Red Steel 2

**SupaNova** · 02-16-2010, 10:38 PM

Stylish FPS with an emphasis on swordplay dropping on the Wii next month. This game was hardly even on my radar as of last week, but after reading and viewing several extensive previews, this one has topped my most wanted list.

Besides the obvious allure of playing as a katana toting gunslinger who fights ninjas in the American west, this looks to be the first real showcase for the Wii Motion Plus attachment (that's not a sports title

). Most of the impressions I've read tend to agree that while it's still not pushing perfectly synced 1:1 gameplay, the motion controls are certainly getting stretched further then they ever have to date. Keep your eyes on this one guys.

Latest trailer

Wii M+ demo

**Fandrew** · 02-17-2010, 08:04 AM

Since I'm one of the people who wasted money on the first Red Steel, buying it before the Wii even launched, I'm gonna have to be cautious with this one. I'll wait and read some reviews.

penguinofwar · 02-17-2010, 09:49 AM

I didn't hate the first Red Steel, I thought it was a decent game with a good story and idea, it was just poorly developed. But from the looks this one seems like its more about sword fighting than it is about shooting, which doesn't really float my boat. I'd consider getting it once its a lot cheaper, though.

**SupaNova** · 02-17-2010, 10:36 PM

For what it's worth, they've totally revamped the franchise for this release. Completey different characters, settings, art style, atmosphere: It's practically a brand new ip. Honestly, seeing as how tarnished the original Red Steel's legacy is, I'm kind of surprised they decided to revive the series. I'll also be very surprised if this game ends up bombing as hard as the first one...but that's always a looming possibility with a new venture like this.

Penguin my man- Guns will definately come into play. I wouldn't even be halfway interested in this one if they didn't

***Art*** · 02-18-2010, 01:59 AM

I will definitely want to check it out. The first one always interested me, but the reviews lacked.

**SupaNova** · 02-20-2010, 09:57 PM

New videos are circulating, huzzah!!

#1 Dev walkthrough, shows off lots of possible combos.

#2 Quick interactive scene. I can't believe they're pushing these kinds of detailed enviroments at such a fast pace on the Wii.

#3 First ten minutes of the game (Some light spoilers and minor language).

**SporkV** · 02-20-2010, 10:10 PM

Looks like it's got some potential, although I wasn't really expecting it to be cell-shaded like that(mind you have I havent played the original either, so...)

**Fandrew** · 02-21-2010, 11:21 PM

It's definitely looking pretty sweet, but I don't see why they continue it as a "Red Steel" game. I think they should've given that franchise up.

penguinofwar · 02-22-2010, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayCarrFan

It's definitely looking pretty sweet, but I don't see why they continue it as a "Red Steel" game. I think they should've given that franchise up.

Same here. I think it might be interesting if they continued the story line of Red Steel but it doesn't look like Red Steel 2 has anything to do with Red Steel 1. I guess its a cool name though...

**SupaNova** · 02-23-2010, 09:42 AM

Ubi's creative director recently talked about why they stuck with the name in a recent interview. In a nutshell, he said the team views the gun/sword gamplay as the core of the franchise, as opposed to any set of characters or story elements, so they can radically change the game's setting and still call it a Red Steel game.

Personally, I'm with you guys. A brand new title would have been nice, but it's certainly not a deal breaker by any means.

**SupaNova** · 03-16-2010, 08:36 PM

Bumping this, since the release date is only a week away. Lots of footage and previews are circulating now. Even if it doesn't live up to all of the hype, I'm pretty much convinced now that RS2 is going to be a very solid game with excellent motion controls.

