash (duh, this sequence of events is planned out in advance) but don’t worry, if you press A or X just in time, you can perform the amazing aeriel stunts to make your way onto other vehicles passing by. I had to do this a couple of times as I uncontrollably gawked at the action taking place instead of paying attention to what button I needed to press to keep that action going. But I didn’t mind. I did not get frustrated restarting the whole thing over again. Watching Rubi leap from one vehicle, wall run onto the side of a swerving truck and then onto an enemy vehicle to see her slash the poor dude’s hand off was more than enough reason to purposely not hit the next button, just to see her do it all again. Well done, well done indeed.

In the end.. the demo did not start off well in my opinion. But what Artificial Mind and Movement did to make up for it, sure beats the hell out of any single player demo I have played this year on Xbox Live. With WET being only a single player game, and the fact that the game releases around the same time as HALO: ODST, I doubt sales will do as well as the developers and Bethesda would expect. However, if the demo is any indication as to what to expect of the full retail version, I can see gamers returning to play this game later on in the year once they’re done getting their Halo fix. Even if it’s just a rental.

Did you play the demo yet? If so, let me know what you think in the comments!