Redy, aim… fire!

Guns-blazing action is dead. Long live Cover. Anyone whose been playing Gears of War this last week will agree; cover is en vogue; cover is cool; cover is the new bullet time. It’s nothing revolutionary, perhaps, but Epic’s Xbox 360 blaster has effectively elevated the basic mechanics of the gun game to a higher plane. Shooters may never be the same again.

A couple of day after Gears of War arrived at GAME HQ, however, we were given a chance to sit down for an in-depth extensive play with Red Steel, Ubi Soft’s Yakuza-themed big hope for Nintendo’s new motion sensitive games system this festive season. Already high on Gears’ gun-slinging glory, we couldn’t have been happier to oblige.

Duck-and-cover-action

Now, we have to stress, this is no Gears of War. Despite the inevitable comparisons between the big shooters on rival consoles, the two boast gargantuan stylistic and gameplay differences. Red Steel has an identity all of its own, with a control setup unlike anything you’ll have experienced. It does, however, have its own stylish take on duck-and-cover action, and enough going for it to keep gamers occupied over the holidays. It’s going to be a Wii’ly good Christmas…

The story behind Red Steel is more an excuse for the gameplay than a real driving force for its 12-to-15 hour singleplayer mode. You are Scot-San, American fiancée to the daughter of Sato, a high-profile Japanese businessman, and set to meet your dad-in-law-to-be when all hell breaks loose. A gun-toting gang attack the offices you’re visiting, try to kill Sato, and kidnap your beloved, sending you on a rescue mission armed with only the finest line in automatic weaponry, and a cool-as, Kill Bill style katana Samurai sword. Could be worse.

The majority of your time with Red Steel – around 70% or so – will be spent with a gun in your hand. It’s all rather odd at first though; there’s a certain floaty feeling which is hard to get your head around, since most movements will send your gun arm floating wildly about the screen, giving it a somewhat odd disembodied quality. With forwards, backwards and sideways movement on the nunchuk analog stick, turning means pointing the Wii remote practically off screen, and it’s all so sensitive that you’ll soon be spinning in circles on the spot until you’ve gotten the hang of it.

Cues from Halo

When you have, you’ll find Red Steel offers a deceptively simple control config with few of the contrivances often levelled at the first-person genre. Jumping, crouching, reloading, melee attacks and opening doors all come naturally with either a simple button press or flick of the nunchuk, while switching weapons is hassle-free on the Wiimote D-pad. To further simplify matters, the weapon system mimics Halo, only letting you hold two firearms at a time, plus the obligatory grenades, adding an element of tactics to your choices.

Also taking its cues from Halo is the health system, which sees your damage meter recharge when you retreat from enemy fire. Coupled with a pretty standard fare FPS weapon set (pistol, magnum, shotgun, Uzi and sniper rifle, all present and correct), plus level design proffering plenty of well-placed barricades, vehicles and the odd piece of furniture to knock over and hide behind, and it makes for a frantic ballistic first-person thrill ride.

It’s all very retro, though, and decidedly draining with it. There’s no real open-endedness to the levels, with design favouring going from A to B, blasting enemies along the way in the vein of the more linear levels from N64 classic Goldeneye. A number of set pieces make up for this somewhat, and some arbitrary switch flicking and keycard ferrying helps break up play, but puzzles on the whole are overlooked for a more one-dimensional, reaction-based, you-against-the-world kind of gameplay, which – especially given the concentration required to use the control system – can tire you out after a while.

A mixed bag

Unfortunately, your foes are not exactly PHD holders, so while they’ll sometimes surprise with super accurate shooting and skilful jumps over scenery to pursue you, they’ll just as often astound with sheer stupidity – standing around in clear sight doing absolutely nothing on occasion, and failing to flank you convincingly at others. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but if you can overlook the flaws, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

The same could be said about the sword fighting, which isn’t as sophisticated as we’d hoped. It’s easy to pick up and initially feels fresh; the Wiimote slashing the sword, the nunchuk parrying opponent’s strikes, and the C button plus analog stick together allowing you to sidestep. Yet, additional katas and special moves fail to add depth, never feeling as effective as merely waving the Wiimote like a madman to finish your opponent quickly. Thankfully, some of the gun special moves are significantly more useful than the sword ones, with the option to slow down time, tag enemies’ weapons, and disarm them in a few seconds, particularly cool.

In truth, Red Steel is a bit of an odd one to pigeonhole; it’s an old-school style shooter on brand new hardware with an innovative and never-before-seen control system that’s both unerringly tricky to get used to, but potentially also brilliantly accessible. The multiplayer too is a lot of fun, even boasting functions which utilise the Wiimote’s built-in speaker, but with a meagre four maps and potentially disorienting controls, likely won’t top most people’s current multiplayer shooter faves.

An altogether solid FPS

It’s also a tad indecisive in the visual department, rendering a great-looking Japanese setting in an unmistakably western style, and really pushing the Wii’s lighting capabilities, but stilting things somewhat with an overall lack of detail on characters and weapons, and tying it all together with some at-times wooden animation. Music, meanwhile, feels fitting, but the dialogue can grate at times with its overly hammed-up cheesiness, and even the menu screen, presenting Japanese symbols with English descriptions underneath, is an obvious attempt at enhancing the far-east feel, but comes across like Ubi Soft forgot to translate the game’s entire front end.

Despite some indifference, however, Red Steel still comes recommended. It’s not the most sophisticated shooter ever made, but the control system really does show off what Wii can do, while the action in itself is intense, well designed and, above all, enjoyable. Buy this hoping for a truly revolutionary experience, then, and you may be left a touch disappointed, but approach Red Steel expecting an altogether solid FPS, and you’ll discover a game offering clipfulls of fun, with more than a suggestion of what to expecting from future Wii shooters.

GAME's Verdict

• The Wii launch game with the best use of the controller
• Intense and satisfying duck-and-cover FPS fare
• Brilliant bullet time-esque gun moments

• Controls take some getting used to
• Draining to play
• Not the most sophisticated shooter in existence

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: Wii
Review Published: 22.11.06