Though its hard to ignore WET's problems, it's impossible to ignore its strengths- it should have stuck more with them.
Story: WET is a 70's grindhouse themed game that presents itself like a drive-in movie- except in this case, lasting around 7 hours, and much better looking. Because of the theme, there was absolutely no need for a serious story- WET could have had the most ridiculous premise ever, and no one would have complained- but the additional focus on this element is appreciated.
The story itself is pretty basic- you're a hired gun, and (like pretty much every other game with a merc character) you get double crossed by a client- and Rubi goes hunting down whoever ticks her off.
The story gets most of its depth from characters, and manages to do a decent job of fleshing them out, only using a limited number of cut scenes in between levels, as to not break up the action to much. New characters are being introduced constantly- and while they're interesting, you barely get to know any of them, despite the fact that some appear to have a history with the main character that the player is never made aware of. Rubi herself is a very like-able character- not in the sense that if such a person actually existed you would want to get with in 50 feet of her (you wouldn't), but she's really, really cool- and she is taken seriously in addition to being easy on the eyes. She comes off as ruthless- but not sociopathic, and there aren't any inconsistencies with her character development.
Gameplay: WET's gameplay is at first- nothing new. There's some platforming, and fights where you take out a bunch of bad-guys, move on to the next area (with some plat forming sequence in between) where you'll kill more bad guys, move on so on and so forth. Thankfully, the gameplay manages to mix things up just enough to keep you going for 7 hours. If you've seen any trailer of the game- you'll see Rubi's agility on full display. When Rubi is in the air simply pulling the trigger will make her automatically shoot one enemy, while you can automatically shoot another enemy by manually aiming your duel-wielded weapon- in addition to that, during these acrobatic, Rubi is put in to a slo-mo "bullet time" were everything is slowed down and the camera focuses in on Rubi. Unlike FEAR or Max Payne, which have a similar feature- Rubi can use this ability endlessly, every time you press a button to wall run, slide, jump, swing or whatever. It doesn't make her invincible though- if you keep using the same move over and over again, you'll gain less style points for it, and style points are proportional to the rate at which Rubi regains health. To make it through the more difficult parts of the game, you have to chain acrobatic moves together. Its fun to do this, however, and it makes in game combat look at first to be a pre-coordinated cut-scene in awesome slo-motion.
The down side to Rubi's acrobatic skills, is that while they're immensely useful for killing, that aren't incredibly adept at jumping from building to building. The platforming feels clunky- and you'll die more from falling than you do from bullets. Some platforming is mixed in with combat- which makes it tolerable, as you can gun down enemies while swinging on flag polls or jumping across elevator shafts and many other obstacles- but there are some spots in the game where there are no enemies, just environmental hazards. Playing these sequences- especially in ones where Rubi's acrobatics tend to falter- shatters the pacing and grinds the action to a halt. The frustrating platforming sequences where you die multiple times attempting the same jump will ensure that Rubi isn't the only one who has the occasional uncontrollable outburst of rage.
Around 10 times during the game- you are rewarded with some of the greatest action sequences you'll ever play- and though they last usually only 5 minutes or so a piece, they are sprinkled through the campaign appropriately enough, to make you keep playing, even when you get frustrated, just so you can do the next Arena sequences. Arena sequences are laid out simply- there's an open area, with multiple enemy spawn-points that you must close with your sword, all while getting as many style points as you can, and dealing with the relentless wave of enemies emerging from the spawn points. These areas are designed to give you multiple options of acrobatic moves to complete the arena as stylishly as possible- polls for swinging, ramps, cars, zip-lines, railings, etc are placed throughout these areas so at all times you're only a couple buttons away from pulling off some matrix-like moves.
