Bethesda Finds Time for Shooting with Wet

The resurrected version of Wet calls to mind Max Payne on steroids (and lots and lots of painkillers).

When Vivendi Games dumped Wet late in the production cycle nearly a year ago, the future for the title looked bleak, even though it was nearly completed by most accounts. Fortunately, Bethesda  swooped in and bought the rights to the title earlier this year, and the newly reincarnated action shooter was out in full force at this year’s E3.

Bethesda calls it an “acrobatic” shooter, and it becomes apparent why as soon as you pick up the controller and begin completing the control tutorial. Our heroine, Rubi, leaps around from place to place like a monkey in a tree, slowing down time to a Max-Payne-style bullet time every time she fires a weapon in the progress. Interestingly, there’s no cap on how many times this can be used, as there was in Max Payne, since the developers wanted to encourage players to move around as much as possible, and bullet time only goes into effect when engaged in one of these cinematic moves, like sliding on the knees or jumping to the side.

Unlike Max Payne, which moved at a realistic pace and encouraged the use of cover to avoid being blasted to smithereens in a matter of seconds, Wet has been given a shot of adrenaline, and moves at a more spastic, action-movie pace. Rubi can sop up bullets like a champ, leap from car to car on the freeway, and when she’s not gunning down two thugs in midair, she’s able to engage them in brutal melee with a samurai sword. Someone at Vivendi, we suspect, took a queue or two from Kill Bill.

Thank your lucky stars that somebody at Bethesda had their eye out for this title, because this is one game too good to slip through the bureaucratic cracks. We’re looking forward to the release sometime before the holiday season this year.