Rubi Malone is one tough chick, she doesn’t take "shit" from anyone, and takes no prisoners when she’s on the job. Her job? She’s a fixer, a hitwoman, a lone warrior, a bit of an alcoholic, and a hired gun (well, she comes with several guns actually). Need a difficult task doing, and Rubi will do it – for the right price, and usually involving a lot of spilt blood. In fact the game’s title comes from the term “wet work”, which is a euphemism for murder or assassination, alluding to the killer’s hands being literally wet with blood. Think Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2 and you’ll pretty much have her summed up. Rubi is voiced by Eliza Dushku. If you’re a 360 addict you might recognise her as she also supplied Shaundi’s voice in Saints Row 2, but she has also appeared in Ugly Betty, Tru Calling, Buffy and Angel, so it’s unsurprising that she does a great job, and gives Rubi bags of attitude as she has plenty of one-liners and mutters a lot of profanities - you wouldn’t take Rubi home to meet Mom (or maybe you would – yeah, I definitely would, despite her penchant for alcohol, torture and sadism). Other voice talent is provided by well-known actors like Malcolm MacDowell and Alan Cumming.
Rubi is contracted to retrieve a plastic case, this case contains something that saves a rich guy named Ackers’s life. Ackers is impressed by Rubi and asks her to rescue his son from a gang that Rubi is led to believe have kidnapped him. Naturally with you playing as Rubi she does her job, collects the money, but then everything goes tits up, and the game really starts.
Rubi is an acrobatic little thing, she can dive (A), wall run (L trigger), ground slide (B) on her knees, swing on a pole or slide down a zip line and each of these moves triggers WET’s version of bullet time which makes her harder to hit and it easier for you to target the plentiful enemies she encounters. New moves and extra abilities can be unlocked and bought in the upgrade shop after every level. Rubi can also draw a very pointy-looking sword and slash, slice ‘n’ dice enemies with presses of ‘X’. When in acrobatic slow-mo Rubi automatically aims at a target with one hand so you can sight up another, it makes shootouts much more active and dynamic than say, Tomb Raider’s, and plays a bit like an improved John Woo’s Stranglehold, with a hint of Prince of Persia, and is better than them both. She can also string moves together, such as wall-running into a dive-roll into a knee slide (whilst shooting all the time in acrobatic slow-mo) and then slashing an enemy with her sword as she rises. It looks cool and feels even cooler when a successful combo of shots and hits comes off, and the only thing missing is a replay mode with which you could have enjoyed your blood-spattered exploits. Maybe an idea for the inevitable WET 2: Wetter?
Levels tend to be a matter of finding your way to an arena-type location and a boss battle. This will involve a lot of death-dealing and some Tomb Raider-esque clambering and climbing. Rubi is aided by ‘Rubivision’ which indicates which surfaces can be used, but you’ll still have to stop and think about where to go from time to time. Every now and again you’ll have to rely on a ‘leap of faith’ which will result in more than a few deaths and replays of sections, but the checkpoints are plentiful so this never becomes too much of a chore.
Occasionally Rubi will get splattered with blood that sends her into a ‘Rage’ mode level – everything gets red-tinted and these short sections are all about dispatching the enemies as quickly and violently as possible. The pace of the game is extremely frantic, and the lulls after a fight when you can just explore what is probably a body-strewn location come as a welcome relief. Sometimes what appears to be a plain old cut scene turns out to be a QTE (quick time event) so matching the button prompts will progress you while getting them wrong will result in Rubi’s demise. Other levels add variety like freeway shootouts (reminiscent of The Matrix films) and a memorable level in which a plane explodes and Rubi has to freefall to catch up with the only remaining parachute, whilst avoiding burning wreckage.
Rubi has four weapons; pistols, machine guns, shotguns and mini crossbows. These are unlocked and upgradeable as you progress through the story mode, and are selected via the D-pad. Rubi’s pistols have endless ammo but the other, more powerful weapons have limited ammo. Extra ammo can be found by searching the detailed levels carefully. Rubi can replenish her health by taking a swig of booze, or racking up kills keeps the multiplier gauge full and also replenishes her health. There are also collectible clockwork monkeys to find on each level, I’m not sure of the significance of these but, she has monkeys engraved on her pistols and several of the bad guys call Rubi ‘monkey girl’. It’s probably a fetish thing.
Rubi’s boneyard hideout is tucked away in a Texas aircraft graveyard. Here, between missions, you can practice and perfect her weapon skills with what are basically dynamic shooting galleries, as you run, leap, dive, slide and clamber around the place shooting targets as they pop up. Shooting hubcap triggers makes the actual targets pop up so you can shoot them to score. Once the story mode is completed a challenge mode is unlocked which extends the lifespan of the game significantly. The challenges include the original weapon runs plus extras and time trials to test your agility. They all have bronze, silver and gold rankings so the challenge mode has that ‘one more go’ addictive quality.
Visually WET looks better and better as the game progresses, Rubi looks great and is well animated, and the locations are immensely detailed. It’s a shame more scenery isn’t destructible but Rubi can still cause plenty of mayhem as there are a number of explosive items of scenery (such as fuel drums, fire extinguishers etc) that you can use for ‘environmental kills’. It has a crisp, graphic-novel-come-to-life look and the developers even overlaid an aged movie film effect on top. As clever and atmospheric as this is, this scratched, juddering effect made my eyes go funny after a while so I was pleased that you can turn it off in the options. The stylish presentation extends even to loading screens, which are often cleverly masked with Rubi opening a door, or riding an elevator, or with a ‘50s info movie. If I was asked to pick a fault with the game then I’d say that just as with Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Underworld, Rubi sometimes moves too quickly, making her difficult to control accurately in some situations.
As previously mentioned the styling of the game has a distinct Quentin Tarantino/John Woo influence and the soundtrack could be straight from a Tarantino movie. I’ve never heard of any of the contributing bands (The Creepshow, The Brains, The Chop Tops, Brasstronaut, Creepin’ Cadavers, Echo Pilot, Gypsy Pistoleros, Long Tall Texans, The Hypnophobics and Three Bad Jack) but the music suits the game and adds to the atmosphere immeasurably.
Stylish, exciting and extremely violent, WET is an adrenalin-soaked noir-ish action adventure that doesn’t disappoint, and is probably a must-play experience for fans of the Kill Bill movies.
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