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Red Steel Review - Wii

Introduction

When Red Steel was announced it soon became the epitome of the Wii's, then still named Revolution, early potential. Not only could you use the Wii's remote as a gun to target on screen enemies, but you could also use it as a sword.

Red Steel opens with the player facing Miyu, an elegant Japanese lass who reveals herself to be your fiancée and you're about to meet her father, a major player in Tokyo business. Of course, things are not quite so sedate. After a bungled assassination attempt and a kidnapping, Scott, the player, finds himself waking up and using his bodyguard abilities to win back the girl, gaijin or no.

The role os gaijin plays into the story. As a white devil, the Japanese clans of Yakuza have little respect for you, bordering on murderous contempt.

As the story unfolds, via graphic novel cut scenes with full voice work, as well as in game cut scenes, the player is drawn deeper into the world of Japan's organised crime. The concept of honour, loyalty and respect plays a major part in the story, and offers a nice counter balance to the typical story of “rescuing the princess”.

Winning the respect of the Yakuza to earn their help to win back your girl involves nothing less than shooting some people and cutting others through a variety of environments and some interesting set piece battles. From typical environments like warehouses and factories, to running through bars, clubs and even a very Matrix like shootout in an office building, complete with crumbling columns.

Gameplay

For all of Red Steel's ambition, the controls just can't quite come together and, without them, it isn't the AAA it could have been. The gun play is fine enough, once the turning mechanics are worked out. Aiming the remote at the screen and using the B button for the trigger, simulating a real firearm is fine and dandy and will be familiar to anyone who has played a gun game before.

While aiming on the screen is intuitive, problems crop up when you try to turn. Pointing too far in one direction will cause your point of view to change, allowing you to turn left and right and look up and down. Unfortunately, the turning is slow, even on the medium setting. You can speed things up in the option menu, but there is still no easy way to quickly do a 180 degree turn, or efficiently scan the environment for threats. The ability to quick turn or snap your view point in a direction would have been simple to implement, but sadly it wasn't, and we're left to feel as if our neck is made of rusty joints of metal holding up a plate of jelly.

Due to the lack of turning ability, the game is best played in a similar way to Time Crisis. Find a place with good cover and hide behind it, popping (continued next page)