Back in 2009 we saw the B-Horror movie revitalized. With Grindhouse releasing that year, which was homage of classic horror movies such as Evil Dead, and other game of that same year also took a hint from this old genre reborn. A2M thought it’d be a good idea to make a video game inspired by a style where blood and cheesy lines reign supreme, but is it enough to keep Wet a solid experience?
Despite some poor choices of skills for the player to gain during the game, and the enormous difficulty spike in the middle of the game, Wet is soaking fun. Here is where it’s frustrating, the game takes awhile to unlock certain key moves in the game, so the player ends up being halfway through the entire campaign before they can jump. This is what is meant by poor choices in moves to award the players with early in the game. You can do neat combos, and awesome and gruesome finishers where you can cause an enemy’s head to decapitate but can’t jump till almost the last part of the game. Now about the difficulty spike mentioned previously, is when the player needs to kill enemies while car hopping. It may seem easy, but you don’t die at all or you start over from the beginning. So try having the “FPS complex”, where every enemy is shooting from every direction in places you can’t really see, while trying to jump and kill enemies on top the next car you need to jump onto. Not only is it almost impossible, but it gets frustrating to the point where the player might actually quit playing for about 2 weeks before coming back to that part. Besides that the gameplay for this game as stated previously reminiscent of a time were you literally took time to build up points due to your skills. Unlike most of what’s out there for video games, the way you play will be the crown jewel to how much points you earn. Just like walking to an arcade to beat the high score back when you were little.
Gameplay: 3/5
Though the gameplay might fall through, the style is top notch, regardless of a few hiccups.
The art style for Wet reminds me of those old B-horror movies with its cheesy, but awesome due to its throw back in its style in presentation. The style of this game is like going back into a toy store after a few years, it feels weird at first but once you roam around it’ll feel all too familiar in a good way. A very gritty and rebellious like feel to it, kind of like the movie Friday the 13th. One can tell the A2M took more time in making the game look beautiful then making it playing, taking the style-over-substance motif to the extreme. I’ll admit there were some texture pop-ins, and graphical hinges, but doesn’t really deviate from the overall experience.
Graphics: 2.5/5
The story is reminiscent of exploitation films of past, showing revenge and redemption. In a nutshell you take control as Rubi who is an assassin that gets hired by a gang of thugs to do their bidding. Unbeknownst to her she was hired by a man of the rival faction Rubi is supposed to be hunting down. So the leader of this gang that she believes hired her, a man Rubi believes goes by the name of William Ackers, ends up killing her and leaving her for dead. So with the help of a few of Rubi’s contacts, she gets leads to Acker’s rival who goes by the name of Rupert Pelham. Though a little complicated, it’s an engaging story through the entire campaign.
Story: 3/5
Though there is more style than substance, one can see the effort that A2M tried to put into making this game. As long as the player is willing to get pass the nuances of this game, it is a worthwhile experience that gets a solid 3.2/5