Reviews

Red Steel Review by Hyrules007

Platform: Nintendo Wii
Rated: T for Teen
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date (North America): Nov 19, 2006
Players: 1-4
Online Enabled: No

Introduction
Being the first Wii title to be announced, Red Steel had gotten a lot of attention prior to its release. Generally speaking, hype got the best of Red Steel, because it's not only a first generation motion-sensitive first person shooter, but people expected way too much gold to be in the Red Steel cave via all of the extensive media coverage which over hyped Red Steel to the point where it looked as if it's the next Half-Life. If you're expecting Red Steel to be the next Half-life you will be disappointed. However, Red Steel can be a fun game if you're able to ignore the flaws that I point out in my review.

Gameplay
If I were the kind of gamer who judges a game after playing it for only a short time, I would have given Red Steel a rotten score in the gameplay department. The first time that I played Red Steel I had played it for about five minutes and said to myself “well this sucks, I just wasted $50”, removed the game from my Wii, and played Twilight Princess. I remember that disappointing moment as if it were yesterday; that is, my gun was going around in circles and I was annoyed by the fact that my character couldn't turn around fast enough. Later that day I had given Red Steel a second chance and thirty minutes in I had gotten used to the controls and couldn't stop playing the game; I was moving around the couch as if I were sitting next to Hilary Duff which is an amazing feat for a video game might I add.

Red Steel starts out with you performing an aiming test with your Wii Remote by aiming at different fish in a large tank. Shortly after you view the first cheesy still cut-scene with very basic animation; in that cut scene, a gang charges in and starts a shooting rampage. Meanwhile Miyu Sato (some dudes fiancée) and Isao Sato (father to Miyu Sato) are being kidnapped by some Japanese men. Ubisoft should have put a little more effort into making the opening a bit more emotionally involved for the player, by utilizing real-time 3D cinemas, or fully animated cut-scenes. Being as it may you play as Scott Monroe the dude who watched his fiancée being kidnapped for a split second before he too had gotten shot along with everyone else in the room.

Amazingly, Scott survives, and in a matter of seconds from being shot, Scott (you) attempt to find and save his fiancée and father-in-law to be. There's no time to learn how to shoot because you're thrown right into the action. It doesn't help that there's no way to quickly turn around so you're going to continue to take damage until Mr. Molasses turns around to shoot the enemy. There should have been a button or command to perform a 180 degree turn; however, there is a small trick to perform a 180 degree turn slightly faster than normal and are as follows: move your Wii Remote all the way to the right of the screen and at the same time move your Wii Nunchuck control stick to the left, you can also perform this trick vice versa. To shoot a bullet you press the button under your Wii Remote as if it's a real gun. To reload your weapon you quickly move your Wii Nunchuck downwards.

On your struggle to survive you'll eventually find Isao Sato and shortly after you'll have your first sword fight with Isao Sato as your guide. Unlike shooting, sword-fighting is much easier to learn. To strike your opponent you thrust your Wii Remote in the direction that you want to strike your opponent. To try to block your opponents attack you move your Wii Nunchuck quickly to either the left or right. There are some attacks that you cannot stop such as when your opponent strikes you with a bat, and instead, you hold down the c button and either move your control stick to the left or right to perform a 90 degree turn around your opponent. After defeating your opponent you will have the choice to either kill or let your opponent go.

It's not clear at this time as to why someone would want to kidnap Isao Sato and Miyu Sato, but eventually you'll find out that Isao Sato is a Japanese mafia kingpin, and all of this rampage (shooting and kidnapping) was all for the ancient Katana blade which a rival gang wants to get their hands on. Scott will get his hands on the ancient Katana blade and with the blade in hand he will travel from Los Angeles to Tokyo to find his fiancée. There are two areas in Tokyo that you will be able to visit in-between levels: Otori's Dojo, where you can learn new sword moves; and Harry's Bar, where you can practice your gun skills, learn a new move that will allow you to slow down time, and move on to your next level. There are a total of fourteen levels separated into three acts. Each level takes approximately 20-45 minutes to pass even if you know what you're doing. Overall you can expect around 10 hours of gameplay in Red Steel.

Multiplayer in Red Steel can be fun but it's nothing that you'll want to play often. There's no online mode but hardly anyone would use it if there were because as I've said before, the fact that you can't turn around quick enough hampers your movement, but this time, it's worst in multiplayer than it was in single player. Basically and unfairly, whoever gets in the behind position will have the lead because the person in the front can't turn around fast enough to fight back.

Graphics
Utilizing the Unreal Engine Red Steel looks pretty decent. I swear that I'm looking at a Playstation 2 game in some areas, a Gamecube game in other areas, and an X-Box game in a few areas. Ironically the graphics in Red Steel is much like the stock market; for instance, there will be massive drops, spikes, and rises in the quality of the graphics.

One thing for certain is that Red Steel maintains a smooth frame rate of around 30fps, but I don't get why Ubisoft wasn't capable of making Red Steel run in 60fps. As a comparison, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the Gamecube runs in 60fps and looks much better than Red Steel. Another gripe is that the characters looks as if they were cut out of a book which deprives from the scenery. If the graphics were based on explosions alone, Red Steel would have gotten the highest score possible. The explosions are huge and makes you feel like a real bad ass when you blow up cars and gas lines.

Sound
What is this? There's something that's done very well in Red Steel? The music is terrific and changes according to whatever or not there's action on screen. Sound effects are also great. The voice talent is adequate but the dialog can be annoying at times such as when you'll hear “I'll kill you” for what seems like a thousand times.

Final Thoughts
Despite all of the flaws in Red Steel I really enjoyed my journey. I anticipate a sequel to Red Steel that will fix every flaw in the original; accordingly, I expect that there will be fully animated cut scenes, I expect that there will be an easy way to perform a 180 degree turn, I expect the graphics to either run in 60fps or look significantly better than Halo 2, I expect the characters to not look as if they were cut out of a book, and finally, I expect to not hear “I'll kill you” a thousand times.

Presentation: 6.0
Despite blood on the cover art there's no blood in the game. Slick menus. Commercials are hilarious and well done. Cut-scenes downgraded the presentation score drastically.

Gameplay: 7.0
Basic shooter. Whatever or not you'll enjoy Red Steel will be based on how you adapt to the controls.

Graphics: 7.0
Looks like a PS2 game in some areas, a GCN game in other areas, and an X-Box game in a few areas. Frame rate runs smoothly at 30fps with very few dips. 16:9 widescreen, and progressive-scan modes are available.

Sound: 8.5
The good: kick ass music and sound effects. The bad: you will hear “I'll kill you” for what seems like a thousand times.

Replay Value: 5.5
Single player mode is fun every now and then. Multiplayer mode adds a bit to the replay value but not much.

Final Score (not an average): 6.9