Game review: Red Steel 2 - Nintendo Wii with Motion Plus add-on
After seeing a game preview on X-Play, I was finally impressed enough to consider getting a Wii title on launch day. The graphics looked good and the game play looked even better. The addition of the Wii Motion Plus accessory for added sensitivity when using the Wii Remote, I figured it'd be a good chance to live out the sword-slinger fantasy I've had since I picked up my first broom handle sword way, way, way back in the day when we played outside.
I did some research on the game after seeing the spot on G4 and found out that the publisher, Ubisoft, released Red Steel back around the time that Nintendo launched the Wii (2006) to less than stellar reviews. Most complaints centered on their attempt to present the game graphics in a realistic way, something the Wii really wasn't designed to do. Nintendo's intent was marketing the more fun aspects of casual family gaming, a market that wasn't really being target by the X-box 360 or the PS3. A market who would be less focused on the the absolute realism than the hardcore gamers who demand nothing less. Ubisoft also took hits on the gameplay because the Wii Remote lacked the refinement required to detect more subtle motions, something the Wii Motion Plus addresses by adding another gyroscopic sensor to detect rate of change motions.
Since I never played the first Red Steel, I had no preconceptions going into the game. Having already used the Motion Plus accessory to much fun in the archery and swordplay sections of Wii Sports Resorts, I hoped Ubisoft would take advantage of it's capabilities to it's fullest. They also rethought the graphic style, going with a more simplistic cell-shaped animation which gives the game a very comic book/graphic novel feel, but in a good way. The game world is a cross of several different styles; Old West meets Old East with plenty of classic Spaghetti Western thrown in for good measure. This gives the environment a fun, retro feel which makes you feel like your a gun-slinger from the classic movies I used to watch Saturday afternoons as a kid. Once you work your way through the first few areas of the game and start to learn the move advanced techniques of both sword and gun play, you feel like a bad ass...looking forward to the next fight so you can go all The Bride on their collective asses.
The storyline is generic and the supporting NPC's are literally two-dimensional, but luckily your interactions with them are short and occur mostly over your radio as they provide the direction of the storyline as you progress through the game. And there are points in the game where the repetition of the missions are obvious and time-consuming because they require back tracking to complete but are limited to the sub-objectives you don't need to progress forward in the game, but if you're looking to get all your weapons, upgrades and skills as soon as possible, helps toward that end. Once you have all said upgrades, the enemies are super easy kills on the Easy setting. Once you complete each chapter in the game, you're able to go back through it in a challenge mode and can up the difficulty setting which makes them more adaptive to your moves and makes you have to mix up your attacks to quickly dispatch them.
I was quite impressed with both the game play mechanics and the graphics quality. Ubisoft definitely took full advantage of the Wii's strengths while masking it's technical weaknesses when compared to it's competitors hardware superiority. This game made me feel like the lone bad ass stranger who wanders into a town besieged by criminal gangs and determined to do what needs to be done to clean up the vermin in the streets. Fulfilling that dream is priceless, the fact I was able to do it for $60 in the comfort of my home with nothing but a sore shoulder from my swordslinging adventure is a bargain. If you have a Wii, you owe it to yourself to play this game and see what the Wii can really do.
I did some research on the game after seeing the spot on G4 and found out that the publisher, Ubisoft, released Red Steel back around the time that Nintendo launched the Wii (2006) to less than stellar reviews. Most complaints centered on their attempt to present the game graphics in a realistic way, something the Wii really wasn't designed to do. Nintendo's intent was marketing the more fun aspects of casual family gaming, a market that wasn't really being target by the X-box 360 or the PS3. A market who would be less focused on the the absolute realism than the hardcore gamers who demand nothing less. Ubisoft also took hits on the gameplay because the Wii Remote lacked the refinement required to detect more subtle motions, something the Wii Motion Plus addresses by adding another gyroscopic sensor to detect rate of change motions.
Since I never played the first Red Steel, I had no preconceptions going into the game. Having already used the Motion Plus accessory to much fun in the archery and swordplay sections of Wii Sports Resorts, I hoped Ubisoft would take advantage of it's capabilities to it's fullest. They also rethought the graphic style, going with a more simplistic cell-shaped animation which gives the game a very comic book/graphic novel feel, but in a good way. The game world is a cross of several different styles; Old West meets Old East with plenty of classic Spaghetti Western thrown in for good measure. This gives the environment a fun, retro feel which makes you feel like your a gun-slinger from the classic movies I used to watch Saturday afternoons as a kid. Once you work your way through the first few areas of the game and start to learn the move advanced techniques of both sword and gun play, you feel like a bad ass...looking forward to the next fight so you can go all The Bride on their collective asses.
The storyline is generic and the supporting NPC's are literally two-dimensional, but luckily your interactions with them are short and occur mostly over your radio as they provide the direction of the storyline as you progress through the game. And there are points in the game where the repetition of the missions are obvious and time-consuming because they require back tracking to complete but are limited to the sub-objectives you don't need to progress forward in the game, but if you're looking to get all your weapons, upgrades and skills as soon as possible, helps toward that end. Once you have all said upgrades, the enemies are super easy kills on the Easy setting. Once you complete each chapter in the game, you're able to go back through it in a challenge mode and can up the difficulty setting which makes them more adaptive to your moves and makes you have to mix up your attacks to quickly dispatch them.
I was quite impressed with both the game play mechanics and the graphics quality. Ubisoft definitely took full advantage of the Wii's strengths while masking it's technical weaknesses when compared to it's competitors hardware superiority. This game made me feel like the lone bad ass stranger who wanders into a town besieged by criminal gangs and determined to do what needs to be done to clean up the vermin in the streets. Fulfilling that dream is priceless, the fact I was able to do it for $60 in the comfort of my home with nothing but a sore shoulder from my swordslinging adventure is a bargain. If you have a Wii, you owe it to yourself to play this game and see what the Wii can really do.