Arguably one of the most hyped games so far on the Wii, Red Steel promises guns blazing, sword clashing, slicing and dicing action?
Bibs at the ready:
Let?s be honest here: Anyone remotely interested in the shoot-em-up genre dribbled at least a little bit when they first saw the adverts for Red Steel, which boasted an immersive game where gamers took part in fancy slashes and gangster style sideways shooting whilst maintaining an ultra cool Hollywood expression of determination.
However since its launch, Red Steel has been slated for poor game play and graphics.
Whilst the graphics aren't much to look at in comparison to what else is available, they are OK albeit littered with small glitches and very choppy on one area of a particular level. And from the word go Nintendo have stressed that their console is about great game-play and unparalleled innovation, not the fastest processors.
Like red wine or Terri Hatcher from ?Desperate Housewives?, Red Steel?s game-play gets better with age and the first 20% of the game is seemingly a warm up for the adventure to follow.
The front-end nightmare!
It?s definitely not love at first site when you fire up Red Steel, with the most awful set of menus ever.
To make selections you must drag an icon with neon Japanese writing to the centre of the screen. The only way to understand where each selection will take you is by hovering over each icon until an English explanation is provided. Keep focused on the ?guns blazing? and ?slicing and dicing action? to follow, and you may refrain from throwing your Wii-mote at the screen. But only just.
My feeling is that Ubisoft had to complete this game for the Wii?s Launch and this menu is just one piece of evidence to support this. Who can blame Ubisoft or Nintendo for demanding such a hard charged game to support the Wii?s launch? I?m sure that it?s helped the publicity but the game has suffered as a result.
The Story:
Once you?ve finally worked out how to start your game, it wont take long for Red Steel to throw you into it?s story: Your name is Scott Monroe, who's fianc?e is kidnapped because her father is the Oyabun of the infamous Yakuza. The story is mainly your quest to save your fianc?e however various twists and turns guide you to a great variety of levels and missions.
I say, ?your quest? because although you?ll learn more about the families, and surrounding characters, you will not learn anything about Scott nor will you even hear him mutter a single word. This fact has been widely criticised yet my feeling is that this reinforces the fact that it is you shooting and slashing and pulling all manner of faces ? not Scott Monroe.
The storyline is immersive and aided by the atmospheric levels, which keeps one playing for a long stretch of time. I found it a great pick up and play game ? ideal when you?ve got three other family members fighting over Wii-motes, crap soap operas and Pikmin!
The cut scenes between levels are set out as comic strips, similar to the Max Payne games. Where Max Payne felt artistic, Red Steel feels lazy and unfinished with pretty poor voice acting and less than inspiring dialogue. Again, I can hear the constant sound of deadlines within Ubisoft.
Wield your guns!
Red Steel?s controls have been a big topic of conversation however the more you think about it, the more you feel that it is right. However, a bit of customisation options would have been an obvious detail for Ubisoft to include.
The controls are almost identical to any other First Person Shooter you?ve played on the PC. With your left hand moving your character forward, backward and strafing side to side ? the Nunchuk replacing the keyboard ? and your right hand aiming and firing your weapon ? the Wii-mote replacing the mouse.
The only difference with Red Steel compared to an FPS on the PC is that on the PC, your crosshair is locked in the middle of the screen, and every movement you make to your aim alters what part of the map you view. However on Red Steel, you can aim your crosshair anywhere on the screen but can only change where on the level you are looking by moving your crosshair to the edge of the screen. (For instance if you want to look to the left you must point your Wii-mote at the left edge of the screen).
This infuriated me when I started playing Red Steel, as it meant I had to relearn my techniques as turning wasn?t a very smooth process - Ubisoft obviously recognised this and created a slightly less intense experience for the first 20% of the game ? and I gradually became more adept at the technique. Providing players with the option to choose either a fixed or roaming crosshair would have been another obvious thing for Ubisoft though.
My next rant is something very close to my heart. YOU CAN?T CHOOSE TO PLAY RED STEEL LEFT HANDED!
While this isn?t necessarily true, as you can choose to simply swap hands and would get on fine during shooting scenes it ruins a big part of the atmosphere. This is because if you hold the Wii-mote in your left hand, your weapon hand on-screen looks rather deformed (as your wrist is twisted the wrong way) and cannot be changed. Furthermore, you cannot sword fight left-handed. It just doesn?t work. This is blatantly sloppy work by Ubisoft and there is simply no excuse!!
Rant now over, and again for the first 20%, if you can use both sides of your brain ok, you can learn to play right handed and will eventually feel completely natural.
