02-15-2007, 10:50 AM
Red Steel
Rated T for Teen
For the Nintendo Wii
Your fiancé has been kidnapped! Her father a kingpin in the Yakuzza has been killed! It’s up to you Scott-San to go find her and restore the balance of the Yakuzza which has become tainted.
The story is pretty straight forward; your fiancé has been kidnapped by the infamous leader of the Yakuzza who has killed your father-in-law. You have to rescue her and return balance to the Yakuzza as it has become poisoned by the ruling of a certain Yakuzza of which you must find and kill.
It’s not very original and has room for improvement but it’s still a pretty solid story. It may possibly remind you of a movie as it has quite a few twists and turns, and being set in Japan just adds to it. The story will take you to a lot of different areas in modern day Japan, such as a Dojo to Geisha houses.
The story is ok but could have been a bit better, it’s not horrible though.
Visually Red Steel has some impressive environments and explosions although there’s no doubt that you’ll miss this beauty as you’ll probably be in the heat of combat. Unlike the other first person shooter Far cry this game is beautiful; the environments look great when actually looking around especially in a certain jungle type level you really start to see the graphics shine. As well as explosions they are quite satisfying to watch and beautiful to boot.
One thing that hinders the visuals is the people, there good but they aren’t great, you won’t notice it that much though. One thing that some people complain about is the comic cut-scenes, personally I love them, they add to the Japanese feel. All in all the visuals are impressive in Red Steel and deserve to be recognized.
Gameplay in Red Steel is…interesting. There are quite a few hours of gameplay to the game so it should keep you well and busy. Unlike games like Zelda you are on a straight forward path and the most freedom you have is the ability to train with your sword or guns in between the missions, although the missions are diverse and have many different areas to them.
With shooting I haven’t had any problems with it, they’ve done it well, although it may take you a few minutes to get used to it, but don’t worry you’ll catch on quickly and it works fine. Sword fighting works alright, although learning new moves is hard since you have to do each move 3 times and the controller doesn’t always pick up your movements right, or should I say the game doesn’t. So you could be stuck there for a long time trying to get it right. Sword fighting isn’t 1:1 either but it still works.
There are also some glitches that you’ll encounter, I haven’t encountered to many but have heard many people talk of there glitches, like floating people. The worst I’ve had has been A.I running into walls.
Other then that there isn’t much more, it’s straight forward gameplay, solid gun shooting and some not so solid sword fighting.
Red Steels controls are ok, you simply use the analog stick to walk and aim and click the B button to shoot. Although the controls get much more complicated, you can knock over tables for cover by flicking the nunchuk up to knock the table over. You also flick the nunchuk down or up to open a door which works perfectly. Jumping and crouching are controlled with the C and Z buttons so not much different there.
When shooting you aim with the Wii-Remote and can zoom in by holding A and thrusting the Wii-Remote forward. This works alright but your arm will start to hurt if you hold it for too long. To pick up a different weapon you simply stand over it and thrust down with the Nunchuk. This is also how you reload which can be incredibly annoying if you don’t notice that you’re standing over a weapon and try to reload.
Sword fighting isn’t the best. You use your Wii-Remote as your main sword and the Nunchuk as your blocking dagger. You swing the Wii-Remote in any direction and your guy will slice that way (although it is not 1:1). To block you simply flick the Nunchuk Left or Right directly before you’re attacked. You can also dodge by clicking the C button and pressing a different direction with the analog stick.
The controls are pretty good other then the Sword fighting.
I love Red Steels original music. The Japanese music is incredible and just simply sounds great. It gets intense when the action is well intense, and then it mellows down while you’re walking around. I love it and think they did a great job with the music.
You’ll also find the classic gunshot sounds that shooter fans are already so used to. These sounds are fine and don’t take anything away from the game. One other sound that’s alright is the sword clashing sounds, they sound ok and aren’t all that bad.
The game sounds great; I’ve got to give it that!
This game may not be worth your cash but if you like shooters then you may want to give it a try. As for replay ability there’s multiplayer which I thoroughly enjoyed and my friends have as well. It’s very fun and will keep you entertained. You can also replay any missions you want to with there single player mission replay option. So go ahead and give it a try!
Story-6.5/10
-Frankly this story isn’t that great
Visuals-9/10
-Good job Ubisoft with the visuals in this one!
Gameplay-7/10
-With some glitchy parts the gameplay could have been MUCH better.
Controls-7.7/10
-Not bad, neither great.
Sound-9.5/10
-Music sounds great!!!
Overall-7.8/10
(Not an Average)
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-alex51011