Also, there are other sequences that will get you're adrenaline pumping, like rage mode, and some context-sensitive action scenes where you press the right button, at the right time, in between shooting at enemies freely- including a car chase scene, and an airplane scene to name a few. Rage mode is implicated into these scenes as well- we're you'll see them all in shades of red, to illustrate that Rubi is angry to the point she actually SEES red. Enemies are sharp contrasts of black and white, and blood spattering everywhere is white- it looks really cool. You even get to see this effect in some of the arena sequences, which mixes it up as to not make those sequences which you will very see often repetitive. Unfortunately, some parts of rage mode can be soured by the platforming- as it is even more difficult to navigate the area with the visual style that makes everything in the environment a shade of red- if you are a colorblind, you have no hope here.
Lastly there are some training sequences in which you do acrobatics while shooting pop-up targets and running to a finish line. These are the ONLY sequences where the platforming feels like it is working as it should- unfortunately, you won't enjoy it as much with the lack of live targets to shoot at- but some may enjoy the challenge of getting a gold ranking, if for nothing else, to get more points to purchase upgrades. The upgrade system- I will note, is shallow- which is actually good, because you won't have to replay levels or rack up a ton of points to get all of Rubi's moves. Style points just by running through the campaign and doing average is decent enough to get all you need- minus useless upgrades like shotgun fire-rate.
Graphics: You can tell just by looking that the gameplay in WET looks awesome- but the graphics are pretty much adequate for an action game. To match the grindhouse/70's movie theme, there is a film scratch filter. You can disable this if you'd like, but having it on sets the tone of the game better, and actually hides some graphical shortcomings of the game. The effect doesn't make the graphics look better, but in terms of overall presentation, it is a thoughtful addition, and it does accommodate those who would rather not have it at all. There are some problems with the frame-rate, but they aren't prevalent by any means, and you'll encounter them very rarely, and probably only in an arena where you are taking an abnormally long time to kill enemies or close spawn points. Cut scene graphics are a bit underwhelming, but action-oriented cut-scenes are well choreographed, though they won't be as impressive, considering you'll be able to do many of the things you see in cut scenes in actual gameplay. Still, it's more than you can say for most action games with hours of cut scenes and gameplay that can't compare. Because WET clearly doesn't attempt realism, it's very hard to be critical of it for graphics- but they still could have been better. Rubi's character model is well done- and you can tell there was alot of attention to detail, including her uniquely decorated sword, and the monkey engraved on each of her pistols. The detail on Rubi, however shows that the story left too much of her unexplained.
Sound: I don't often include a whole section for sound in my reviews- I usually blend it into the other sections in terms of how the sound effects that aspect of the game- but in WET, clearly alot of time went to making the soundtrack fit perfectly, and the guns and the sword sound brutal when shooting or slashing. The soundtrack in WET is a real treat- because despite coming from third-part musicians and bands, it's all original and specifically geared towards the game. Bethesda's hand is certainly here, as production of all these tracks couldn't have been cheap. The songs are meant to copy 70's or 80's rock that would regularly be used in action movies. Every arena sequence and rage sequence has a track specially tailored for it- "She's lost control" is the track used for the first rage sequence. The music enhances the game and through the course of the campaign you'll hardly hear the same track twice. Mind you, none of the songs are going to become platinum single albums- but its still way more than many other games provide in terms of music. Rarely in a game can sound be the most applauded aspect of the game- but that's the case in WET
Overall: WET has no replay value- if you didn't like the game the first time around, but if you enjoyed the action as much as I did, you'll want to go back through the campaign to beat your high score in the arenas- or try it on a different difficulty. There's also a great reason to play the game again if you enjoyed it the first time- and that's golden bullet mode. In this mode- Rubi's health is much more limited, but her pistols kill enemies with one shots. This will put the entire focus of the game on style, as you can't afford to run and gun without making use of Rubi's skills without meeting a quick death- it also means you won't have to deal with the shallow upgrading systems, as your pistols will be powerful throughout the game. I recommend anyone one a second play through try this mode of campaign- rather than just the hard difficulty level, which makes the game more or less, the exact same affair, just a little bit tougher. Of course, WET isn't for everyone, and the flaws of the game may stand out to some more than others- and this determines how much value you'll get from the game. I suggest a rent for anyone interested, because there's definitely something special about this game that makes it so fun despite coming up short of what it could have been.