Author Topic: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!  (Read 4759 times)

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Offline Marty

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From its inception the concepts and ideas behind Red Steel 2 have always appealed to me. Maybe it’s because I’m a Brown Coat (R.I.P. Hoban Washburne), or maybe it’s my mutual love of Spaghetti Westerns and Samurai movies, but the idea of brandishing a katana in one hand and a revolver in the other just seems right. When I began to see footage and screenshots of the new art style I became even more excited. Indeed, as details began to trickle out, it seemed Ubisoft had learnt a lot in the years following the launch of the Wii. Here they were implementing customizable controls ala The Conduit, a graphical style which was very much akin to a graphic novel , and swords mechanics which, crucially, required Motion Plus. It seemed that all the hard work had been done. As long as they were able to combine these elements into a semi-compelling narrative and offer interesting and unique ways to utilise their great control mechanics, I couldn’t see how they could go wrong. But go wrong they did.

The primary problem with Red Steel 2 is its mission structure. The main (and only) goal throughout the 10-12 hour experience is to gather money to purchase new kill animations and upgrades. I say kill animations because a lot of the moves you unlock are canned animations which will play once you execute a certain button press in combination with a swipe of the Wii remote. Once the animation has started you can in no way affect its direction, speed or strength. For a game as dependent on combos as Red Steel 2 this was probably a necessary evil, but I am personally far more interested in having a substantive parrying system akin to that available in Wii Sports Resort, albeit more comprehensive. Having said that, the combo system is really fun, and the controls are definitely Red Steel 2’s saving grace.

The majority of the upgrades throughout the game will be purchased using cash, which can be obtained by performing four basic tasks: kill a certain amount of enemies, Collect an item, Push a switch (usually to turn on comms towers) and go to a certain point on the map (where upon you will more than likely be given an option to perform one of the other three tasks). The other means by which you can get more cash is by opening vaults and breaking boxes, barrels and bottles. Which leads to my second major complaint.

The sheer amount of time spent shooting red locks and slicing blue ribbons is ridiculous. Now if you haven’t played the game, ‘red locks’ and ‘blue ribbons’ isn’t an analogy. I would estimate that upwards of 30% of the game is spent opening metal containers (shooting red locks) and chopping open wooden containers (slashing blue ribbons). In fact, with the exception of enemies, boxes, barrels and bottles are the only objects that you will find yourself interacting with. I began the game by cracking every safe (using motion plus to turn the dial) and opening each container in the hopes of finding something interesting (a trait no doubt bred in me by playing Zelda and Metroid for the last 20 years). But alas the only thing you will ever find will be more money and bullets. Indeed, by the time I reached Rattlesnake Canyon I physically shivered at the prospect of seeing another barrel or box, only to enter a saloon filled to the brim with them. It may sound like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but the boredom and monotony which characterises these sections really drag the experience down, and are in such stark contrast to the sheer joy felt when combating enemies.

Another major complaint I have with Red Steel 2 is the load times. You will sometimes find yourself looking at a door for upwards of 10 seconds, which can often feel like a lifetime. Sometimes it borders on embarrassing. You play as a nameless protagonist who can dispatch several ninja with single strike, can leap unbelievable distances, and is so proficient in the use of a blade that he can block incoming bullets, yet when he comes up against a wooden door he will wail ineffectively at it five or six times before it opens. Admittedly the game does look good, and there is a certain amount of geometry which might require load times, but a Metroid game it is not, and I can’t really make a convincing argument to justify these agonisingly long load times.

Now I’m no game designer, and far from it for me to tell Ubisoft how to do their job, but I thought that there were some crucial beats that the game missed. Firstly, the absence of an interconnected town meant that you can’t go from outdoors to indoors without suffering another load time. As a result the developers took the route of clearly separating outdoor and indoor sections. The result is that there is very little exploration to be had. Safe in the knowledge that most of the buildings are merely a backdrop, the player is pushed through levels in a linear fashion. Don’t expect to be busting in through a saloon’s doors, have a quick gun fight and maybe jump out through a window. Outdoors and indoors sections are very clearly cordoned off.

