Customer Reviews

Red Steel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Red Steel combines gun fighting with swordplay in a modern world. As a launch title for the Wii, you have to put up with some iffy results with the implementation of the remote and nunchuck.

Knowing that this would be a challenge with its high intensity, first person shooter use of both controllers, I put off this review until after I'd played thoroughly about 15 other Wii titles. By this point we knew we had the fundamentals down of swinging, slashing, and a good handle on the graphics the Wii could offer.

So, on to Red Steel. I love Japanese culture, and I love sword-based games. I also enjoy gun battle games, so I figured this would combine the best of many worlds. You set out as the bodyguard of a wealthy, slightly flaky woman - and you're about to ask for her hand in marriage. Her dad shows up, and in come the assassins.

Soon you're involved in a variety of gunfights and swordfights. For gunfights, you simply point and shoot. You can zoom in and out by moving your remote closer to and further from the screen. Your nunchuck lets you jump and crouch.

It seems silly sometimes that you have a gun but you're spending time swinging your sword. It's something you just have to accept and go with the game flow. Also, the swordfights are more of a 'dance' - i.e. it's not about who hammers a slice button the quickest, but more of a dodge-then-slice, slice-then-turn and whoever gets the right combination is going to win.

I found the graphics difficult in some areas, trying to spot where to go or who was shooting at me. I did think it intriguing that tilting your wrist made your gun hand tilt - i.e. you could shoot straight-on or "sideways" gangsta style.

It was also cool to have items around your enemies blowing up - pipes with holes letting out steam, the typical exploding barrels, chunks flying out of walls, etc. The environment is nicely destructable, which is especially great if you have a high powered firearm in your hands.

I can definitely see if someone got Red Steel as their *first* Wii game that they'd be having problems. Trying to get used to the Wii remote and nunchuck on a game that is this immersive would be like trying to learn how to ski on a black diamond hill. It's too much at once. However, really do give Red Steel a chance once you've mastered the standard Wii skills. While the graphics aren't great, there's definitely scenes that are well designed, artistically. And while the plot line may be a bit cliche, the combination of full-out gun battles and graceful dance-like sword fights is very nice.

[...]

There's a good chance that if you've got a Wii right now, you've already got a hold of Red Steel. The game has become the Wii's biggest third-party launch title, and second only to Zelda overall. Ubisoft's been putting hype on Red Steel as the Wii's big FPS outing for some time, although critics and players have been less than receptive with the final product.

Don't go into this game expecting a shooter on par with Gears of War or even anything much more than Goldeneye 64 for that matter. In all reality, if you take the Wii controls out of Red Steel, what you have is one of the most lackluster FPS's in years. The graphics aren't even close to Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, so this game is definitely last-gen in terms of presentation.

But the fact of the matter is the Wiimote is here in full force and the gameplay is what truly matters. Unfortunately, while it may be Red Steel's saving grace from being bargain bin trash, it can also be one of the most frustrating of aspects. Aiming with the Wiimote is not the immediately intuitive experience people have been lead to believe, and numerous problems surround the implementation. One of the most notable things being that the aiming system is very glitchy, apparently at the fault of the game, not the Wii. Many point to Red Steel's rushed development cycle to be out at launch as the game's biggest fail point, and it seems that may likely be true. Having your reticule randomly jerk around while trying to precision aim a headshot is well beyond annoying. On top of that, various other types of glitches are present in the game, such as AI errors and game freezes. It seems obvious this game shouldn't have been released when it was.

However, take all this with a grain of salt. Red Steel does deliver in providing a refreshing new FPS experience, despite its many shortcomings. Its flaws will certainly turn a number of gamers away, but just as many are likely to truly enjoy the game despite it's problems. When it's working correctly, the aiming system is an amazing new way to play, albeit turning your character can be a bit of a chore at times, depending on your sensitivity. As you learn to shoot well with the Wiimote, you'll find that if you can handle higher sensitivity levels with accuracy, the game will become much more enjoyable. In other words, hardcore players on high sensitivity are going to have a better time than those stuck on low so they can hit anything. It follows thus that this game gets better as you the player get better, an interesting aspect of this and many Wii games.

