Wet

Wet marks something of a departure for the cerebral Bethesda – a 3rd person shoot-em-up that bears more similarities to Max Payne than the likes of Fallout and Elder Scrolls that made their name.

However, the biggest single influence is Quentin Tarantino, with a Kill Bill-inspired plot and a gritty, irreverent style straight out of Grindhouse.The title refers to Wetworks, industry slang for assassinations, rather than anything more gratuitous, although your heroine, Rubi, has clearly been designed with the target adolescent male audience in mind.

Thanks to a training level that introduces you to all Rubi's abilities, Wet wastes no time setting out its store, namely over-the-top action sequences punctuated by stylised cut-scenes. Charging in without mastering the basics is rewarded with a quick restart, and you quickly learn that forward planning is not the way it works.

Rubi is someone who likes to shoot, stab, even think while on the move, which takes a bit of getting used to. Fortunately, as soon as you execute a leap, slide or wall jump, the action slips into slow motion, allowing you time to reposition your crosshair to take out one of more enemies before the move is completed. You start the game with a katana and a couple of automatic handguns, the former somewhat disappointing and only useful when too close to your target to deploy the latter. Guns, however, are much more fun, employing a clever semi-automatic targeting system so one locks onto the nearest enemy leaving you free to pick out the other while moving. However, these are just the start of your powers, with new weapons and abilities unlocked by a score-multiplier function that recognises how stylishly you dispatch your targets.

Shooting several baddies in a single move counts for more than one at a time, using headshots more still and so on. It's a clever mechanic that keeps you challenged once you've ceased to be impressed by Rubi's knack of doing even the simplest things with panache. For instance, why climb down a ladder when you can hold onto the rails with your knees and slide upside down, shooting as you go? Admittedly, most of the set pieces have been cribbed from the movies, with Sin City and Matrix Reloaded two obvious reference points, but the moment the colour pallet changes as Rubi goes into Rage mode, it's hard not to be impressed. Yes, it's largely a game on rails and the hand-to-hand combat something of a button-masher, but Wet is still a stylish, attitude-filled fight-fest that boys of all ages should relish.