A demo for Wet hit Xbox Live Marketplace yesterday. It has not really been on my radar but I saw people describing it as part John Woo and part Quentin Tarantino. That got my attention pretty quickly. After playing through it multiple times I agree that Wet really does feel like you’re in a Tarantino game.  Almost like if Tarantino made a version of Stranglehold (which I like for the most part).  The game is a acrobatic third person shooter with a 70’s movie style. The graphics even have a film grain look that really helps set the atmosphere for the game.You play as Rubi who carries a couple pistols and a sword. I like this combo. When you get in close the sword works great, but from a distance the guns keep you alive. Like a movie anti-hero, I took a ton of damage without ever being killed while taking out courtyards filled with enemies. The game is very bloody and violent, but it the graphical style keeps if from becoming overly gross or realistic.

They have made it really easy to kill people and do acrobatic moves at the same time to get a large combo going.  The A button jumps and B slides. If you shoot while jumping or sliding the game goes into slow motion so you can target enemies better.  Also, it has split targeting during acrobatics moves where one of your guns auto-targets while leaving you the other gun to aim manually.  This allows you to take out two enemies at once and is really fun once you get the hang of it.  Also, I’m pretty sure you never have to reload your guns.  I did not notice at as I was playing but now that I think about it I shot dozens of bullets without out once ever having it stop to reload. The different acrobatic moves also can be used together.  My favorite combo I’ve found so far is to wall run up an enemy while attacking them with a sword. Then jumping off them to attack a couple more enemies. At the start of the demo they tell you how to the basic movements, but there are a lot of other modes they don’t tell you about.  You can hit the Back button to see a list of them.

The demo has three distinct sections in it.  First, there is a normal campaign style mission as you work through a level taking out bad guys and chasing a boss who has a package you want.  This part was a lot of fun as I was learning to use the different moves and take out enemies.  Towards the end of level you get to a large open courtyard where enemies will just keep spawning until you close the doors letting them into the area. If you leave the doors open for a while you can get a huge combo going.  When you’re ready to move on you close the three doors by attacking the controls above them.  As you approach the end of this section you see a cut scene where you shoot an attacker and get blood all over your face.  This leads into the second part of the demo.

The second section strays from the 70’s movie graphics and goes to an all red and black color palette. The section is pretty short and is almost like a large challenge room where the goal is to take out all the enemies without ever loosing your combo multiplier.  You basically work through 3 or 4 rooms taking out about 30 enemies is close corridors and then the section ends. Despite this section seeming immensely bloody because of everything being red I really had a lot of fun sliding through the small area taking out as many bad guys as I could. I generally am not fond of overly bloody or gory games but in Wet since the whole thing is so unrealistic I did not mind it as much.

After clearing the “challenge room” area you proceed to the final section of the demo.  In this portion you are in a lengthy car chase, and you don’t have to move your character at all.  You spend the whole time just aiming and shooting.  It is a highly scripted sequence where as you take out one car of baddies another rolls in to take its place. This third section also adds some quick time events to the mix.  Mostly as the vehicle you are riding on is about to get destroyed you have to jump. Then, as you land on the next car you also may have a second button to attack with your sword.  I do not generally like quick time events, but I did not mind them in this demo.  These button pressing quick time events were never more than a couple in a row and they give you plenty of time to actually press the button after the icon pops up onscreen. Also, unlike a lot of other games, the buttons actually match up to the controls for the game.  Each time there was a quick time even to jump it was the A button and for attacking it was X; just like in the rest of the game.  I really enjoyed the car chase section of the demo.  It was not overly long and the scripted sequence of jumps and attacks was really fun with a lot of shooting mixed in.

I did not see anything in the demo that indicated it has multiplayer but with Halo ODST and Modern Warefare 2 coming out this fall I don’t mind at all.  I already added it to my GameFly Q personally. I would highly recommend checking out the Wet demo.  It will not be for everyone, but if you like this type of action shooter Wet looks to be a lot of fun.