You better be a fan of the nunchuck if you want to enjoy Red Steel, because you'll be working that little thing's accelerometer to death. The simple downward flick motion is probably the most used command in the entire game, controlling everything from reloading, picking up new weapons, and opening doors. While one might worry a bit about mapping so many things to a motion, it generally works out ok, minus maybe the rare case you want to reload while standing on a gun you don't want to pick up. The nunchuck and Wiimote movements respond well and feel good in Red Steel, and smaller features such as the reload sound from the Wiimote speaker are nice additions.

We can't forget about swordplay now, as it does play a major role in Red Steel's single-player. Unfortunately, the controls aren't 1-to-1, and don't always translate perfectly. Your movements translate based on the way you swing. Swing to the left, your character will follow with a left swing, usually. In the end it's a good combat and control system, hurt more by AI issues than anything else. The AI during sword battles seems to always be either way to stupid to put up a fight, or so ridiculous you have to play kind of cheap to win, usually by simply breaking their sword with power moves, something that's often way to easy to do. What's truly disappointing is the sword battles make no appearance in any form of multiplayer. Two-player duals seem entirely doable and would help give the title some much needed replay value, but they remain absent for unknown reasons.

Speaking of the multiplayer, how does Red Steel fair as the Wii's first 4-player FPS? Hate to say it, but not well. The steep learning curve makes it not so pick-up-and-play as most shooters. The options, characters, and modes are also extremely limited, with no unlockable content. The killer mode is the only thing of true interest to speak of, a mode where players get special orders by answering their Wiimote as a phone. However, it doesn't seem this mode was too well thought out, as there are a few implementation issues. Still, it's a novel idea that hopefully will make a future appearance.

Red Steel is a tough game to review. On the one hand, the game is horrendously flawed and was almost certainly rushed out of development too early. On the other hand, despite a long list of glitches and problems with the game, it was still a very enjoyable game. There's certainly not the replay value to recommend a purchase of it, and I feel many will find themselves disappointed if they shelled out $50 for it. However, I myself am not severely regretting my own purchase, and I think many will find an enjoyable experience to be had here. Because of the learning curve, I can't recommend simply sitting down for only a little while and trying it. I'm going to highly recommend everyone Rent It and try to beat in a free weekend. Feelings on this game are going to vary all across the board, so do yourself a favor and sit down and play it for a good while before you judge. The game grows on you, and the innovative experience is worth playing through. Some will love it, some will absolutely hate it, but either way the game gives some really high hopes for Red Steel 2.

The controls will sink in and it'll become clear how great first person shooters will be on the Wii, but Red Steel has first generation game written all over it. This game wouldn't have half the bad rap it does if it weren't so hyped prior to launch, because nothing could live up to that. It's a decent but glitchy shooter that Ubisoft tried way to hard to stylize, and they should have spent more time ironing the bugs out and focusing on multiplayer.

The sword play goes from a nice distraction to annoying really quickly (honestly, you just want to pull your gun out and shoot those guys). It's all "gesture" based, so the sword doesn't move the way you move the remote. You "swipe" the remote in a certain way, and it's like you'd pushed a button on a normal controller. So dispel any notions you might have of freeing yourself from the pre-programed attack motions of every other game.

The gun aiming controls would be perfect except they inexplicably spaz out from time to time. When it happens, you can hit the menu button, and move the Wii system cursor around just fine. But come back into the game and it starts jumping around again. So it's not my remote, my sensor bar or my Wii that's the problem -- it's the game. It's not consistent, but it happens enough to be annoying.

I can ignore the awful voice acting, and poorly drawn cut scene images. But since there's so much room for improvement in the game, I have to complain about them. I'd rather have no voice acting, no cut scenes and heck, no plot if it was a solid shooter. Sadly it's not the case.

