Guns, Japanese sword-fights, crazy explosions, 'slow-down time', all with the wiimote, what could go wrong? Quite a bit.
When the game was first revealed, there were some bull-shots with incredibly high AA put on, it touted japanese sword fights as well as 'true-to-life' gun shooting - and if anyone went with what was promised, they'd be hugely disappointed. Not only does the game look both weak and strong in parts (most often on-par with a PS2 title), the sword fights were nothing ground-breaking (could have been done with mere button presses) and the shooting controls were far from comfortable to use (although intuitive). If however, you took this game cautiuosly, especially after reading negative reviews, you'll begin to realise that this is one very unpolished game, a very small diamond in the rough.
The game opens up with a strange menu select screen whereby you drag icons onto a screen to choose. New game? Drag the 'New game' icon onto the large monitor. Load Game? Drag. It was puzzling at first, i have to admit. Starting a new game, you're 'treated' to a set of still images that move and are presented in a dramatic fashion. Accompanied by some bad dialogue that can be mistaken for cheap japanese-to-english dubbing; the story begins with you as a bodyguard named Scott. Luckily for you (or maybe unluckily), you've become engaged to your client, an attractive Miyu Sato, the daughter of the Sato Group. After a brief talk at the dinner table, it's been decided that you'll meet Miyu's father and tell him the good news. Things don't go as planned however, as another group/gang launches an assault against the Sato Group. Both Miyu and Isao Sato (her father) are in trouble. Naturally, as a bodyguard, you give chase only to be knocked-out round a corner. Upon waking up, you pickup a handgun from the floor and make your way through the dining area and kitchens, looking for Miyu.
The game starts out linearly and doesn't do anything impressive. Looking back at it now, it is literally a training course of which the difficulty is anything but training. Pacing is well planned-out but ineffective if the majority of players are going to drop out 30 minutes into the game; after the linearity of game, it suddenly pans out and splits into 'chapters'. Each chapter is given to you by different members of the Sanro kai. This hub-like section of the game gives you the freedom to choose missions, practice and 'gear up' on new arsenal at the bar, OR head out to the artistic setting of the traditional japanese dojo (in the middle of the city!) and practice/learn sword techniques. It is only when you reach this section of the game is when things really do start looking up. The graphics, modelling and locations suddenly look and feel better. The story finally drums up some much-needed interest and dares to go out of it's way to be different from typical shooters. There are points at which you really have to try and snipe enemies from a distance (sniping is almost always a good highlight of a fps). There are locations that are quite unique, such as the japanese bathhouse, geisha house and amusement 'arena'. Even the dock has some pretty interesting structure as you work your way through the conveyor belt of the factory. To spice things up, you can throw grenades or roll grenades that are admittingly satisfying with the motion controls (although not particularly effective in both execution and use). The sword-fighting sections of the game does break up the gun-action a lot. And one of the best bits of the game is the ability to 'stop time' - or focus to the point at which time literally slows down (an ability of ninjas apparently according to one of the characters in the game). Slowing down time, gives you the advantage of aiming faster than the enemies, but more importantly disarm your opponents for them to submit to surrender. Shooting an enemy's gun in slow-time and waving your gun at them afterwards, motioning them to put down their gun, they'll drop to their knees with hands in the air. Not only do you save bullets but you will also recieve respect points which fill up your focus guauge and build up your rank.
Despite sounding positive in the last paragraph or so, there are some serious negatives - most of which is borne out of being rushed to release. Firstly the controls, "oh my god!, it's absolute £*&!" - actually, not really - but probably what the majority of gamers will say. I found the controls to be passable at first but still difficult that it needed getting used to. And to be honest, by the time I saw the credits rolling, I still weren't fully used to them. You can zoom in by holding down A to 'lock on a target' and thrusting the wiimote towards the screen, it's clumsy in execution but unfortunately essential for the sniper rifle. Throwing or rolling grenades require motioning the wiimote while pressing 'down on the d-pad'. And to slow down time, you hold 'A' and press 'c' which works really well and is one of the best parts of the game. When duelling with swords, attacking requires motioning the wiimote left, right, up or down. In reality this could easily be mapped to the d-pad which could have been a good idea since the gesture-recognition is quite hap-hazard. You can dodge by holding down 'C' and moving left or right. Dodging is essential in monitoring the enemies' attack patterns but the combination of C + movement makes the dodging a split-second slower to execute so don't be surprised in getting hit as you dodge 'too slow'.
If you can get past these negatives (sword-fights seeming to be impossible, fustrating controls), you also need to put up with the bad voice-acting, derivative story and the occasional spelling mistakes in the subtitles (WTH?). Inexcusable. Really. *shakes head*. There are some positive things to say about the audio of the game; the music hastens and builds up when in combat and loosens up when no enemies are around. The cheesey JPop music as this happens is strangely quite pleasing to me (:P). In the sword-fights, authentic Taiko drums boom out with tense ferocity. And when an area is cleared of enemies, japanese-sounding wind instruments play out in a short 'cool-hero' moment. The graphics are a mixed bag; the character animations and AI are poorly polished despite them jumping over obstacles and hiding round corners or ducking for cover - yet the animation and modelling of characters in the sword-fights are nicely done. Character and environmental models have low poly counts and poor textures but the lighting in some scenes really makes things look special. Unrealistic, Over-the-top explosions from vehicles, oil drums are quite stimulating but seriously dampens the pace of the game if you yourself are caught in an explosion every now and again (instant death).
When having completed the game, i approached the multiplayer of this game and dragged my brother into it. the game supports 4 player split-screen but the chance of you having four full controllers and 3 other willing-friends to play the game is slim. Firstly, I completely dominated my brother in deathmatch unsurprisingly as i was somewhat used to the controls. The controls actually seem better in multiplayer than singleplayer but despite this, other players would probably not enjoy it. It actually feels very similar to Goldeneye and if more time was spent playing in multiplayer, i'm quite certain that it'd be very fun. But simply-put, it's a decent attempt on the Wii but needs a lot more work if it's to persuade you from better, more fun multiplayer options in other games. It's a decent attempt because it actually uses a few unique things such as the wiimote speakers, choosing abilities such as faster rate of fire, stronger bullets, or healing faster when activating special. The sword melee attack is quite fun too although it feels a bit random at times.
When thinking of this game a week or so after completion, the game was worth the £15 i paid for. The game definitely had its moments and actually does have a decent multiplayer option (too bad you won't find many people wanting to touch the game though). The price for this game has been plummeting for the past weeks and so don't be surprised seeing this go for £10 now. Some rush-work put into this game to launch it for Wii-release has hurt it tremendously - what's the excuse for having spelling mistakes? Why have lack-lustre still-images for cut-scenes? (i can understand for artistic reason but overall, it just seems cheap). Awful voice-acting. Oh, and why are there some, but not a lot of, bugs/glitches in the game? The ending had some satisfying music but why did it have a single screen of 'Thank you for playing' in ten or so different languages and lack of pictures with the credits? Why is it that a certain chapter in the game has my Wii constantly reading the disc really loudly? (:|). Considering all of these things, it seems as though the game's target was not set very high or that it was simply a rushed project. In a strange way however, i admit now that i'm looking forward to Red Steel 2, only for how much this game can improve. If the promised online support, more optimised controls (post Metroid Prime 3, Medal of Honour 2) and better graphics holds true, Red Steel 2 could turn out to be what Red Steel should have been - a kickass, unique action game that actually makes you feel like you're wielding a japanese sword and feel like a badass as you hold your pistol/wiimote side-on, gangster-styIe.