Nothing beats a fun, mindless kung-fu movie chock full of martial arts action, combined with a story that makes little sense and characters that make even less sense. Ubisoft has stepped up, heaving heavy amounts of martial arts madness into its first-person shooting Wii game Red Steel. While the game doesn't hit all its intended targets, it still offers plenty of over the top shenanigans.
In Red Steel, the player takes control of Scott, a bodyguard assigned to watch over the daughter of a powerful Yakuza boss. While protecting her, the two fall in love. The game begins with her getting ready to introduce him as her fiance. However, gunrunners sink the love boat. After a quick sequence that separates him from the girl, he must shoot and fight his way through countless enemies in a bitter rescue attempt.
Shooting is only part of the fun, as small sword fighting sequences have been scattered throughout the adventure. It's here that the Wii controls get used to the fullest, as the player must use both the Nunchuk and the Wii-mote to sustain a strong fight. Moving around the Wii-mote slashes the enemy, while the Nunchuk parries and blocks the enemy's advances, as well as maneuvering around them to get a quick open shot. Ubisoft also throws in the option to either kill them on the spot or spare them, earning Respect points that add to the overall score at the end of each level.
Sadly, the shooting segments contain a few issues. In order to zoom in on specific targets, a lock-on button must be pressed. From there, the Wii-mote has to be pushed in and out to enlarge and shrink the targeting view. This can be a real struggle during gunfire-laden spots. Targeting with the analog stick would have worked better. Disorientation (which seems to be common with many Wii games), also mars the experience, where the gun sways around the screen as the player attempts to re-establish aim. It doesn't happen that often, but again, it can be a real pain if gunfire and explosions are erupting all about..
Past this, the gameplay works great. The first person shooting, aside from close-up shooting, is smoothly laid out across both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players can reload, switch weapons, open doors, perform quick knockout shots and roll grenades in a snap. The sword-fighting sequences are also quite engaging. It does seem easy at first, slashing away here and there to dwindle an enemy's life bar. Later opponents, however, have stronger artificial intelligence and use more defensive tactics to stay alive. Most of the gunrunners do this as well, hiding behind objects and taking potshots. Thankfully, the variety of guns even the odds, and a lock-on feature (acquired later on) lets players shoot multiple targets in a row.
Red Steel also has an impressive multiplayer mode, though at first, players may have a tough time using the motion controls with three other people in the room (the game only supports split screen play). After a few minutes of this, however, the play feels more natural. Those without the luck of having friends, however, will find the single player offering quite enjoyable, taking several hours to complete.
Unfortunately, the game's presentation fails to excite. The decently constructed levels come with destructible items (forklifts, cars, barrels) to take out numerous enemies in a jarring explosion. The frame rate is pretty steady as well, with minimal slowdown. But the rest of the visuals, needed more work. Choppy character animation and the GameCube-like quality graphics never impress.
Red Steel's music isn't necessarily bad, but changes tempo when enemies pop out of the woodwork, and most of the time it's drowned out by excessive gunfire and continuous taunts. This leads to the game's cheesy dialogue, with baddies yelling out insults like "It's just you and me now!" or "You're dead, you bastard!" It would've been nice had Ubisoft given them some personality to go with their intelligence. It's like they took police training and then went right to script reading lessons with Steve Guttenberg.
Maybe it's meant to be cheesy. After all, Red Steel is not a game that's going to be considered the best first-person shooter ever made. It's made for quick, non-stop entertainment, just like those cheesy kung-fu movies.
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