Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Artificial Mind & Movement
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Nowhere is this cliché more evident than in the video-game domain, where each year new action games build upon the foundations laid previously by other developers. Think of Bullet Time. First “The Matrix” film series did it. Then Max Payne copped to it. And suddenly, everyone from the Prince of Persia to Blinx the Time Cat was slowing time to get out of a jam. Of course, the movies are no different. You only need look in Quentin Tarentino’s direction. Every film that cool cat has ever seen has stewed in his brain pan and been churned out into the pop-culture fever dreams that he’s concocted; their obscure grindhouse origins are ripe for the enterprising cineaste looking to connect each dot. It’s fitting, then, that Artificial Mind & Movement’s new third-person action game, Wet, should emerge as the love child of QT and the action game genre.

Wet casts you as the tight leather-attired Rubi, a smokin’ hot soldier-of-fortune hired by bad men looking to put the pinch on even more nefarious bastards. In this highly cinematic adventure, we first meet Rubi as she infiltrates a Hong Kong-based triad looking to obtain a priceless “treasure” for her latest client. Rubi reaches deep down into her bag of tricks, on loan from everyone from the aforementioned Mr. Payne to the wall-running Prince, and pursues her quarry through the rain-slicked streets of Little China. Following this exciting prologue, which doubles as a tutorial, the narrative leaps a year in time and sends Rubi out on a mission of vengeance, tracing her steps from Hong Kong to London and back again.

Wet is played from the third-person perspective and shares a lot in common with games such as Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia. Rubi can dual-wield with the best of them and asserts herself as a nimble little vixen, running up walls and performing pirouettes in midair as she sprays vast enemy hideouts with a fistful of bullets. Throughout the course of her 12-stage adventure, Rubi is challenged with infiltrating a series of enemy enclaves, where you engage in Persia-esque platforming, scanning the environments for nooks and crannies to use on the way from Point A to Point B. While the majority of the game involves this formula of exploration followed by explosive gunfights, every once in awhile you trigger a dynamic Quick Time Event in which you must hammer on the correct button to move to Rubi’s next feat of derring-do. This comes into play in a big way later in the game as you find yourself free-falling to Earth while engaged in a midair ballet of bullets. Also, several times during the journey you enter Rage mode. An homage to Tarentino’s “Kill Bill” and Frank Miller’s “Sin City,” this mode swaps the color palette with bold reds, blacks and whites and lets loose Rubi’s bloodlust as she pinballs through environments, eradicating a seemingly endless array of goons while upping her chain score.

Wet unabashedly bears the imprints of its cinematic and video-game forebears. The grainy filter applied to the graphics, coupled with the numerous movie theater cutaways (such as the brief announcements that urge you to hit the lobby for refreshments or to refrain from smoking in the theater), are ripped from Tarentino’s “Grindhouse” flick, itself a tribute to the films he watched in his youth. Wet is littered with little audio cues that pay tribute to Tarentino and his influences, including the “Kill Bill” siren that blares when Rubi enters Rage mode. The gameplay is cribbed wholesale from past action classics, with the acrobatics on loan from Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia, and the slo-mo, high flying gun battles ripped from Max Payne. Heck, the whole Hong Kong setting feels swiped from John Woo’s Stranglehold, a game to which this one bears a surprising number of similarities.

While Wet lacks originality, it flies high on sheer audacity. The second level alone – an extended QTE sequence that finds Rubi blasting away at bad guys while “street skating” on a rapidly escalating series of vehicles streaking down a bustling highway – injects a giddy high that I thought impossible for this stale form of interactive cutscene. The fact that Wet makes such a sequence enjoyable convinces you that the developers know how to boost the adrenaline. But the main problem with the game is that it’s over way too quickly. I was able to blast through all 12 stages on the highest available difficulty level in two quick evening sessions (two more unlock upon completion). That’s about five hours, tops. While you could run through the game on the other difficulty levels, there’s nothing new to unlock, other than some achievements. There’s no multiplayer component, aside from some ancillary Challenge modes (essentially weapons drills that are rated with Bronze, Silver or Gold medals), so you’ll see all there is to see in a matter of days.

Wet is a kicky, stylish ride while it lasts. I guess its short length is yet another by-product of its B-movie beginnings, as those features often ran 90 minutes or less to accommodate the double billing. While the plot is absolutely insane, and profane at all times, there is a genuine kick to be had playing this game. It’s an energetic romp in a familiar world that tips its cap to Tarentino and his brethren at every possible opportunity. I think fans of hard-boiled cinema will eat this up. But be warned: the last reel comes fast and furious.

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