Red Steel review

Everything what was promising about the Wii seemed to be increasingly abundant in early Red Steel impressions; aim and shoot using the fancy new Wii-mote, while simultaneously using the nunchuck to perform a variety of other movements and actions, immersing the player more than your standard button mashing affair.

For the majority of this year, the game acted as the primary exhibition of the Wii’s innovative technology. Concurrently, as development progressed, it appeared as though this razor-bladed blaster wasn’t quite the step in the right direction as we all (perhaps naively) perceived. With the Wii now launched, how does Red Steel stand up to the hype and criticism?

What’s the story? (Warning: Not Gory)

What’s inevitable from the first time you start Red Steel is that it’s story would probably make an episode of Eastenders seem like Oscar worthy material. You star as an Asian American named Scott, who embarks on a one-man mission to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend at the hands of unscrupulous Yakuza thugs. The game begins in LA, but you’ll find yourself travelling to a variety of locations throughout the city and will eventually end up in the Tokyo underground. The game itself is relatively straightforward and incredibly linear; as Scott, you have to battle through each stage blasting dozens of semi-intelligent thugs, while progressing to the next stage.

Each stage is made up of some generally underwhelming objectives (find the key card to open the door, destroy the communications device etc) that don’t in all honesty require much in the way of thinking; more than often, you’ll be guided to your objectives effortlessly thanks to the simplistic level design. Don’t expect much in the way of alternate routes here, not will you likely to find yourself lost at times wondering where to go next. And, in a bizarre turn, there’s absolutely no blood at all, despite being the perfect accommodation for a mature Wii title.

Shake That Thing

And now we come, inexorably, to the main highlight of Red Steel; the controls, something of which has come under much criticism from the gaming press. Personally, I’ve found them to be somewhat hit and miss. The mandatory parts, namely aiming/moving/shooting take some getting used to but they are incredibly satisfying once you finally do become accustomed to them.

You’ll use the nunchuck to actually move your character, while using the Wii-mote to aim/look around, using the B trigger to shoot. Needless to say, pulling off a meticulous headshot is well worth the learning curve. Problematically, turning can be quite a pain for the first few missions, but again, after some getting used to you’ll find it manages to work without becoming too detrimental to the actual gameplay, although some would quite easily beg to differ.

Motion Sickness

The nunchuck on the other hand is used to open doors or pushing furniture over as a means of acting as cover, simply requiring an intuitive forward flick of the nunchuck. You can also throw/roll Grenades by simulating an overhand or under arm throwing motion, which works nicely. On the flip side, the much publicised sword battles are probably the most flawed and ultimately disappointing mechanics in the game.

Simply put, they feel horribly ropey and tacked on, and the game seems to fail to pick up your movements, which is a shame considering that, when it actually does, the game manages replicate the action on screen. A lot of the times you’ll find your attacks are horribly delayed, giving your opponent ample time to move out of the way, or worse, attack you first. It’s a shame, as dodging/parrying utilizing the nunchuck feels very natural and works quite well, with surprising accuracy.

Ramble On

It's not just the control where Red Steel fails to keep up; the frame rate can get choppier than the Isle of Wight ferry at the best of times, which doesn’t help in the heat of a huge gun battle. Speaking of gun battles, your foes are for the most part competent, taking the appropriate cover when necessary, although there are times when the display suicidal tendencies, charging manically at you, allowing Scott to promptly put them in their place. There are also some conspicuous bugs to be found, such as enemies or objects floating in mid air, or enemies standing still for no apparent reason just begging to be filled with lead.

Ubisoft does try spice up the action somewhat by offering a Matrix-esque bullet time sequence, where you can slow the action down. This allows you to either disable your foe by aiming for the head, or neutralize them by shooting their weapon hand, forcing them to surrender. More than often though, you’ll find little need to actually use this function, and find it more satisfying to simply blast everyone in sight. In a similar move, choosing not to kill any sword-wielding enemies will earn you RP (Respect Points), which effect your overall score at the end of each mission, as well as giving you the opportunity to tackle some of the latter missions in any order you wish.

Red Steel offers a decent enough single player experience, clocking in at around 8 hours or so, but it won’t particularly entice anyone to tackle the game a second time. The multiplayer mode is a standard 2-4 player split screen romp, which is exceedingly ropey, and the small screen size only manages to exacerbate already existing problems more than ever.

Rough Around the Edges

The visual swagger of Red Steel is that of a been there, done that affair. While some of the textures and effects, notably water and fire, look quite impressive, most of the game's locations are full of the same dull, generally repetitive architecture and objects. Characters don’t look bad from a distance, but up close they seem to resemble that of bizarre paper cutouts. The lip-synching isn’t much cop either, looking horribly out of place.

Even worse are the horrible storyboard cut scenes that take place between missions as a means of progression the plot; unlike Max Payne, which screamed style and sophistication, these come off as nothing more than a rushed job, and certainly don’t do the game any credibility. More can be said for the games soundtrack, which is complimentary to the action on screen, coating the game in a somewhat catchy, upbeat-rock/techno affair. The dialogue isn’t at all helped by the clichéd Hollywood script, but it’s actually delivered in a fairly convincing manner, minus a few inexcusably bad curse words and fabricated Japanese accents.

Tarnished

Overall, while Red Steel incorporates some interesting ideas, the new technology is blatantly more competent than the actual content. The game feels worn and dated, dressed up in some new lippy in the form of Wii-functionality, desperately attempting to be passed off as something more impressive than it actually is.

Some of these efforts are no doubt a prelude of what the Wii can offer once its been tweaked around a little, but for now, Red Steel somewhat like putting on a pair of old boots; they feel comfortable at first, but as soon as you start getting wet, you realise they’re letting in water. Red Steel is certainly fun while it last if you can get past complications, but it’s really not worth more than a rent.