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Oh dear, oh dear. When will publishers stop giving games featuring female characters provocative titles? I mean, God of War wasn't called Rigid, now was it?

Bloody hell!

Symptomatic of catering to a mainly male audience, I guess. Wet in this instance is short for "wet work," which is work where the player literally gets wet with blood.

Needless to say, this isn't a game about working at an abattoir.

Wet presents the gaming world with the new character, Rubi Malone, a borderline psychotic killing machine with occasional brief moments of humanity (but only during cutscenes).

Go ahead, make my day

Despite her lithe appearance and close-fitting attire, she didn't come across during the game as just a piece of eye candy.

I don't know if it was by accident or design, but Rubi actually felt like a strong female lead with a heavy emphasis on the "don't mess with her, that lady's harder than Clint Eastwood".

Back to the grind house

The whole game is rendered and presented like a grind house movie where the in-game screen is overlaid with a grainy, damaged film effect (it can be turned off).

The story, as it is, is a fairly enjoyable and violent romp with some dodgy voice acting at times and over-the-top set pieces (all in the grind-house spirit).

In-game, Rubi has the ability to duel, wield pistols, machine guns, shotguns, as well an elaborately decorated katana. Her abilities revolve around her impressive acrobatic skills.

Guns a-blazin'

Rubi can run up walls and flip away backwards with guns blazing. Most of your time will be spent leaping or diving. While running along walls, sliding, or diving over tables or leaping from balconies, you're rewarded with slow motion and the ability to duel fire (something Rubi won't do while simply running).

The level design is generally conducive to doing backflips and the like, although at times a simple piece of scenery will become your worst enemy and drop Rubi back down to earth in the middle of an impressive dive.

Also at times you'll be dropped into an instant-death pit because you were too focused on the enemy.

Other times you will need to progress through the level with some Prince of Persia-style climbing, although where to jump next can sometimes slow the platforming action.

This is unfortunate but not frequent. Impressive manoeuvres provide increased money, which can be spent on new moves and weapon upgrades.

There are only four weapons to find and after each acquisition you are sent back to your hideout in the desert to take part in an obstacle course, which will require you to shoot targets during leaps and wall runs.

The best parts of the game transpire in arenas. These areas are large open spaces where Rubi has to close enemy spawning points before finishing off any loose stragglers.

Often you will also have to take on a minigun-wielding boss, as well, which will culminate with a messy, quick-time button pressing finisher. At other times you'll be jumping behind a floor-mounted minigun yourself in order to thin out a hoard of thugs.

Flip out

Breaking up the action are events that trigger Rubi's (for want of a better phrase) flip-out move. During these segments, Rubi gets drenched in blood, rendering the world as you see it black and red and enabling Rubi to dual-wield at all times, as well as up her damage output.

What is strange is that the only real boss fights are done via the aforementioned quicktime events, which are not satisfactory.

Two highway levels also appear where you have to jump from car to car (via quick-time button presses) while shooting at gangsters, but the best and most infuriating level (in my opinion) is where Rubi is falling to earth surrounded by falling plane wreckage, which you have to avoid. Brush off so much as a burning crate and it's game over.

Exhilarating music is good music

Reference should also be made of the great music score, which is present during the most exhilarating sequences.

Overall, Wet has its flaws but ultimately it is fast paced and fun.

Tilt/originality 6
Graphics 7
Gameplay 8
Sound 7
Re-playability 5
Score 6.6

By Logan McMillan