Red Steel was one of the first games released for the Wii. It was released by Ubisoft and still remains the only FPS released on the Wii that was built specifically for the console (afaik). This game has received very mixed reviews over its time and I thought I'd share my opinions of a game I think worthy of a look.
The games story involves you as an American (or gaijin as you'll be frequently called) who is due to marry a girl who is the daughter of a triad boss. As the story starts you are off to meet your girlfriend father to ask for his daughters hand in marriage, at this point it all kicks off and the girl is kidnapped and it’s down to you to save her by gunning and sword fighting your way through various bad guys as you follow her trail.
A complaint put to the game is that it was rushed, it certainly feels that way the first time you hit the menu screens. You have to drag and drop various icons into boxes to select the option, this is a bad idea and I think Ubisoft know this as it hasn't appeared in any of there other releases.
Controlling the game in the shooting sections uses the nunchuck stick to move forward, backward and strafe, while the WiiMote is you gun and steering device. Steering and aiming feels a little odd to start with as it uses a 'bound box'. Basically moving the cursor within a center area of the screen just moves your aim but if you aim outside this area you turn in that direction. The difficulty in aiming and turning simultaneously in hectic sections of the game has been enough to put people off, it seems though that the more you play this game the less of an issue this becomes, watching someone competent at Red Steel you'll see that the controls are actually pretty good and don't hinder your playing at all. Saying that there are other controls that do feel a little tacked on, firstly opening doors requires you to give a flick of the nunchuck, like opening the handle, although initially this seems fine it soon becomes repetitive and you'll wish you had a button to open the many doors in the game. Another is the ability to knock tables over to provide cover, you do this by flicking the nunchuck upwards, this is a cool feature but it seems to get forgotten about later in the game because as you progress there are less and less opportunities to do this. As the game progresses you acquire a focus ability which allows you to slow down time and select multiple shots, this is done by holding A and moving the WiiMote towards the screen quickly then clicking on the bad guys, when focus wears off or you let go of the button time speeds back up and you send all your enemies to their deaths in a second or two, you can even shoot the guns out their hands so they surrender, this is pretty cool and adds to the game play. There is also a lock on feature which enables you to lock onto an enemy, this is good for following a moving enemy but also gives a little issue. The problem is this, you aim for the head shot and decide to lock on in case he moves but although you were aiming within the lock on box the actual act of locking on resets the cursor to the center of your enemy requiring you to aim again, rubbish. Another issue is between levels, if you’re not pointing at screen when the level starts the game thinks you want to turn and you can end up in a flat spin while you’re being gunned down.
The second area of the game is the sword fighting, swipes are recognised as vertical, horizontal and diagonal swipes with the WiiMote and respond quite well, blocks are preformed by shaking the nunchuck and you can move around with the analogue stick. You also get special combos as you progress in the game which requires you to hold buttons as you swipe. The motion detection itself can be altered in the options so if you don't fancy long swiping movements quick flicks can work just as well. Fights are interruptions to the usual game flow, you know when they are coming and you automatically draw your sword, funnily you can see some of the people you are going to fight before you have drawn your sword, but they are immune to your bullets which mean no going Indiana Jones style and shooting them before you get close. Early fights are easily won and in the later fight your opponent blocks so much you just end up resorting to the same repetitive combo or two, somewhere in the middle the fights are just the right combination difficulty and fun.
To break up the gameplay in-between levels you find yourself in safe locations like a dojo or gangster bar. At the dojo you challenge your trainer to a duel and they teach you new combos. The bar area is slightly different as when you are here you can select and stock up on the two weapons to use at the start of the next level, you can also earn new guns by getting a high percentage of hits on a shooting range. Both these locations are entwined within the games story and it proves helpful to complete the tasks here to get the new guns and sword combos.
The in game graphics are fine and there are a few nice effects, they are nothing special and have a slight stylised look as apposed to realistic. They could of probably been done on the Game Cube and don't show off the Wiis potential, but they don't spoil the game at all even when its hard to see that man in a black suit against that black background in the distance. The real downside is how the story unfolds between levels, this is done in some kind of still story board style, not very pretty at all and another sign the game was rushed for release.
All in all I enjoyed this game and don't think it deserves all the flak it got. The game lasts around 10 hours which is fine for a game of the genre. In a few months this game will have all but been forgotten about when a much hyped first party FPS is released, I think its worth a go even its just a couple of rentals until its completed. Bring on Red Steel 2 I say, where they can fix the issues and build on this games successes.
Better than Far Cry: Vengeance.
On par with Call of Duty 3.
Worse than Metriod Prime 3 : Corruption.
Let me hear you opinions on my review and the game itself. If it's received well I may write some more otherwise maybe not
Red Steel Review by PinkFish
Linear Mode
