Oct 17, 2007
You'd be forgiven for thinking it's a bit gratuitous. After all, christening a game Wet when its main character is a big breasted, kick-ass female killer called Rubi who packs more weaponry than a Texan household, instantly sets the mind racing towards obvious, lower-region moistness gags and blatantly sexual marketing ploys. But you'd be wrong to be so hasty. You see, rather than being a mere excuse for developer A2M to pack enough polygons into a D-cup to make Lara feel inadequate, Wet is shaping up to be one seriously thrilling all-out action killfest with brains as well as bust and enough imaginative features to have Ms. Croft and a certain Persian royal casting nervous glances over their slender shoulders.
Having spent the best part of a decade developing children's licensed games such as The Grinch, Happy Feet and Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, developer A2M has turned its attention to an all-new adult IP, which borrows heavily from a host of influences ranging from Kill Bill to the works of Sergio Leone. And with gamers increasingly ravenous for new franchises, A2M is confident that Wet will satisfy their lust with a winning combination of breakneck action, freeform acrobatics and blood.
Wet's senior game designer, Patrick Fortier kicks off the demo with a tour of the tutorial level, a set of connected rooms, ledges and corridors in which you'll be able to get to grips with Rubi's array of skills before diving into the main campaign. Traversing gaps with graceful swings and leaps off narrow ledges, Fortier effortlessly completes a tutorial circuit. Spotting our twitching eagerness to get some trigger time, he slides the controller towards us.
Sliding down a ladder while leaning backwards and holding on with just our thighs, we enter a nearby room occupied by five goons clothed in Persil white vests and packing Uzis. Here's the moment we've been waiting for, an up close and brutal bite into Wet's dual-weapon, visceral firefights in which Rubi can simultaneously attack two enemies thanks to the game's innovative split-aiming mechanic. "While you're holding down the lock-on button you can flick the analogue stick towards another target and she'll split her aim," explains Winkler as we open up with dual-pistol salvos, taking out enemies at opposite ends of the enclosure before strafing towards a neat-looking stack of nearby crates to take cover. But we never make it that far; an enemy cuts us down with ease several meters short of the crate stack. Fortier smiles knowingly as he reclaims the controller, intent on showing us how it's done.
