Artificial Mind and Movement's Wet is about "Maxine Payne" or aka "Rubi Malone's" quest for revenge.
But if it is a story you want, you are what appears to be a very gifted bounty hunter that wears dog-tags (implying former military) with green eyes and black hair... You start with a mission to get a briefcase, mindlessly killing all the tux wearing goons in your way. To make a long story short, you end up getting hired, then getting screwed, then getting pissed, then killing a lot of people.
So as Rubi/Maxine Payne you will perform shootdodges similar to the hit series Max Payne while in combat, making everything around you go into slow motion as you leap through the air firing off molten hot shells into the people you don't like.
But unlike Max Payne... Mrs. Payne/Rubi is an acrobat, she can flip around, do all the things most guys love, soar, skid on her knees, slide down ladders by wrapping her legs around them indian style, and she can do all this in slow motion... so she is the love child of Max Payne and Trinity from the Matrix.
Copycat or not, this could all be pretty fun still... and odds are your first playthrough will be enjoyable 'till the end, but there is hardly any replay value of any kind, I'd know because I've beat it nearly three times.
I did not replay it because I wanted to... It was strictly for trophies/achievements.
But like I said, there is fun to be had with this game... Let me explain.
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL
This game is pretty short yes... which could be what saves it from a substantially low rating, because overall the game is VERY repetitive if you don't beat it within the first five or so hours, which is unlikely, since it is not particularly difficult... not even on the harder settings.
Yes, you start up the game for the first time, and witness what is desperately trying to be a storyline... really in the end all it is about is a pissed off alcoholic.. But when you perform your first slowmo jump or slide or wallrun, you'll be impressed, especially if you haven't played Max Payne before.
You will shoot down hundreds and HUNDREDS of people through the course of the game, and for no particular reason at all... just simply because you want to. No negotiating, no honor, no mercy. But after badguy number six-hundred and three or so, you'll start to notice the games core reptitiveness, there really is nothing more to it than constant slowmo massacre after slowmo massacre. You may choose to whip out Mrs.Payne's/Rubi's trusty samurai sword and chop up a few guys, just like you probably chop up your home/scrapyard after one too many swigs of hard liquor. This is enjoyable for a bit, until you start noticing the "one, two, three" type of combos you're performing... watching the same animation "one, two, three" for a while... but then you get to spice things up with upgrades! :D
-_- All three of them... well, it isn't actually just three upgrades, it is more than that, but it won't seem like much more after a while...
But Wet proves something, it proves that you don't need a compelling storyline, sad narrative, great set of visuals and sounds or animations to create a game that entertains.
It proves that all you really need is a hot-headed young figure 8 shaped woman with some tight clothing, guns with infinite ammo, and a sword to entertain someone for hours.
After a while you'll get weapons, like dual-shotguns, or dual-submachineguns. That way your onslaught of slowmo massacres now have more splatter and bullet holes than before. Now you can just sit back and slaughter the masses of baddies that come your way in slow-motion. THE HANGOVER : {
Sometimes too much good is a bad thing, Wet definitely is a strong example of that when it comes to the gaming world. First of all, the game makes no sense... You just slaughter hordes of what appear to be Asian Clones (no offense to Asians) that will set their lives on the line for an altogether hopeless cause... Killing You.
They will just fire aimlessly and endlessly in your general direction and wait to be killed, maybe even make the occasional strafe if you're lucky.
There are a few sequences in the game that occur during cutscenes... basically, you'll be sitting back watching a cutscene, and a button prompt will appear for maybe one full second, if it is not pressed, you will be killed in the cutscene, and you will have to watch the WHOLE FREAKIN' CUTSCENE FROM THE START. This gets particularly frustrating when you fail to do this multiple times, or don't notice them when they appear, because usually you don't expect this since they appear VERY rarely... So in all honesty, it isn't too much of a problem, but it is annoying when it happens.
Headshots, I mean I never played the game on its easiest setting, so if you're playing on normal or above, it takes close to four or five headshots to kill a single enemy with what appears to be dual magnum-like revolvers the size of handcannons. Which is in no way realistic, and very odd... Also bosses are quite pathetic... They are all EXACTLY the same, they just have a different look, but they all hold something like a gatling gun, and stand around as you shoot them in the head in slow motion possibly up to 50 or 60 times... I am not joking when I say that.
