Our Red Steel 2 playthrough starts with a bang – as our playable character is dragged along behind a motorcycle on a long chain which he manages to shoot moments before it crashes in a massive fireball. A streamlined tutorial introduced the basics of gunplay and some interesting first person exploration before our first violent encounter.
Running and gunning with the Wii-mote/nunchuck combo was a breeze and the freedom of movement has come a long way since the early FPS’s on the system. But it wasn’t until we located our trusty samurai sword that the potential of Red Steel 2 was really revealed.
Your sword is always ready and strikes are accomplished with swings of the controller while your sidearm can be wielded with a single button press. This shooting and slicing action is incredibly fluid and you’ll soon be blocking foes attacks with a nonchalant twist of the wrist before calming shooting them in the face. The z button chooses who you are locked on to and changing targets was effortless and made the flow of combat very rewarding. The implementation of the Wii-Motion Plus means that the harder you swing the controller the more powerful your attack will be, so mixing up quick slices and withering body blows is second nature. Add in the deft strafe moves and counters and we’re happy to report that sword fighting has never been captured better on consoles.
But the most impressive thing about Red Steel 2 is the presentation. Instead of the gritty, neon, real world setting of the original, it takes place in an alternate reality which mixes Asian influences into a futuristic version of the Wild West where a hard bitten stranger in a Stetson and duster faces off against a horde of Samurai warriors in a flurry of blades and bullets. And the game looks great, and before you ask not just for a Wii title. Ubisoft Paris have done a brilliant job of letting the hardware and the design work in tandem to create a spectacular looking game. True the resolution is not that high but the choice to go with stylised characters and levels which naturally tend towards a certain spare layout has really paid off. In some ways it resembles Ubisoft’s XIII from a few years ago but it’s certainly one of the better looking games on the system.
Our demo ended with us going toe to toe with a massive, sledge hammer wielding foe and our side stepping move came in very handy for slipping around behind him and delivering some sneaky stabs to the back before running away in extremely cowardly fashion. The full game will feature masses of boss fights – with each rumoured to gift the player with a new combat skill such as tossing the enemy in the air before descending on them in bladed fury.
Serious gamers have long been a little ambivalent about the Wii, with its aggressive targeting of atypical demographics and a neverending chorus line of shallow party games.