Shooting scenes are pretty similar throughout the game but increase in difficulty the further you progress. Enemies enter a room or level from a variety of places, which can be confusing and often you?ll have to think hard where someone is shooting you from. Either that or shoot blindly everywhere ? and with fully destructible surroundings, ammo permitting, it wont always be hard to choose which method!
The A.I. is ok, with enemies using surroundings to hide from your shots, however often they pop their heads up in the same place twice (they wont do it a third time as you?ve picked them off!) To my delight though, enemies can be great at advancing you rather than staying static and it is really cool to watch them shoot, move, cover, shoot ? until either they or you are defeated. If there is no cover you can make some by flipping a table over and ducking underneath yet this feature is very limited.
A Sword?!?! Yeah baby!
(Stop dribbling, you look silly). Now, for starters, if you can get close enough to an enemy during a shootout, you can slice rather than shoot. Don?t get me wrong; this is ok, but not quite as satisfying as watching the scenery and the enemy disintegrate in a shower of your bullets of fury!
In each level there will be at least one section where you will pit your might in a sword fight. As you make slashes across the screen with your Wii-mote, the in-game sword matches your movements. There are eight standard attacking movements; vertical, horizontal and diagonal.
You also have a smaller sword in your right hand (controlled by the Nunchuk) which you block and parry your enemies attacks with, and well timed strikes will put your opponent off balance.
Many critics didn?t report kindly on the sword fighting element of Red Steel, although I think it broke the game up nicely so that it wasn?t just moving from room to room and shooting. I enjoyed trying to get the timing right when parrying so to put my opponent off balance (whilst ensuring I didn?t get slashed to pieces) then performing damaging and satisfying combos and think the whole feature is a valuable asset in Red Steel.
Throughout the game there are Katas (strike combos) to learn which when successfully performed, will earn you respect points, which leads me on to the next point?
Respect points mean prizes:
And to earn respect points you must spare lives. In shooting scenes you do this by shooting your enemies guns from their clutches and shouting for them to surrender (by then waving your Wii-mote at them). But the main way to earn points is during sword fights: If you defeat your opponent you have the option to either kill or spare them and by sparing them you earn respect points. Also if you successfully perform a Kata on your enemy, you will earn respect points.
Respect points add another dimension to this game and the further up the respect levels you go, the more special moves and abilities there are at your disposal. Without spoiling things, one particular special ability is not too dissimilar to Max Payne?s Bullet Time?
Multiplayer madness:
3 words: No online battles? Sigh? But what is on offer are 4 player split screen battles via the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and the interesting ?Killer? mode, whereby each player is giving a mission via their Wii-mote to assassinate another player.
The multiplayer is fun to play with your friends but is nothing much different and? sigh? isn?t online.
Red Steel in action:
At first this game was a disappointment (don?t stop reading yet though!!). The hype for Red Steel has blown this game out of the water and coupled with the lack of a left handed option, shoddy menus and graphics which aren?t breathtaking, the first 30 minutes of playing left me with a nasty taste in my mouth and in a shoddy mood (soon kerbed by my ?persuasive? wife!)
Don?t lose me here though people, as once I?d returned to this game and got used to the controls, I started to really enjoy Red Steel. Like action games should be, Red Steel is completely brainless and just so easy to pick up and really get into. My wife often walked in to find me pulling hero faces as I reined down masses of Uzi fury upon my foes. There were also plenty of times I had things thrown at me to ?persuade? me that it was far too late to play.
The weapon sounds are fantastic and really add to the atmosphere of the game. The background music reacts to action points when you are attacked and is good, however the in-game glitches mean that it doesn?t always work ? although when in the middle of a shoot-out this isn?t easily noticed. The voice acting as always, is pretty bad, however at least it?s present (unlike in Zelda ? which really bugged me).
Ubisoft completed the main body of this game then set about tidying things up and adding those important little things. Problem is, they simply didn?t finish! There are a few extra features adding to the lifespan and gameplay of Red Steel, like special abilities, Katas and tables you can tip over for cover, however it?s obvious that there was more that could have been about Red Steel! Yet more obvious is that they could have ironed out all the small glitches littered in each level.
I liked Red Steel. But it could have been something special if the time it deserved had been dedicated to it. Here?s just hoping my wish is granted with Red Steel 2?
The scores:
Game Play 8/10
Graphics 7/10
Sound 8/10
Life Span 8/10
Multiplayer 7/10
  
Reviewed by: BenCubed
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