**SupaNova** · 04-04-2010, 09:24 PM

Well, I got the game this weekend! I've played it for about four hours so far, had a few goes with the second boss before calling it quits for tonight. Here are some early impressions for you guys:

The visuals are top notch, so don't let the cell-shading deter any of you from checking this out. Character models look nice and they animated quite fluidly. The enviroments look surprisingly detailed in a lot of areas. I wouldn't put it at the pinnacle of the list, but RS2 is one of the prettiest Wii games on the console to date. The sound effects are terrific, the music is wonderful (an awesome mix of spaghetti western tunes punctuated by Asian woodwinds, strings and percussion). The voicework is cheesy, but it fits: the common bad guys sound like thugs from an old ninja turtle cartoon, your allies sound like extras from a cheesy western, the protagnist does his best "man with no name" impersionation, etc. The story is interesting so far, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it fall flat by the time the ending rolls around.

The combat is simply amazing. Again, you're not making 1:1 movements on screen, but the sword does register whatever crazy direction you swing the remote in, it simply "locks in" your movement to the closest assignable direction in the game. Apologies if that was hard to follow. It's kind of difficult to explain unless you're actually playing the game. Swing your arm to the right, your sword swings right. Stab forward with the remote, your sword stabs the other guy's belly. You want to swing diagnally from the upper left corner down, followed up with throwing your oppoent into the air by flipping your arm up? Go ahead! Do you wish to flail your arm around like a maniac in every direction as fast as humanly possible? You will die many, many times. Because of the Wii Motion Plus, there a steeper learning curve then what we've all experienced in Wii games before, but (thanks in part to a plethroa of tutorials) you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. The gun controls work flawlessly. Aim, hit the B trigger, you're good to go.

The biggest curve ball for me, and what I suspect will be for a lot of people, is learning to swing your arm with a hearty amount of force in order to make your swings effective. Remember when you first played Wii Sports and realized that you didn't actually have to throw your arm out in order to swing the tennis racket effectively? Well, you actually kind of need to swing like that in this game. The tutorials encourage you to make wide, sweeping gestures with your arm in order to increase the amount of damage applied to your foe. My arm truly feels like it's been through a good workout after an hour long session or two. However, it should be noted that you can adjust the how powerful your swiping gestures have to be in order to pull off big attacks. I've been playing on the defauly (medium) setting, I'll try out the 'Relaxed' setting soon and get back to you guys on that.

I'm sure I've already typed up more then what most of you care to read in one post (

). I'll write some more once I'm further into the campaign.

penguinofwar · 04-05-2010, 11:59 AM

Sounds pretty neat. The movement thing you were talking about makes me like it a bit more. I probably wouldn't pay 50 bucks for this but would definetly get it once the price drops a bit. Anyways, IGN gave this a 8.6 (not that IGN is the ultimate determiner of how good a game is) but I think thats the highest they've ever given a shooter for the Wii.

**SupaNova** · 04-08-2010, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POW

Sounds pretty neat. The movement thing you were talking about makes me like it a bit more. I probably wouldn't pay 50 bucks for this but would definetly get it once the price drops a bit. Anyways, IGN gave this a 8.6 (not that IGN is the ultimate determiner of how good a game is) but I think thats the highest they've ever given a shooter for the Wii.

In this particular case, I mostly agree with IGN's review. I dislike that silly decimal point system though (what exactly makes a 7.5 better than a 7.2? Or what's the big difference between a 8.9 and a 9.0? But I digress). I finished up the campagin yesterday and I really feel like it deserves a solid eight out of ten.

It clocks in at (roughly) ten hours to get through the main portions of the game and you could easily tack on another two or three hours by taking on all the side missions and throughly exploring the hub areas looking for the cash garnering tokens. Surprisingly, I actually liked the whole story- what's there is paper thin, but it was fun to see unfold. The combat just keeps getting better as you continue to unlock more special moves and upgrade your weapons. It's far and away the best part of the experience. I did end up trying out 'Relaxed' swinging and ended up keeping that setting for the rest of my run. I'd recommend switching to that one at least until you get use to how the sword mechanics work.

My biggest criticism is that the game probably could have used another month or two for some general last minute polishing, but it's not a big deal. The main experience is excellent though. If you love brawlers or FPSs, definately keep think about giving this gem a chance.

joanaugusts · 04-12-2010, 06:52 AM

I love to play stylish games and also heard good reviews about this game and if this game makes good use of the wii controller then there are chances of picking this game more.