Red Steel
Score: 60% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Ubisoft Paris Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: First Person Shooter/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Red Steel's graphics are decent for the Nintendo Wii. The explosions are ridiculously amazing and the lighting effects recall to mind the Twilight universe in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The game has some very pretty details, but can be pretty bland and a tad rough around the edges at times. The slow as death framerate is a real punch to the gut. One real annoyance is the way the bad guys (you know, the ones shooting at you) tend to blend in with the surrounding environment due to the blur factor. This is a bad thing. You tend to die while wondering how in the hell a potted plant sprouted arms and was able to shoot at you. However, the environment can be wonderfully deconstructed via bullets and swords. The chunks of material and clouds of dust that fly up after said item has been blown or chopped to bits is especially fun. I found myself walking into rooms and immediately looking for tables I could kick over, if not for cover then just for the sake of kicking them over. The sound effects are pretty good in Red Steel. The guns (all save for the sniper rifle) actually sound like they are sending bullets slicing through the air, and the sword noises are really believable. The soundtrack starts to grate on the nerves after a while, and the voice acting is a smidgen obnoxious. I had to chastise myself for wanting to shoot some of the main characters to make them, and their horrible dialogue, die in a barrage of bulleted doom.
Gameplay: I so looked forward to playing Red Steel. Running around shooting and slicing the Japanese mafia sounded like my idea of a wicked Saturday night! As it turns out, it wasn't such a fun time. You start out with a quick tutorial on how to aim your Wii-mote (you listen to your annoying fiancé point at odd looking fish in a huge tank) and then a not so quick comic style cut scene. If I wasn't ready to shoot people before listening to Miyu Sato talk about how excited she is that I am going to meet her father Isao Sato for the first time... I definitely was after. I also suddenly developed a very strong case of commitment-phobia. On the upside, Red Steel pretty much dumps you into the action, and then turns around and knocks you back out - literally. You play as Scott Monroe, former bodyguard and now lover of Miyu Sato (who sounds about as Japanese as a valley girl during shopping hours). Miyu desperately wants you to meet her father, the head of the Yakuza, and tell him the grand news! You are rescued from this fate; however, by a gang of baddies that has infiltrated the hotel you are currently at, and disguised themselves as the staff. The bellboy-clad baddies then proceed to open fire on Sato's room and knock you out, which saves you a lot of awkward pauses and statements like "I'm sorry I'm sleeping with your daughter instead of guarding her." Scott eventually wakes up and finds guns and bad guys galore. He saves his future father-in-law, and there is a touching moment when Isao teaches Scott how to cut people to shreds with a katana. To give the creators of Red Steel some credit, they do try to keep your attention by adding extra sword moves in as you progress through the game. This just doesn't make up for the slight lag between your movements and Scott's, however. On the upside, Scott has plenty of guns to choose from. Uzis, shotguns, and sniper and assault rifles all make an appearance. Still, I eventually got a bit tired of running from room to room clearing them, only to move to another room full of gun-happy bad guys. The multiplayer seems as if it was tacked on just for the sake of saying they had multiplayer. Anyone expecting a Time Splitter-esque shootout will fall asleep very quickly. It isn't online, it has four maps, and there are no bots to shoot at. So unless your friends are really amazing, you aren't going to buy this game for the multiplayer option.
Difficulty: There is a bit of an annoying learning curve when fiddling with the controls, but you get used to it... by the second hour or so. Considering the ten-hour playtime, I don't know how great that is. During the first few fight scenes, I found myself literally turning away from my screen to shoot at people who my brain perceived were behind me. The bad guys tend to circle around behind you in the game, which in turns makes you want to turn around in the real world. That is actually pretty cool. The A.I. can be downright stupid, but the game might prove annoyingly hard if they were any smarter. Red Steel gets a lot tougher by the end, and has its share of curseword-inducing parts. The controls are just too obnoxious to make for a smooth playing game, and the linear plot never gives your brain a break from crouching and zooming. None of that is good for the replay value. If you are one of the many that enjoy running full steam into a room, and obliterating everything in sight (while only taking minimal damage), Red Steel will cause you much grief. Redoing the same level five times is way more trouble than it is worth.
Game Mechanics: The controls in Red Steel are just downright unintuitive. Holding your controller perfectly straight is a must with this game, and highly annoying when you are really feeling like a couch potato. Otherwise, you spin in circles around the screen and your arm looks like someone broke it at the wrist. Swinging your sword starts out as being a blast, but after a while you don't want to stand and flail your arms around like a buffoon any longer. Something that comes in very handy is holding down the (A) button down to track an enemy's movements. This keeps you from spinning the camera around the screen and overshooting the bad guy that you wanted to... shoot. Much like Gears of War, using cover is a must with this game. If you run in half-cocked, you will get mowed down, which can cause intense frustration and Wii-mote throwing. Crouching (the (Z) button) comes in very handy, especially after you've just kicked over a table. Shaking the Nunchuk reloads your gun and opens doors, which is pretty entertaining in and of itself. The "zoom" option can be a real pain in the bum if not executed properly. You hold the (A) button and shove the Wii-mote forward. However, every time you get a close up head shot you cannot help but smile. "Focus" mode is executed by the (A) and (C) buttons and is a lifesaver when you are taking on heavy fire. The sword fights all happen at pre-determined intervals throughout Red Steel, and can be carried off by simply swinging your Wii-mote around. Some of the combos you have to learn to progress are absolutely frustrating and never seem to work when you want them to. My second sword fight took me an embarrassing amount of time to get through. I thought that it was my lack of Wii skills, but none of my friends could get through it any faster. I gained back some of my ego after that, but lost my mind after not being able to skip any of the cut scenes. Red Steel is definitely worth renting, but I would save my $60.00 for something with a bit more replay value. There is some merit in playing it just to say you've played it, but the unintuitive controls and brattish learning curve keep it from being one of my favorite games.
-Phate Kills, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Field
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