Demo Rundown August '09 : Wet

I could always go for the obvious "Wet" joke, but I've heard it a lot already. I'll pass.

Wet (Wetwork) : A euphemism alluding to hands literally wet with blood.


Wet is an interesting piece. The Demo has a very Tarantino/70's exploitation charm, about half a ton of old school film grain and crazy saturated colors to help set the tone. The graphics themselves aren't the greatest, but the game is sort of cartoon-y, so it works.




You play as Rubi, some badass chick with an unknown [likely generic] backstory
trying to retrieve a case from a man named Simmons, who just ripped someone off in a cliche crimeworld deal. The demo has you chase after Simmons to take the case for yourself.



It plays like a common hack & slash/action shooter. You run around, shoot/stab/acrofuck all the bad guys with style. After a tiny tutorial in which they teach you to to shoot while doing different actions, you're thrown into the game with a slew of enemies. One of the scenarios include enemies coming out of three doors in a huge courtyard. You are to kill the enemies and make your way to the gate mechanisms over each door to destroy them. What's the fun in that? Stab, slash, slide and shoot to your heart's content, then close the gates.



A scene came up which I didn't expect to see involves a cutscene shows a guy charging Rubi and her shooting him in the face with her face becomes drenched in his blood. With an insane look in her eye, a mad rush of red engulfs the screen and you're right back on the attack. Now you're tearing through enemies with sub machine guns and faster sword attacks. puddles and streaks of white represent their blood amongst the red backdrop and no less than a shit ton of enemies come run at you in this corridor.



The next section has you running about trying to reach Simmon's once more, which leads into a huge car chase scene. You will shoot enemies from their cars as a QTE sequence takes you from car roof to car roof as Rubi gets closer to her target.



the demo also continues the trend of East meets West themes in pop culture. The environments are really very Asian inspired while still having a Western feel throughout. The music stands out as well, blasting all kinds of Rock music over the action scenes.


Overall I thought the demo was pretty fun. It's a very Kill Bill meets Stranglehold meets Shoot 'em up experience. The shooting could use some work, the crosshairs were a bit small for the screen and I kind of have a problem with games where crosshairs are just a marker for a general direction of where your bullets are flying. That aside, the game is about style. The demo doesnt demonstrate any groundbreaking aspects in any sense, it merely takes a tried and true genre and gives it a fresh, new and pretty coat of paint

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Demo Rundown August '09

Mini Ninjas


Mini Ninjas is a flowery, fun for everyone type game which follows the story of young Ninja Hiro as he tries to save his ninja clan friends from some generic evil. I didn't really pay attention to all that.

the aesthetic of the game is such that they make the dirty, violent job of being a ninja cute by over inflating everyone's heads and making them about 2 feet tall. The colors are vibrant and lush. Also, instead of copious amounts of blood which spills from dying enemies, they instead morph into cute little animals.


the game features simple hack'n'slash combat mixed with pick up items and magic ninja spells . There's one power in which hiro can possess animals, which stands out because I thought it was cool. everything else is your standard ninja equipment : Shurikens, smoke bombs, etc. it also seems that as hiro saves his friends, the player gains the ability to play as them on the fly and use their abilities. the two included in the demo are Futo, a Hulking Hammer wielding brute and Suzume, generic Kunoichi.


Overall I couldn't really get into it. It's cute, it has ninjas, but I just didn't very much enjoy it. I didn't see any incredible amount of depth within the porduct




Batman Arkham Asylum



When i first heard about Arkham Asylum, I thought "oh, another batman game. that can be cool". Little did I know that it would be the best Batman game I've played to date. the game has a great, dark aesthetic which fits the world of Gotham City extremely well.


The demo starts with Batman Hauling the joker into Arhkam and the chaos starts from there. The demo throws you immediately into hand to hand combat with generic inmates 1,2 and 3 to get you acquainted with the beating the utter shit out of people. the feel of combat is great. When you hit someone, the impact is massive, great attention to detail.

Afterwards you are introduced to other aspects of the game such as detective mode and stealth gameplay. Detective Mode (reminiscent of detective tools in Condemned) allow batman to assess the environment and the things you can do in said environment. Stealth is the essence of Batman's power and integrates well with the combat. All of these aspects blend well and improve the experience as you work your way through various enemies and situations.


The demo is painfully short, about 25 minutes average. It keeps you begging for more. One thing I find cool is that 2 voice actors from Batman the Animated Series Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to their roles as Batman and The Joker respectively. Overall it looks like a fantastic experience and i can't wait to get ahold of it.







Lost Planet 2



Truth be told, I didn't like the first Lost Planet. It was rigid, stiff and incredibly difficult with little to no reward. The co-op demo for the sequel isn't much different. The scenario is that you can team up with 3 friends and wreak havoc on a giant monster (from the inside and out). the map contains a slew of weapons, VS robots and those spawn nodes from the first. Basic gameplay remains the same and they give you everything you need to try and take the monster down.


It didn't change my perspective on the series personally, but i did find a lot more fun in playing with a friend, which can be a selling point for any group of gamers.

Personally, I'll pass.



I would talk about section 8 as well, but I absolutely disliked that game. It was like an incoherent, lame version of Tribes, Halo, F.E.A.R. 2, MoH Airborne and Call of Duty. In a phrase, it's blown.

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