| Heavenly Rubi Ultimately the overall score of this game varies depending on your expectations. Many gamers and critics are expecting a linear story adventure, and finding sequences of closed arenas and spawn doors will instantly turn their opinion sour. Coming at the game with an expectation for a style point acrobatic arena game with shooting drives up opinions by a large margin. It's unfortunate that the time without a publisher appears to have taken a little bit of a toll on the direction of the game. It gets better as it goes on, presumably reflecting the past four months of refinement since Bethesda took over the publishing slot. The true low point of the game isn't its presentation or arena play-style however, but its extreme levels of frustration as a result of several set-piece stunt segments and battle difficulties that were poorly planned in a few key areas. If you can overlook these shortcomings, though, there's a truly interesting and unique game that combines the slow-motion shooting of Max Payne, the arena wave battles of Uncharted, the mid-air stunt awards of Shaun White Snowboarding, and the combat style chains of Heavenly Sword, then mixes all that into Tarantino's Kill Bill-esque universe, presents it in Grindhouse style and ends with a touch of its own flair. For a good arcade action romp dripping with style over substance that doesn't get in the way of gameplay - or at least not too often - WET will be a thrill. For the huge Tarantino fans out there, it's just like playing the movies. For those hoping for a more traditional game, deep story, or large and diverse levels, WET will probably leave a lot to be desired, especially at full price. It's a game that is a huge success, despite some incredible frustration, in doing what it intended to do, but a miss for descriptive materials, which by nature must be far shorter than this review, to tell buyers what exactly it intended to do. The score here is based on the assumption that you now know what the play style is. For those who skipped the description portion of the review (tisk, tisk,) subtract 20%; You're probably assuming it's a different game.
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| Graphics
- Sound - Gameplay - Depth
- Multiplayer | Reviewed
by John Del Percio |
GRAPHICS
72 % |
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The graphics are last gen through and through. That said, this is likely required for some of the fast pace action to be handled on all platforms along with the jittery film grain filter. When you get to scenes that truly shine with the slightly gritty graphics look, namely the flaming dragon statue on the balcony of the opera house, it looks amazing, though.
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SOUND
87 % |
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Much of the sound effects in the game are fairly bland, and the endless sound of gunfire gets old and irritating fast. The voice-work, however minimalistic, is excellent however with the likes of Eliza Dushku and the always magnificent Malcom McDowell. What really sells the aural atmosphere of the game, however, is the music. The "Rockabilly funk" flair of the sound featuring numerous licensed tracks from real artists sets a great film mood that keeps the action exciting. Even after the fortieth try...
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GAMEPLAY
83 % |
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This is a mixed bag. If you're expecting a Max Payne like rail story, you're going to hate the reality of arena battles and multipliers. The score would be closer to 60%. If you look at the game from the angle of what it really is, however, and look past the comparisons and fluff, it's entirely unique, innovative, and well done. Thus, the only place it looses points is the scripted set piece stunts, and the amazing amount of frustration the more poorly balanced arenas produce. It's no Prototype, but it's still a lot of reckless fun.
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DEPTH
82 % |
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It's not one of the most epic stories ever to grace the console, but the over the top psychotic characters and twists in the story deserves some art-house credit for an inventive, if derivative story. The environment helps the feel of the story along extremely well against writer Duppy Demetrius' story, which comes across far more subtle than it actually is. The gameplay depth, while shallow on the surface quickly becomes more detailed as you start paying attention to the true game mechanics. On your feet (or rather, off your feet) thinking is almost a mini-game within the game when it comes to determining which of your four weapons to use at what times, what enemies to take down first (noting that you can shoot at two different enemies at once,) what direction to duck to, how to string the most moves together, and what door to shut down first. It's the kind of game that will make a lot more sense on the second play-through.
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MULTIPLAYER
0 % |
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N/A
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I admit to being part of that jaded set of gamers that came to it expecting something very different. At first I was highly underwhelmed. It didn't seem bad, but it didn't seem good. As I stuck with it for a while and got into the groove of how it's really supposed to work, it picked up a whole new freestyle kind of fun. Then I got to the frustration and hated it again for a short while. Since the impossible things aren't fully impossible, though, and the high points are definitely worth it, the game deserves this far higher score than I initially considered. It's very good, but could have been better, no doubt, if it had a single publisher from the beginning to help focus the creativity. It's a game I definitely want to see return for a sequel with a lot of refinement, a bigger story, and some of the repetition pared down. The chaingunners need to go in the sequel. They kill the flow of the acrobatics. A2M take note!
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