Just like the exploitation films that Wet emulates, Wet is fun but relies on a few too many cheap tricks.
You spend the majority of the game shooting crazy looking dudes. The shooting works but feels a little stiff and unnatural until you got in to slow motion. You go into slow motion by sliding, jumping, climbing or doing anything that is remotely acrobatic. While in slow motion you will target a second enemy automatically. You can't run around on the ground in slow motion. This makes some really cool moments float through the air and kill 4 or 5 dudes. It also makes for some really awkward moments when you will be needlessly diving and flipping trying to target the one dude you missed. If you don't like shooting guys you can close in and use your sword. Much like the shooting, the sword play feels awkward. You only have one three hit combo that you. It can take 2 or 3 hits to kill a guy and killing with the sword cause random body parts to fly off. It gets a little weird when you see a guys hand fly off when you clearly sliced him across the stomach. All of the extended sword fighting is done via quick time events. The button pressing doesn't always match up with your character's actions. So the quick time events feel like a cheap trick.
Another cheap trick the game uses is the upgrading system. Your weapons all feel very under powered until you level them. You don't have abilities that you should start with like the ability to shoot from zip lines or poles. And the abilities you do eventually unlock are useless like the ability to roll on the ground. There aren't that many upgrades but they are fairly cheap so you don't have to worry about wasting all your points on useless upgrades.
The story in Wet is definitely the high point of the game. The over the top character complement the over the top action. They only flaw with the characters is that you don't get to spend enough time with some of them. One character that you do spend a ton of time with is Rubi. Rather then being a cold heartless mass murderer with out any emotion, Rubi is a heartless mass murderer with a personality. She treats killing hoards of faceless gangsters like most people treat their regular boring everyday jobs. She seems annoyed by it, possibly unable to get through the day without her morning, afternoon, evening and late night shot of whiskey. Maybe this is why she occasionally losses it. These are some of the best parts of the game as you get to run through a blood stained world killing everything that moves. That may not sound too different from the normal game play but the increased speed and awesome effect makes just so damn cool. It may be a little silly but it works. Unlike so many other games, Wet doesn't take itself too seriously. In fact it doesn't take itself seriously at all. This works to create a world where the game play fits with the story. In this world it is perfectly logical that someone could surf on cars during a high speed chase or sky dive through the wreckage of plane to grab the only parachute.
It is also perfectly logical that a woman could do the insane acrobatic that Rubi does. But like every other non slow motion action, the platforming doesn't always feel right. More often then not I found myself holding down the trigger so I would automatically go in to slow motion during the platforming sections. This was easier but still felt strange as I was blasting at nothing in epic looking slow motion. All I was doing was choosing the lesser of two annoyances.
Despite its short comings, Wet is still fun. The presentation is unique enough to merit at least one play through. The shooting and platforming can be awkward but for the most part they are not broken. Plus they are broken up by some truly inventive on-rails and rage mode sections. Wet is worth a rent simply for the fact that it is somewhat unique.