Ubisoft tried too hard to be different here, and it's just too apparent their talents would have been much better utilized in other areas. The whole "focus" system (sort of a stop time effect) is awkward to pull off and makes taking out a group of enemies too easy. There's a whole earning respect points business that feels forced, and I'm constantly wondering why it's in the game. Also, it feels cheesy that you can just hide behind a box and magically make all your bullet wounds heal. It's not that a traditional "health box" would make much more sense, it's just too easy to hide and heal. When you do die, if it's at the beginning of the level, you have to sit through whatever speech there was prior to play every time -- Really annoying when you sit through it five times and keep getting sniped by some guy you can't find.

Some of the weapons are cool, but you can only hold two of them, so it's a constant juggle as you try to guess what gun you're going to be able to find ammo for later. The sniper rifle is just awful however, and deserves to be mentioned. Instead of zooming the entire screen into a snipe view like every other shooter, the whole screen fades so it is too dark to see, except for a tiny cross hair that you have to move around. It forces you to scroll all over trying to see anything. Also, instead of detecting where you hit an enemy (giving headshots more damage for example) they opted to cop out and just make the sniper rifle kill in one hit regardless of where you hit people. It's sad when Goldeneye -- an early N64 game -- has more features and thought behind it than this. They could have just ripped off it's features and had a better product.

The multiplayer mode has no computer controlled opponents, so unless you happened to get 3 extra remotes and 3 extra nunchucks, you aren't ever going to play it. I haven't yet, and probably won't be able to any time soon.

Aside from all that, it's still a fun FPS when you ignore its faults. Busting into a room and taking everyone out can be exciting, especially when you start accidentally blowing up cars or whatever they are hiding behind. If you're really starved for a Wii FPS (and have $50 to burn) give it a shot, but honestly you're probably better off renting it.

OK, I know that many of you have been waiting to play this game because you have heard about it for such a long time but let me tell you that it isn't worth it. I bought this game because i thought it would be really cool but it is full of bad A.I., glitches, and very poor voice acting. The game play isn't much better and the plot isn't very well done, it feels like it was pushed to production. The A.I. is very stupid. They will stand right in front of you and they won't even know you are there. Plus there are tons of problems with the game. Objects, like guns, will hang in the air. I really wish i could give this game a good review but it really doesn't deserve it. So please don't buy this game.

Like one of the other reviews that I've read, I really wanted to love this game. I had read some reviews on a respected gaming site about a week before Ninento Wii was released and some of the editors mentioned that they were weary of this game and the hype that Ubisoft had created. At this point, I was skeptical. But I mushed on... hopeful.

About half way through the game, with the Wii Remote and nunchuck swinging in my hands, I can say that I'm dissapointed.

Controlling the aiming and movement pretty much at the same time with the Wii Remote was a challenge. It seemed that the developers had spent some time trying to get this right, but it just didnt' work. I was constantly analyzing the control to that of a PC or traditional control set-ups. With the Wii Remote, for this particular game, it didn't work.

As for the "sword-play" -- it was pure s**t. When I swang the sword with the Wii Remote, it took about a half-second to register on screen. It may sound small, but in a high action game, this is significant.

The story is over-rated. It's just plain boring.

Like I said at the beginning of this review: I really wanted to like this game.

Bottom line: buy another game.

Tyler

Red Steel had a lot of people pulling for it. Fans and advertisers piled on.

So I'm wondering if the developers were paying attention to the hype.

Red Steel, as far as the controls go, is a joke. Turning to and from enemies takes about 10 years. While other reviewers have claimed that the game does not demand quick turns, this is bogus. I found myself having to turn rather quickly. While sharp turns were not required as often as they were in COD3, they were necessary, especially about 30 percent of the way into the game.

The swordfigthing, if you wish to call it that, should have been scrapped altogether. It sort of goes like: 1) You swing wii remote.
2) some years later, your sword goes, "Hey! I think I need to move!" The result feels very unnatural, especially for a video game.

The graphics, especially in Japan, were usually well done, but you can't decorate a piece of crap.

And thats exactly what this game is. The only reason people like it is because they want to like it.

