Doesn't quite hit the bullseye
Despite being written by Duppy Demetrius, a writer of the TV show "24," the story is insignificant and ends up getting lost in the noise. The entirety of the game boils down to to entering different corridors and mini arenas and just plugging bad guys in stylish ways. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but when the controls are clunky, that is a problem. The game's main character, Rubi, can jump and slide around environments. These actions trigger slow motion "bullet time" for maximum style. As you earn points killing bad guys in stylish ways, new moves become unlocked to allow Rubi to kill people in even more stylish ways. But even when all moves are unlocked, it still feels limited. Rubi either jumps, slides, or wall runs. And this limited menu of moves becomes stale after a while. It gets worse when these moves are hard to pull off. The most infuriating is the jumping slash move Rubi can unleash with her sword. Getting the starting distance and timing correct to pull off this move ends up allowing the enemy to almost completely wipe you out before you can nail it correctly. Using these new, fancy moves ends up being more trouble than they're worth.
And then there's the issue of the graphics. As stylish and hip as this game tries to be, it can't hide the fact that the grainy filter effect used to put the player in the Grindhouse frame of mind is there to help mask the awful graphics. Seriously, remove the film grain effect and WET looks like a hi-rez last-gen game. Character models aren't terribly detailed, animations are rigid, and the environments are "blah." The Havok physics engine is also wasted here. Very little of the environment is interactive and the ragdoll effects seem to be triggered in a hit-or-miss fashion. The biggest problem with the graphics/art design is the environments are all similar in design and feel. One thing that makes related games like Max Payne 2 and Stranglehold work is in one level you'll battle in a fancy office building or high rise apartment, and the next you'll be in a seedy nightclub or back alley. In WET, you're always in a rundown warehouse, a rundown dock yard, a rundown building, a rundown etc.
I've been very critical of WET so far, but there IS fun to be had. To have fun with this game, you MUST be a fan of these mindless shooters, or else you'll scratch your head wondering what all the fuss is about. If you're new to the genre and want to get your feet WET (ha ha, get it?), there are better games. WET will make for a great budget title once the price drops, but at full price, you're better off waiting or renting.