WET, a Grindhouse-inspired action title from Artificial Mind and Movement, is what would happen if Quentin Tarantino was motivated enough by John Woo’s Stranglehold to try his hand at making a game. Like Grindhouse, WET has more style than substance, but it also just might scratch that itch for action fans wanting something a little over the top.

The inspiration of Tarantino and Woo is obvious at the outset with the game’s heroine, Rubi Malone. Apparently the love child of Beatrix Kiddo and Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, Malone sports a samurai sword and dual-wields weapons with reckless abandon. Encounters with enemies aren’t so much challenges as opportunities to blow out some kneecaps and eyes with style, running along walls and sliding on floors in slow motion. Bloodbaths erupt in makeshift arenas where performance is graded and awarded style points for upgrades in skills and weapons. The arena encounters are broken up by linear platforming portions which require a gymnast’s skills with pits to leap over, ledges to hang from, and poles to swing from. As you spend some time with Malone, you begin to realize that, while there are plenty of platforming sections, combat is what lies at the core of the design.

Whenever a job goes south, and a rousing manhunt ends in betrayal, Malone turns on her old employers in a Kill Bill tale of revenge and redemption. Marquee characters are introduced with snazzy intros and then quickly hustled off, so that you can have an excuse to mow down dozens of their henchmen. The story might not be particularly compelling, but it offered more than enough motivation for me to do 360s in the air while simultaneously blowing the heads off two guys with sawed-off shotguns. Eliza Dushku does a middling job of portraying Malone as the grizzled badass – thanks to a limp performance and the abuse of a handful of tiresome quips – but even the great Malcom McDowell only pulls off a decent performance as the Bill of the title. A problem with the acting isn’t just the delivery but also that the dialogue is never as clever or interesting as its inspirations, with many by-the-number retorts and reliance on expletives to convey anything and everything.

If there is one thing that Artificial Mind and Movement pegged, it’s the Grindhouse aesthetic. The graphics might not be cutting edge, with many an angular character and object model, but the style is definitely there. Everything from the optional grainy filter to the old animated intermission clips -- warnings to not steal drive-in theater speakers to attending a place of worship -- are liberally implemented to give off an ‘old cinema’ vibe. As fun as the clips are, and there are some very catchy jingles (get out of my head, Chilly Dilly Pickles!), it’s a little odd that their look is from an era prior to the game’s 70’s motif.  Much of WET’s design takes a similar approach: look cool, regardless. For a game that strives to provide you with a new angle to slice someone in half, that approach holds up well – but the game’s cracks eventually, and routinely, show.

If you make absolutely no mistakes, then WET is an awesome game. Unfortunately, there are many intentional and unintentional hindrances standing in the way of the perfect playthrough. The exaggerated animations for running, jumping, slicing, and sliding are all well and good -- very flashy -- but they actually drag the game down whenever you slip-up. Miss the platform in one of the game’s required obstacle course and you could be overshooting the platform a few more times before preceding: precision is a luxury that the controls do not offer. When Malone enters into rage mode, simultaneously switching the graphics into a stylized Killer 7 look, you will find it all very cool and exciting; that is, until you fall to your death for the eighth time, because the effect doesn’t take into account your need to estimate distance and depth. The twangy, gritty soundtrack fits well with the game, but after hearing the same song repeated in rage mode for the umpteenth time, even the catchiest of tunes fell victim to the ‘mute’ button.

And then there are the quicktime events. Sometimes brief, often at the worst moments, and sometimes for prolonged sections, they allow Malone to take part in some raucous scenarios, such as jumping between speeding cars on a highway, or in some deeply disappointing moments, such as the staggeringly anticlimactic final boss fight. The highway portions are another instance when the game looks cool but can be equally frustrating; dodging exploding and flipping cars is thrilling, but damage is all but unavoidable. The biggest offender of cool but frustrating has to be a horrible freefall segment where Malone has to avoid debris and falling thugs taking potshots while attempting to reach a parachute before impact: the debris and the freefall are all very exciting, but distance is difficult to judge and any impact will sending you to your death, forcing you to repeat the section numerous times until the patterns are memorized.

The real problem is that there is a large disconnect between the action and platforming elements. While the controls lend themselves to Malone sliding on the floor and leaping up with a sword slice, they are not conducive to the often-particular environment pieces:  you can jump towards a pole and grab it or miss it for no apparent reason. There are way too many insta-kill platforming portions, which is made strikingly apparent once you play through a few hours and realize you’ve yet to die at the hands of the dozens of gangsters you’ve killed but have met your match more than a few times by a tricky ledge or vague indicator. The paths are linear, and you can also highlight interactive spots, but it’s surprising how you can still get stuck with no interactive objects or a clear way to proceed. The combat is fast-paced, acrobatic, and over-the-top, with combos racking up with back-to-back kills and barrels exploding all over the place but the platforming is hamstrung by loose controls, awkward level design, and way too many death traps. The pace the combat works so hard to achieve is too often ground to a halt.

Even with the repetitious portions, WET is still pretty short. There is enough to encourage you to play through the story at least once, thanks to the upgrade system keeping combat lively and the eccentric cast of characters moving things along, but I don’t have a desire to return. The obstacle courses, which are so frustrating at first, can be reran and levels replayed for better times, but the mechanics don’t hold up once you’ve experienced the initial thrills and the story. The game is entertaining enough for a few hours, but it’s not exactly compelling.

Overall: 6.5/10

WET ‘s over-the-top action delivers decent gunplay for about just as long as the story lasts. Beyond the initial playthrough, however, there is little reason to go back. There are modes that allow you to replay obstacle courses and levels, but I got my fill of combat the first time and would prefer to never go through the platforming portions again. The acrobatics are just as important as the gunplay, but the exaggerated controls lead to some irritating deaths, which aren’t helped by some awkward scenarios and poorly designed areas. Fans of Stranglehold should take note.

(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.)