As I mentioned earlier, the lack of a more varied mission structure is Red Steel's most disappointing feature, but even within the confines of the game play mechanics available there was room for utilising them in a more interesting fashion.

The train mission for instance. Despite being on a speeding train, the game play stays the same: kill enemies and open containers. Even utilising the mechanics available in the game there were a number of things they could have done. Throughout the mission for instance, I expected that at some point there might be an obstacle I would have to avoid or destroy, perhaps a tunnel I would have to duck under (using a quick time event) or some remnants of a half destroyed bridge that I would have to block with my sword as they approached. Maybe there could have been another train on another track with a large machine gun, from which enemies could leap from one train to other. Maybe there could have been a switch you would have to shoot at as you sped past which would change the track you were on. Maybe there could have been a section where (using motion plus) you unhooked a catch which would then release the cabins being pulled behind the train. Maybe there could have been a quick-time event where you had to pull yourself out from under the train. Now these are all very generic and obvious suggestions, but they would have been more interesting than killing the same four enemies and opening the same boxes and barrels.

Similarly there was a level later in the game in which you had to move a gas tank from one part of the map to another. I saw a towering crane and thought, “Awesome, I’ll have to control the crane and carefully place the gas tank on one of those railcars and manoeuvre it through the level”. Nope. As it turned out all I had to do was pull a switch which did it all for me. Then I saw the railcar move off towards its destination, a large gate which I was supposed to blow up using the gas tank. “Oh”, I thought, “it’s a gas tank, maybe I have to protect it from enemy bullets to get it safely to its destination”. Nope. As it turns out all I had to do was pull various switches which opened up the next section, thus allowing the gas tank to continue on its lumbering and uneventful journey. “Well, at least”, I thought, "I get to blow it up”. Nope. That honour was given to a cut scene.

These are just two examples, but there are similar sections throughout the games which had a lot of potential but which ultimately fell short due to lazy game design.
Given all my criticisms, it speaks volumes, that I actually really enjoyed the game. The graphical style is great (despite some pretty bad tearing later on in the game), the controls for both sword fighting and shooting make you feel like a bad ass, the music is fantastic, and I found the game to be sufficiently long. It’s just a shame that the tasks that you are asked to perform throughout the duration of the game are frequently mundane and repetitive, the characters and story woefully underdeveloped, and the level design far too linear.

Anyone agree? Any one disagree? Anyone actually reading this? Anyone want some pizza? Feel free to leave your comments.
"I'm just a humble M***** F***** with a big-ass D***"- The Bunk

Offline Marty

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Re: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2010, 12:06:22 PM »
I hate to be the guy who reply's to his own post, but just thought it was cool that having only put this up a few days ago, the RFN crew have pretty much voiced similar criticisms as I have. I would tend to agree with Greg though, I think the combat mechanics are enjoyable.
"I'm just a humble M***** F***** with a big-ass D***"- The Bunk

Offline Mop it up

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Re: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2010, 07:41:09 PM »
Anyone actually reading this?
I would if I have played this game, but I haven't yet. I'd like to play the first Red Steel before I buy this one. I'll go for that pizza, though.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2010, 07:55:24 PM »
Anyone actually reading this?
I would if I have played this game, but I haven't yet. I'd like to play the first Red Steel before I buy this one. I'll go for that pizza, though.

Trust me on this: jump straight to the second. They're unrelated in plot, and the original was mediocre at best, and has aged terribly.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2010, 11:26:11 PM »
That's what I hear, but I already bought the game so I might as well give it a try. Don't worry, it was cheap.

Offline Miyamoto

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Re: Musings on Red Steel 2 – Boxes, Barrels and Bottles, Oh My!
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2010, 07:57:55 PM »
I gave up on this game today. It dawned on me that I wasn't having any fun and I was only playing to get to the end. I thought it looked beautiful though. Shame no other aspects of the game lived up to the visuals. Companies like Ubisoft complain about the Wii being responsible for poor software sales, maybe if publishers put their best teams on the Wii they'd see better results.