Don't do UBIsoft any favors. They might make a sequal.

The thing about this game is, it really is a solid idea. There is no better way to utilize the Wii's unique controls than with a shooter with a bastardized "bullet time" and sword controls. But that is where the good ends. The game is frustrating. Bottom line. The action is broken up by sword fights which feel awkward and control even worse. There are combos but don't even bother to learn them. They have no use outside of the training dojo where you learn it. Often times, in fact, I found myself getting angry because the wiimote wasn't even registering my simple sword movements (like, uh, swinging it).

The gun play fares slightly better as it is easier to control and sometimes really fun altering time with the focus technique. You will, I repeat, you WILL die because of some issue where the wii remote thinks you wanted to turn around when really you didn't and will take many bullets for it.

In short, rent it if you can and only if you think you have the patience for it. It's not even the learning curve that is difficult, it is just the unresponsiveness and unforgiving controls that bumble along when you want to stride. I ended up giving up almost through the end because the wii mote simply wouldn't respond in a critical sword battle. Its infuriating!!!!

Hopefully the rumored sequel will have these bugs fixed. Until then, it's not a must play.

Maybe I'm strange but I liked the game. The only thing I didn't like is the zoom in feature. I felt that could've been handled by a button push like in COD3.
The graphics remind me of Time Crisis 3-4.
No blood? I could careless. Only kids seem to care about that stuff nowadays.
Can't seem to control your view. Put your arm on your knee for support and tweak your controller some.
Bad AI? Seems like it's always bad AI when most get their butts kicked. I believe the AI to be above avg. since it will advance on you, flank you, hide, draw fire and such. Yeah there are some glitches here and there but nothing to really whine about. If you can't see the bad guys you probably need a bigger tv. I was hitting this guys on my friend 13incher with no issues. If you can't hit these guys you'll have issues in COD3 for the Wii as well.

Red Steel 2 is in the works so I'm sure they will fix some these issues. folks keep complaining about.
Give me online play, some more options in multiplayer, bump in graphics, more weapons, and a zoom button and I'll buy RS2 as well.

Okay, where to start. SO the story is a little overplayed, your girlfriend's been kidnapped and you need to fight an army of thugs to retrieve her. A little overdone, but whatever.

The controls are revolutionary, yes, but they still suck. I'm not saying guiding your character around is difficult, and the movement while shooting becomes fairly easy. What I am referring to is halfway into the game your point of aim starts to hop from one place to another, not wanting to stay in the center. It's almost like there is a deadspot on the screen where the game can't figure out where you are pointing. I thought it was my controler, but my second wouldn't work either. I thought it was my sensor bar, but it stil happened on a friends Wii. I think it's just an error in the game and one of many. Accuracy is a huge thing when a game gives you the option of shooting a gun out someone's hand and this just ruins the idea.

I've had to replay many of the levels countless times because I wasn't standing in the right place when a cut scene started so it wouldn't run and I couldn't proceed. I've also encountered AI that duck for cover, press an attack while I reloaded, and other great tactics but I've also encountered some that would allow you to walk up to them and slice them at point blank.

Which brings me to the sword play. While pretty cool at first, it became infuriatingly difficult later on to the point where I put it down for a month because I couldn't get past a boss. The problem is the response to your actions and how inaccurate they can be. A vertical slice will be seen as a horizontal swing, which really sucks when trying to line up a combo.

The game has a generally rushed feel to it, like the developers were struggling to make the release date. It's unpolished and buggy and iriitates the hell out of me, something I never thought I would say about an Ubisoft product.

Save yourself some aggravation and pick up Farcry or Call Of Duty instead.

I rented this game cause I thought it's just reasonable to try it before I buy it. And I was right. This game was really interesting at first but I got bored two hours into play. It's repeatitive. I guess I'm not the shooting game type.

Also it was weird how they didn't think of translating the Japanese dialogues into English. I speak Japanese so I understood what was going on but it just confused me cause this was supposed to be for North America release. Oh well I guess it doesn't really affect a gamer much but I thought I should just point that out anyway.