Wetrix is a very challenging puzzle game which I would say is NOT similar to Tetris. Tetris was a game where you put lines of blocks together to remove them: Wetrix is different in many aspects. In Wetrix you start off with a clean 3D surface plane, you get many shapes available for you to use on this surface plane like a T shape, L shape, Box shape and an I shape. Once these pieces are dropped onto the surface it builds on and merges with the surface.

Not only are the surface pieces random but Water, Fire and Bombs also come in at random times. What you have to do is use the shapes available to you to make a border, or rather a sort of dam which can contain the water so it cannot fall off of the surface plane. If water falls off there is a tube indicator to the side showing how much water has been dropped and when the limit is reached then the game is over. Once you have a few lakes set up you should then wait for fire to become available and you use the fire to evaporate water out of lakes. Fire also evaporates water out of the limit indicator. Bombs basically just destroy the surface and they cause a hole on the surface too, meaning that water can leak out of that hole just as if it was falling out of the side of the surface plane. Holes are easily repaired with more pieces.

Now you must be thinking this game is sort of dull: it's not dull at all, there are so many more situations that can happen. Bombs also reduce the Eartquake meter: every time you drop a piece the earthquake meter rises. Earthquakes ruin the dams you made and make water leak out, and it's a time for major repair. Your whole lake can be turned into ice and bombs cannot penetrate the ice, but of course fire melts ice. If you're lucky enough and get vast amount of water into a dam consecutively without other pieces coming up next or without leaks then you will get a Rainbow Multiplier which will double your score. You might even see a cool rubber ducky floating in your lake if it's tall enough.

Even though the game is not 3Dfx, the graphics are spectacular. There are 3 modes you can choose from: 320x200, 640x480, 640x480 scaled. Now normal 640x480 mode looks like 3Dfx is actually enabled but it isn't: although it looks 3dfx it doesn't play as fast. On my P2-233 the game doesn't run as smooth as it does in scaled mode. The differences are big between scaled and normal mode, but you're gonna need a fast cpu to handle it. You might want to also mail ZedTwo (the developer) to make a 3dfx patch. The special effects to this game are very good, one of the best I've seen is the earthquake warp to the screen, but there is so much more to see.

Sound to the game is quite good on a Soundblaster AWE 32 with 3D sound enhancement. There is really nice robot speech you hear when you do a few things, for example when making a lake the robot voice will say "4 lakes" or "No lakes". Also the sizzle sound for evaporation is nice. And the warning alarms are pretty cool, you hear beeps and the robot voice saying "Warning! Earthquake, Warning! Earthquake". Basically there is speech for almost every instance.

Unfortunately the game does NOT have Internet play with it, though I read on ZedTwo's homepage that they were currently working on a patch that allows Internet play. You can currently have a Hotseat player though (an actual person physically near you to play). The control to the game is quite easy because it allows you to use the mouse. It gets harder as the levels go up because pieces drop faster. Wetrix is quite a challenging game and requires a lot of practice (the practice mode is helpful). Modes of play include Wetrix Classic and Pro mode.

This game is really one of a kind and is also pretty fun when you understand how to play. You don't see games like this come often so its definitely worth a try. I'll be playing this game for weeks because of how challenging it is and when the Multiplayer patch comes out it will be even more fun. You might not like puzzle games but this is really fun, it's not too hard to understand HOW to play, but it is challenging when actually going in Wetrix Classic or Pro mode. It should only take you a short time to actually understand it fully and to make it to at least level 2.