Red Steel is a decent shooter, but that does not mean it couldn't use a little work.
The one thing that I was really woried about before I purchased the game was the graphical quality. Looking at some of the internet screnshots and videos, Red Steel looks jagged and out of focus. But the truth is, it looks much better on a big screen TV than in a tiny internet screenshot. Although the graphics may not compare to games on the 360 or the PS3, they are nothing to really have a fit over. They aren't great, but they aren't too bad either. A lot of the environments actually look quite good at times.
Digging deeper into Red Steel's graphics, I enjoyed a lot of the effects. For one thing, the damage modeling is really awesome. Stray bullets will find their way to precious class artifacts, neon lights, cooking utensils, and pretty much anything that gets in you path of fire. I especially liked the shattering neon lights, because it looks really nice when sparks are flying everywhere, and it is pretty colorful and impressive at times. The lighting is nothing special most of the time, but there are some noticeable qualities. I remember going though one level, and I came upon a door with tiny square holes in it. There were shafts of light shining through each hole, and I thought that it was pretty impressive and detailed. So in short, th graphics wont dazzle you, but they are still pretty good.
A few of the game's most pressing problems deal with the AI and the aiming system. The AI is kind of mindless at times; they often run right into you and you are forced to get into a close range gun battle. Most of the time, the enemies will take cover, but you can simply run right up to them and tak them out with one blast from the shotgun. Sure, I have seen worse AI..., much worse in fact, but I think that with better AI, the gameplay could have improved quite a bit. There were countless complaints about Red Steel's aiming system. I heard that it was to sensitive, jumpy..., all kinds of stuff. When I played the game, I really did not have much trouble with the controls, and neither did any of my friends. Then again, we were fairly used to the Wii mote after playing Wii Sports for hours on end. What I am trying to say is that if you are not familiar with the Wii-mote, then Red Steel might be tough at first. But if you play for a while, you will see that the aiming system really isn't that bad. Sure, sometimes the camera moves too slowly with the gun, but that is due to the player controlling the character's arm instead of his entire body. The aiming doesn't function quite like the average FPS game.
Sound is not one of Red Steel's strong points, but does it really kill you to hear some bad Japanese voice overs? Many games such as Dynasty Warriors also have some pretty bad voice acting. (ex. "Guan Shu, you have deceived me!!!") I can understand why the game got some points off for sound. But a many of the other sounds are fairly well done. The guns sound great most of the time, and pretty much everything that you shoot at has its own unique ricochet sound effect. Personally, I expected better from Ubisoft, but its not too bad.
As far as gameplay goes, Red Steel falls into the "rent it first" category for me. Some people will really enjoy playing through the missions, while others will frown at the game and say that its terrible. The missions are fairly entertaining, but get pretty repetitive after a while. And now for the swordplay: Its fun at first, but after a while it just seems a bit basic. There are only 3 sword moves: left to right slash, up and down slash, and the nearly impossible stab move. I really wish they would have done more with the sword fighting in order to make it seem more purposeful. After all, th game is called Red Steel.
Overall, Red Steel is an entertaining, but repetitive game with some very noticeable problems. Some people love the fact that you can actually move around, and that the game didn't play like Time Crisis. I for one was glad that the game isn't short like Time Crisis. Despite some of the problems with the aiming and graphics, there is some god to be seen in this game. It was the first first-person shooter on the Wii, and I think that it deserves some credit for trying something new. I know that this game needs a lot of work, but to tell you the truth, I would be excited if they decided to make a sequel to Red Steel. I think that with some improvements, the game could actually be a lot of fun. So bottom line, rent it first, and if you like it, buy it.