Much better than expected!

When watching the first footage from UBI Softs ambitious FPS Red Steel, I was certain it was going to be an awesome game. But as more and more negative reviews rolled in, I got a bit uncertain if I should get it after all. But I did, and I'm glad I did. It has some faults, but Red Steel is still a great game.

In Red Steel, you play as Scott, who's girlfriend has been kidnapped by the Yakuza. In order to rescue her you have to team up with all sorts of persons along the way of the game. The story is quite ambitious with many unexpected turns. However, it's not very well told. Probably due to time constraints. Watching still pictures move around is not very exciting, but it works. What doesn't work though, is the voice acting. The dialogue is horrible and the fake japanese accent just feels silly. Sometimes a few japanese words are thrown in for good measure, often with wrong pronaunciation. The story isn't everything though, thankfully.

What makes Red Steel unique is of course that it's one of the first games to use the Wii remote for control in an FPS game. You use the remote to aim and the analog stick on the nunchuck to move. By moving the remote towards the edges of the screen you can turn and look in all directions. This takes a while to get used to, but works very well after a few hours of playing. Shooting and switching weapons uses normal buttons but opening doors, throwing grenades and picking stuff up is done by flicking the nunchuck. Except from the grenades (you can either throw them or roll them on the floor, but it's hard to do the right move in the heat of the action), that works well. A very smart addition is that one of the buttons on the nunchuck is used to crouch. By using it, you can quickly take cover. It works well, and is necessary if you want to complete the game. Because your enemies are smart and will hide so you cannot just run forward and gun everything down.

Overall Red Steel is a bit more on the tactical side. Levels are full of objects to take cover behind. They are also quite big and have both narrow corridors and huge open areas. Level design is overall good, and some areas are very impressive. The only problem is that they are divided into small parts, with checkpoints (and loading times) between them. It's a bit annoying, but no big deal.

Another important part of Red Steel, and perhaps THE most hyped part, is the sword fights. Sometimes you will encounter sword wielding opponents which you have to defeat in a real one on one duel without any firearms. Here, the Wii remote becomes you Katana, which you have to swing around to strike or block. You also have a smaller sword which is controlled by the nunchuck that is mainly used for blocking. You can also dodge sideways as well as perform a variety of special moves. The game is not copying your moves exactly, according to the developers that was to hard for the player, so instead it will guess and do similiar moves. In other words, you can strike up, down, left, and so on as you want. But you only do small motions on the remote. It's quite hard to explain. But the movements performed in the game are simply not very accurate to the movements you actually perform. Still, these fights can be quite tactical, because emphasis is instead on blocking or dodging at the correct time. So these fights are quite fun, but they do not resemble real fencing. A cool thing is that after a fight, you can either kill your opponent, or put your sword down. If you spare your opponent, you will gain respect and more score.

What's more to mention... There are many levels and the campaign will last quite some time. There are also many weapons to choose from, ranging from pistols to automatics and beyond. A nice touch is also that you can freeze time temporarily, which gives you time to aim. If you aim well, you can disarm your opponents instead of killing them, which earns you more respect.
There is a multiplayer mode as well, where up to four people can battle it out in splitscreen. This is very fun and aiming is no problem. However, I am playing on a very big screen and I can image that if you have a small tv, aiming can get a bit hard when playing four players. The multiplayer mode also feels a bit rushed, with only four levels and three modes. A special mention for the innovative mode where each player gets specific, hidden, orders from the Wii remotes speaker though. A cool idea which can certainly be expanded upon.

Red Steel is not without it's flaws. The biggest problem with it is that it's filled with bugs and feels quite rushed. Sometimes enemies or objects behave quite strange and it gets very annoying at times. Much things could have required more work, like cut scenes, graphics, levels and multiplayer.

So what about the graphics? Red Steel is a mixed bag. Most of it was developed on GameCube hardware, which shows. It's not using the Wii's full power. Still, it does look quite fine and occasionally it looks really nice. The best part are the different effects, like reflective surfaces, which are very common and even reflects explosions. There are also some very fine light effects. Neon signs reflected in wet streets does create a nice atmosphere. But while many areas are big and full of detail, there are also many areas which has very little of it. A good example is all the boring corridors you will run through. The engine has potential but since the game was rushed it isn't used fully.

Music, on the other hand, really shines. There are some very catchy and well made tunes. As mentioned before, voices are horrible. But when bullets zoom past you, the sound effects do their job quite nice. It's also nice to see some sounds, like when reloading, coming from the Wiimote speaker.

The verdict is that Red Steel is a well made game even though it has it's share of quirks and bugs. It's enjoyable and if you like FPS games, you should check this one out.