You'll enter these "Arena" like sequences in the game, when you conveniently get trapped inside a small area, and you have to flip around 'till you find a few flaming skull symbols floating over "switches" in most cases that you have to bash up so the door that enemies are coming in through at in "infinite" amount can be closed, thus ending the clone invasion and allowing you to move on after you are given points that you will then spend to upgrade things (like gun damage and acrobatic abilities). There are also sequences where a man runs up to you in a short cutscene you shoot him and blood gets on your face, this pisses you off SO HARD, that your vision goes all RED, WHITE, and BLACK... you incinerate people when hitting them with your sword, and you seem to explode people when shooting them, and also irritating punk like music plays in the backround... this gets REALLY OLD after the first couple times.
The Arena and Pissed Off sequences are extremely cool the first couple times... Then extremely boring as you just stare blankly at the screen Continuously holding down the trigger or tapping it rapidly and not much else.
Sometimes throughout the game, you will be required climb things in a platformer like style... occasionally during these moments, controls instantly turn on you, and you will find yourself falling to your death frequently, to view another load screen. (By the way, load screens.... Constant).
Finding hidden monkeys can be "cute" if you're a girl that is into that sort of thing, perhaps an emo styled gal that really can appreciate a game about a girl brutally murdering countless amounts of bad people without flinching, and having no real particular reason in doing so, and then collecting some nice noise making monkeys in a random fashion, because everyone knows that through the gang war torn streets of China, Singapore, etc. there are toy monkeys.
I'll definitely say that I had an appreciation for the game in my first playthrough, but it was offset by a sense of boredom in my second playthrough.
This is a game that could be much more, and with the possibility for a sequel I hope that it ends up being so... but sadly this game is not too great second time around, honestly it gets a bit boring at the end your first playthrough.
Last but not least, the music is soooo irritating to me... maybe not to some, but you can hear the track looping, you're bound to hear each track close to ten times in one play through, and the quality of these punk-rock/metal songs is so horrifically low, I eventually just turned off the music volume.
Buy it, Play it, Stick it on your shelf so your girl/boyfriend can see it and go "Hey, that looks interesting" or "Hey, that looks weird". It really is an enjoyable game first time around, then after you're done just sell it to someone and get your girlfriend a mood ring or something. XD
PARENTAL ADVISORY
Wet is rated Mature for Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, and Strong Language.
Blood is more common than water in this game, which is surprising, since the game is titled Wet, yet you only get wet twice (if that) through the course of the game. So yes blood sprays from baddies and gets all over the walls floors and objects littered throughout the VERY SMALL environments. Gore is pretty sick if you're using your sword, you'll chop of legs, arms, hands, feet, heads, etc. These body parts will proceed to stick around for a bit, before ultimately fading away just like enemy bodies and ultimately making this game Final Fantasy. When shooting people, you will not proceed to dismember anyone, only when using your sword does this happen.
Language is constant, and over dramatic... far too many F-bombs and other spicy words for its own good, it really does start to feel like a playground full of vulgar children after a while.
The Sexually peppered swear words like c*ck and d**k and c**ksucker and d**ksucker, v*g*na, and probably some other nice references to the anatomy are made..
ESRB says that there is a cutscene where a nurse performs oral sex on a man but it is not seen... you only see her stand up from a kneeling position in front of the man, and wipe her mouth. However, in all honesty I did not come across this scene, and I played through the game multiple times... so either this was inaccurate information, or I wasn't paying attention... I believe that the game should be rated for Sexual Themes instead of Content because nothing sexual is depicted. There are just a lot of innuendos and in one sequence Rubi refers to a situation sarcastically as a "wet dream".
There is a drug cartel in the game, and there is a factory in the game where green plants are grown, that are guarded by that cartel.
It puzzles me that the game isn't rated for Use of Alcohol, you will "Take A Swig" to replenish your health when you come across bottles of hard liquor sitting on top of three crates that are scattered throughout the game.
In one sequence Rubi is tortured while hanging by her wrists over a water-filled bathtub that her legs are in, she is first punched by one of the antagonists repeatedly, when she still doesn't give up any information, a midget comes along with a car battery and jumper cables that he then attaches to the tub, causing the water in the tub to electrocute her... It should also be noted that she is wearing a shirt, and a thong during this cutscene. This game is purposefully immoral, it tries to be in a little bit of everyway. What do you expect from a game about mindless revenge?
But like I said, it is a good purchase, and afterwards your girl/boyfriend gets a mood ring, so how can you lose?
Thanks for reading.
-ARBALON