WET Demo First Impressions (And a Bit on Section 8)

First off, I would like to say I'm done with the Section 8 Demo. I just don't like it. The controls are awful, the game doesn't give you any kind of tutorial, it just drops you into the action and expects you to know what to do. It doesn't tell you the objective of the gametypes, either. With controls like RB to jump (I think, they were so muddled I forgot them by now) figuring out what to do definitely takes some doing. Then there is the matter of killing someone. In most FPS games, you want a fight with another person to last a got 5, maybe 10 seconds. In Section 8, people can take forever to kill. I had an opponent standing still at one point and it took quite a number of head shots to kill him, and the knife (described as 'extremely lethal') has sometimes taken me as many as 2 or 3 backstabs for a kill. I don't like the demo, and I don't plan on playing it anymore. Sorry.

Now for the main order of business: the WET demo. I am following Microsoft on Twitter, so when I saw the WET demo was out today I was more than eager to download it. This game is one of my preorders, so I am definitely going to post a good review of this one.

The WET demo, firstly, is a wonderful demo; it gives you a wonderful feel of what to expect in the game and is split into three parts.

The demo opens up with a very Grindhouse, Tarantino-Rodriguez scene with a deal going on between two people, during which gunfire breaks out to cool music and our heroine busts in. This is where you take control. The game teaches you some basic acrobatics and then thrusts you headlong into a gunfight in a room with planty of stacked champagne glasses and exquisite glass sculptures, which appease the destructive appetite of your bullets. At first, the controls felt weird. My initial attempt at this part ended with my health startlingly low, but still dominant. The acrobatics and shooting are fun and smooth, and while you can just jump around and shoot people a ton of times in the body, the game awards you with location specific shots by giving you bonus points and cool names (e.g. BALL BREAKER and SKULL CRACKER and things like that). It is a whole lot of fun, and once you get used to the controls you become a ridculous killing machine.

Once you clear the first room of unwitting minions, you continue to chase your prey along some alley ways and rooftops, where the game demonstrates the gun/sword-play-acrobatics by doing stuff like shooting enemies while you slide down a ladder upside down. It's a blast, although some of the more specific jumping tasks feel a bit wonky. You have to be jumping in the exact right direction from the exact right spot at the exact right time. Also, the health system is pretty different. As you wander around the levels you find crates of (I'm guessing) whiskey and drinking one refills your health in a cool sequence that is a rather wasteful use of whiskey. However, when you get into the enclose gunfights, there is no suck healing item. When in these situations, killing enemies starts up a combo meter, the higher the meter the faster your health regenerates. This is nice because unlike most games where you hide to get health, in WET you keep on killing and go headfirst into the battle to get your health back.

The second part of the demo puts you into a super killing spree mode, I'm not sure what it's called yet but I'm guessing it's what they call Rubi Vision. Rubi, the main character if you hadn't picked up on that, walks into a room and an enemy charges her. She shoots him, and when she does her face is covered in blood. The screen turns red and your ears are violently assaulted, a la Kill Bill's flashbacks, and it stays that way. Everything around you is colored in red, black and white, and your health is bossted to a ridiculous point as you get attacked by a whole bunch of enemies. This part is very visual and a lot of fun, as you are basically an unstoppable force. Other than the different visuals and increased power, however, it's basically like the first part of the demo.

The third part is my favorite: the car chase. You start on the roof of a car, guns out, and shoot enemies leaning out of other cars. However, you don't just stay on one car. As the sequence progresses, you are forced to jump from car to car in a series of quick time events, often ending in dismemberment, impalement and other forms of death. If you haven't gathered, this is a very violent game, in true grindhouse style. The only thing I don't like about the car chase sequence is that sometimes the enemies have ridiculous amounts of health. I shot a few in the head multiple times and had them survive.

All in all, WET is looking to be a very bloody, fun and cinematic shooter, and one I definitely can't wait for. It's bloody, epically cinematic and, most importantly, a lot of fun. I'll be sure to post a full review as soon as I can after its release next month.

WET Product Site: http://wet.bethsoft.com/

Section 8 Product Site: http://www.joinsection8.com/

Mini Ninjas Demo Impressions

I just got done playing through the Mini Ninjas demo for the first time and I must say I am pretty impressed; this is starting to look like it will not only be a rather diverse game, but also succeed at its diversity.
The demo starts off with a little ceinematic where you are given a mission by your master to investigate an abandoned castle nearby. The visuals are very cute. The colors are bright and everything is miniaturised, making it look very soft and cartoony.
There only seems to be dialogue when it is important (e.g. when you are being told to do something) and during the cutscenes the characters interact mostly through sounds and body motion. The humor is very kid-oriented, people tripping and enemies pointing their weapons the wrong way and so forth, and the gameplay is also easily accessible, making this a game someone of any age can enjoy.
During the demo you have three characters to choose from, but being the main fella (Hiro) is what it is definitely geared toward. He can use magic, fish, find magical shrines and possess the creatures of the forest, things all which the other two can't do. You use one of the others near the end to fight a large enemy and the third character doesn't seem to have any specific use at all.
In a couple parts of the demo you come across water. When you get in the water, you can jump into your hat, which doubles at a boat. There are a couple parts in the demo where you are riding down-stream and you hit some rapids and you have to navigate through the rocks. Your hat-boat fills a little bit with water every time you hit a rock, and if the hat fills up you have to swim (the only downside is it's slower) while your hat is drained of water. One thing I like about these sections is the fact they are integrated into the game, they don't feel like a forced in mini game like a lot of games achieve.
The combat is very simple. You have a soft attack and a hard attack and you can occasionally use a power attack from picking up red orbs some enemies drop. There are also a variety of ninja-esque items you can use, from caltrops to shuriken to smoke bombs. You can also make potions in this game. When you find the 'store' you can buy recipes from him, and as you explore you find the ingredients to use in the making of these potions. This brings me to my major issue I have with the demo.
When you pause, you find a menu option that says Progress. You progress through the level is measured by 5 things you find along your way. Basically this is looking like it will be a big ol' collecta-thon, a common trend the heavily plagues kid-friendly games and games that are hard-up for achievement material that I wish would stop.
Overall, this is a fun demo and one I would reccommend for download (especially for those with kids). As for the actual game, I will have to wait and see more.

Game Site: www.minininjas.com/us