Red Steel 2

10 Jun 2009 at 16:51:08 by

Red Steel was never really appreciated for its control system, and rightly so.  The use of the Wiimote was dire and it was frustrating to play as you hacked away at enemies, seemingly in the same way no matter how you swing the Wiimote.

Red Steel 2 promises to be different and, with the addition of Wii Motion Plus, more accurate.  The game has a new art style and there is a mysterious new protagonist who you take control of, but he has forgotten who he is and why he's being tracked down by a rival gang.

The introduction sees you being dragged through the desert behind a motorbike, and as you go through different settings it becomes clear that the riders aim is to kill you as passing gang members jeer when you do stop.  Luckily you manage to shoot your captor, freeing you from your ride of death and enabling you to learn the basic controls of movement and combat in the tutorial which follows.

And there's no reason to worry as our hero is equipped with all he needs, a gun (which you'll get later on in the tutorial) and a Katana sword, pretty much the same as the first game.  It's with these weapons he is able to unleash his fury at unsuspecting enemies and enemy bosses.  But it's not all hack 'n' slash, and there are elements of strategy involved in the latest title.  Some enemies are covered in plate armour, so a shot with your gun won't do, neither will a pansy like swing of your sword.  Instead you must strengthen your swing by holding the sword back for a couple of seconds, and then release in order to maximise the blow and tear off the enemy's armour.

Movement is pretty straight forward, with hacking and slashing movements done with your Wiimote, and your gun is accessed by pressing the B button, which basically just shoots wherever your reticule is aimed. 

It's not just the combat that's improved, it's the whole movement mechanic, how you move and how responsive the game is to movement.  If, for example, you want to turn around to the right quickly, you move the Wiimote as far right and as quickly as you can.  It's a great improvement on the shaky and clunky control system that didn't really seem to work in the previous iteration of the game.

Of course there are mini-games, such as lock-picking and door-opening, but nothing really was as impressive as the addition of Wii Motion Plus. The 1:1 motion-sensing functionality makes a real impact in Red Steel 2, especially in the swordplay, giving the game a real advantage over its predecessor.

Response and representation of movement is accurate and, from our short time with Red Steel 2, we were more than impressed.  We're looking forward to the final code, and as it's coming bundled with Wii Motion Plus (in Europe anyway), it's certainly something to look forward to.

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