When Red Steel was first revealed in the pages of Game Informer magazine, the dreams of some First Person Shooter fans looked like they were about to come true. Pointing and shooting at the screen as if pointing a gun, in a full-fledged shooter - despite what some jaded videogame pundits may have thought - was a tantalizing, immersive and obvious idea. However, the idea of the sensor bar hadn't fully sunk in yet. You don't, in fact, point directly at the screen and look down the remote. The Wiimote and sensor bar combination does not act as a virtual light gun in that direct sense. Instead, you would point the on-screen aiming reticule as you would a laser pointer. The results on the screen would reflect smaller movements you made from your seat a few feet away, translating them proportionally. So, when prospective customers saw Red Steel footage at E3 2006, there were mixed reactions - many of them were, "The control looks janky."
The standard for developing a solid, controllable First Person Shooter using Nintendo's Wiimote functionality hasn't exactly been set yet. Red Steel keeps the person's virtual "face" looking in the same direction until you nudge the reticule against the edge of the screen. Though I haven't played the game yet, reports are that - with video footage as my only evidence - the speed at which your character turns and changes his looking direction is intolerably slow. Trying to fend off an enemy firing at you directly from your left, then, becomes much more difficult than it needs to be.
We haven't seen results for the soon-to-be-released Far Cry: Vengeance (a "launch window" title developed by Red Steel's own Ubisoft), and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a ways off (though reports are that it nails the control). So, the only other challenger at the moment is Activision's Call of Duty 3. Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty 3 appears on all three current-gen platforms (wow - can you believe it's no longer "next-gen"?) with varying traits. The most obvious assumption can be made here: the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions excel in presentation, with high-definition graphics depicting the war-torn French vistas in all their rubble-strewn glory. The Nintendo version, however, looks only slightly better than a middling multi-platform Xbox title. About the only impressive visual effects here are the chaotic trappings of war and the surprisingly well-done volumetric smoke from massive explosions and smoke grenades. What it "has going for it" is, of course, the Wiimote's aiming capabilities.
I'm about halfway through Call of Duty 3's campaign, having just completed the sixth out of fourteen chapters as they are laid out in the game's Chapter Select screen. Based on this experience, along with video footage from Red Steel, I'm inclined to say that Call of Duty 3 is much, much farther along in the growth process of First Person Shooting on Nintendo's Wiivolutionary console. Treyarch went so far as to include two modes of control - one mimicking a mouse-and-keyboard setup, and one mimicking Red Steel's setup (which succeeds already by providing a faster turning speed). Which one hits that sweet spot we're all waiting for?
Going with the mouse-like setup will have your reticule tied to the center of your screen. Aiming your Wiimote directly affects where your character is "facing" and, as a result, where your character is aiming. Keeping your Wiimote aimed at a certain vector from its "invisible center" (time to learn your sensor bar's range inside and out, folks) keeps your character turning in that direction. Returning it to its invisible center stops your character from looking. In this way, you effectively get a combination of analog stick and mouse control. While pointing your gun at a certain spot on the screen becomes much faster than a regular old analog stick, it's still slower than a mouse. When you want to make a 180 degree turn, your turning rate is still fixed to the speed at which you initially turned your Wiimote. It does require about 10 minutes of learning, but it ends up working surprisingly well. However it's somewhat of a melancholy medium, because when you think about it, why emulate simple mouse input when the really tasty proposition of the Wiimote is to be able to point and shoot at something on the screen without having to shift your viewpoint?
That's where Treyarch's "dynamic aim" method, which is switched on by default, comes into play. This is the control method that emulates and ultimately trumps Red Steel's first attempt. Though the base mechanics are the same - aim at anything directly on the screen, push the reticule to the edge of the screen to turn - the position of the reticule on the screen also affects your turning speed. The further out your reticule is from the center of the screen, the faster you turn. This allows you to actually control how fast you turn; with the horizontal and vertical sensitivity set to the max, by the time your reticule is nudged up at the edge of the screen, you're turning at an almost-as-fast-as-mouselook pace. (That I was able to jump and do a 180 is testament to how precise the sensitivity is, especially given how low characters in Call of Duty games actually jump.) Treyarch has also taken care of the problem of, "If I'm aiming at something that's somewhat off center, won't my viewpoint change?" There is an option - which is on by default - that eases up on the turning when your reticule is on a foe and you're firing upon him. It's another form of lock-on, except it's not of the cheap "auto-aim" variety. You've got to aim and shoot first before the game helps you out.
This latter, default control method is what really feels bad-*** and satisfying in the most cathartic sense. It's what allows you to go commando (no, not in the underwear sense) and march straight ahead while picking off enemy soldiers to the left and right of you, above and below you. You're aiming your gun, not your head, so your aim and walking direction are somewhat independent of each other; you also end up not making that "beeline" that you do when playing other console and PC first person shooters (look, walk, shoot, turn, walk, shoot, turn, walk, shoot). Whether or not this comes into practical play often enough is a separate issue, but for the time being it's the fact that you can pull this off - and the sensation that you feel from pretending like you're actually pointing at something directly and pulling that B trigger - that makes it all sensational. The learning curve is there, but it's no different than learning how to use a mouse if you've never done it; actually, it's a bit easier because of the fact that you're manipulating something you're holding at the screen as opposed to something laying flat on a table.
Of course, it must be said that under no circumstances should you be playing this game after drinking espresso or any caffeine-drenched energy drink. Red Bull might give you wings, but it'll also give you the damn jitters. Aiming down your gun's sight on the real battlefield, when you're jittery and hyper, won't let you snipe very well now will it? The same principle applies here. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing depends on your preference for realism and immersion versus practicality in gameplay. All I can tell myself is to keep my damn hands steady when firing.
The rest of the game has plenty of issues, but we're here to talk more about the effectiveness of the Wiimote as a first-person aiming device than we are about Call of Duty 3 itself anyway. The point is, and developers take note, Call of Duty 3 demonstrates the shooting power of the Wiimote incredibly well with its default control setup. Treyarch has developed a control scheme that allows you to aim at something on the screen while maintaining your direction; that allows you to vary the speed of your turns intuitively; whose sensitivity settings go high enough to allow for a maximum of near-mouse levels of precision. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption may have, according to website IGN's editors, developed a keen mouse-and-keyboard emulating setup. I want more, though. I want this. Hitting that sweet spot with the Wiimote needs to go further than just emulating the prime method of controlling shooters - it needs to add something new.
If developers could take Call of Duty 3's control scheme and perfect it, I think I'd be a happy camper. I'm writing this on vacation from a beach in St. Croix, and as beautiful as it is, all my hands can think of doing is returning to the battle for Chambois and aiming right for some punks deserving of World War II lead. Even in its nascent stages, Wiimote shooting is addictive as all hell. We just need more games to learn from Red Steel's mistakes and follow Call of Duty 3's lead. Or how about taking the two modes that Call of Duty presents - "mousing" and "Red Steel" mode - and make them both available at the touch of a button - remember Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64? Possibilities are out there. Let's find out which ones work.
As a note, anyone who's played Red Steel is encouraged to comment and provide your thoughts on the control scheme as I've not played it yet.
[Originally written by myself and published in Trigames.NET. It appears here unabridged.]
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