Red Steel 2 Review

Game: Red Steel 2

Developer: Ubisoft Paris

Publisher: Ubisoft

Available on: Wii only (Wii MotionPlus attachment is needed)

The original Red Steel had much hype surrounding it prior to its release alongside the launch of Wii back in November 2006. The trailers looked great and, Zelda aside, it was shaping up to be the game to have for the Wii upon its launch. Sadly though, that hype failed to materialise and Red Steel turned out to be nothing more than a mediocre game. The motion controls were implemented poorly and as a result the game just wasn’t fun to play at all. Fast forward to present day and Ubisoft have decided to give it another go with the release of Red Steel 2. By harnessing the power of the Wii MotionPlus attachment the game promises to deliver a more accurate and enjoyable gameplay experience, something that was evidently missing from the original. So, does Red Steel 2 slice and dice its way to the top or does it get hacked down? Read on for the full review.

STORY: No point beating around the bush here, the story aspect of Red Steel 2 is mediocre at best. To be fair though, the game is more about the combat rather than story but still it wouldn’t have hurt if there was an interesting tale woven into all the hacking and slashing. It’s safe to say it won’t be winning any best story or narrative awards any time soon.

What little story exists within the game revolves around a character we only know as “Hero” and his quest to find the man responsible for killing his fellow clan members so he can deliver some swift justice to him via his blade. As stated previously, the story never rises above the plains of mediocrity and in the end just serves as a tool to drive the player from point A to B. The same sentiment also applies to the various characters you meet as you progress through the game, they only exist to provide you with missions or upgrades to your weapons. The only character that ever so slightly manages to elevate himself from this status is Jian, your sensei. His character is clearly supposed to provide some cheesy B movie type comic relief and, at times, he certainly succeeds in doing just that.

GRAPHICS: Visually, taking into account the power of the console, Red Steel 2 is very impressive and I would go as far as saying it is one of the best looking games on the Wii. The cel-shaded look suits the western/oriental style of the game down to a tee.

I did experience some slowdown during some of the more “intense” battles but for the most part the game runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. This might sound strange in this day and age of gaming but I must mention the annoying load times that take place during the game. Each time you press A to open a door the character you play as (Hero) struggles to open the door or it just takes a good few seconds to open. Now I know this is done to mask the loading times but it just results in you staring at a door for around 5-8 seconds. It might not sound like much but seeing as you open quite a few doors during the course of the game it all adds up in the end and becomes very annoying, very quickly.

SOUND: Voice acting falls in line with the general B movie vibe that the game emits. It’s over the top, stereotypical and loud but it works and compliments the style of the game very well.  The sound effects are generally very well done too, with special mention going to the audio associated with the sword (or katana, to be precise). The western themed music does a decent enough job in creating a “moody” atmosphere but to be honest, at times, you won’t even notice  its existence as you will be thoroughly engaged in battle.

GAMEPLAY: This is the area where the original game failed quite dramatically and as a result it ceased to be fun. Red Steel 2 is a huge improvement over its predecessor but some issues still remain. The main issue is that the MotionPlus controls do not work as intended at times and this can lead to some frustrating deaths during combat. This applies mostly to downward strikes and, occasionally, stabs. There were numerous occasions during the game where I tried to perform a downward strike and nothing happened. As you can imagine this can get really frustrating, especially during the harder battles in the latter half of the game. You can adjust the MotionPlus settings from the in-game options menu to suit your needs but, personally, I didn’t find there to be much difference between them. While I’m talking about controls I guess I should mention the slightly awkward movement, it does take a while to get to grips with and even when you do you will still find yourself “stumbling” occasionally.

Those issues aside though, the MotionPlus controls work pretty well and as a result, the core combat manages to be quite enjoyable. The fusion of swordplay and gunplay is great, the balance is tipped slightly more in the favour of the swordplay but that is to be expected. Some of the moves/finishers you can perform are really satisfying. There is nothing quite like striking an enemy into the air, jumping up to him and slashing him all the way down to the ground. You’re not stuck with just a couple moves/finishers either, you unlock numerous others (via different methods) as you progress through the game. Thanks to the variety of moves/finishers, you have the option to mix things up if you wish and, hey let’s face it, that is always a good thing. Infact, the variation in enemies actually forces you to mix things up at times, so you can’t rely on one particular move all the time. You will have to dodge, block and attack in many different ways and that’s great because it helps keep the combat from becoming repetitive.

As funny as this might sound, I must add that after playing Red Steel 2 my right arm hurt quite a bit. I even put the control scheme on relaxed and I still had to put some “effort” into my swings and slashes. I would recommend playing it in small doses, maybe and an hour or two at a time. Trust me, it will help your arm from hurting and, hey, it will make the game last a bit longer too.

LONGEVITY: Red Steel 2 should take you around 8-10 hours to complete on the normal difficulty setting. There are some “side missions” to tackle but, personally, I didn’t feel compelled to go out of my way and complete them. They mostly consisted of “destroy x number of wanted posters” or “fix x number of comm towers”, not much variation in them at all. The game does include a challenge mode in which you can go back to completed areas in a bid to earn gold, silver or bronze medals depending on how much money you earn, so if you enjoyed the combat this could be something that could keep you going for a while.

VERDICT: Red Steel 2, thanks to the Wii MotionPlus, is an infinitely better game than the original. Despite that fact, it’s still kind of hard to recommend it as a must own or must play Wii title. The foundations have been laid though and hopefully Red Steel 3 can build upon them. As it stands right now, Red Steel 2 is a decent one time playthrough. Nothing more and nothing less.