In Bethesda's action game, Wet, you control Rubi Malone, a mysterious bounty hunter who performs various jobs for seedy businessmen. She lets her samurai blade and guns do most of the dirty work, although her athletic prowess is useful for performing bullet-dodging slides and pole swings.

One day, a shady character named William Ackers asks her for help. It seems his son has fallen on hard times overseas, and she's the only one who can rescue him. She does, but it soon becomes a double-cross, and she won't rest until she gets even. It's no easy task, though. Along with an army of thugs, Ackers has a pair of right-hand men, including a blind warrior with good flexibility and a crusty old man called Ze Kollector.

Doesn't matter how far away she is. Rubi will shoot bad guys in their heads.Click to see more images from the game...

Twelve stages of manic action await, and do we mean manic. One minute, Rubi slides down a ladder while shooting enemies with her twin pistols. The next, she hops across cars and runs alongside moving trucks on a freeway, shooting bad guys while trying to stay alive, and that's just the start of the game. Later stages include invading Ackers' estate and jumping out of an exploding plane, only to dive through its debris and wasting bad guys mid-air.

As a side note, Rubi has the greatest health refill we've seen in a game all year. Instead of eating food, she grabs a bottle of whiskey, gulps it down and shoots it.

There are also moments when Rubi goes into a blood frenzy. After shooting a charging enemy, blood splatters into her eyes and she loses it. Everything on-screen turns bright red and white, and she'll run and attack faster as she mows down enemies and builds up a high kill count. It only lasts a little while (until the end of the stage), but it's fun.

Overall, the game's cool, but far from perfect. You'll do body slides, diving double-barreled shotgun blasts and pole swings with ease. However, multiple inaccuracies get in the way. For instance, in one stage, we needed to dive off a terrace in order to reach a pole on the other side of the building. Of the four tries, three were successful. The fourth resulted in a weird glitch where we grabbed onto another ladder with no particular place to go. Missed jumps happen often in this game, but fortunately, you have enough lives to try again and be on your way.

Visually, Wet isn't stunning, but it's very loyal to the B-movie genre. There are screen tears and film clips that give it a Grindhouse-style feel (the talking hot dog cracked us up), and the in-game action looks awesome. Rubi sports exquisite animation, performing flips and slides like a pro. The enemies don't have much detail, but they bleed aplenty once you cut them open. There are occasional hiccups with the camera angles, as it's sometimes hard to tell where a last enemy is on a stage before you clear it. Overall, though, Wet has a cool down-and-dirty look.

What we really like, though, is the audio. Wet features a wonderful and upbeat soundtrack loaded with hillbilly rock, staying true to the Grindhouse motif. The sound effects consist of the usual gunfire and sword effects, but they work. Best of all, the voice acting doesn't suck. Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) does a splendid job giving Rubi just the right amount of attitude, while Malcolm McDowell keeps up the pace as the menacing Ackers. We only wish that Bethesda hired a few Tarantino veterans, like Samuel L. Jackson or Michael Madsen, to fill the other roles.

Where Wet comes up short is replay value. It's a blast the first time, but there's little to come back to. Players can collect toy monkeys hidden throughout the game, as well as unlockable Points Count and Golden Bullets (one hit kills) modes. Past that, the game doesn't have enough surprises.

Still, while it lasts, Wet is a fun ride. The non-stop action, 70's style presentation and imaginative stage design are just what we needed. Turn off your brain and enjoy.