Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Red Steel

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I'd rather have a game be 90% Geist puzzles rather than 90% Yesterday's Strafe-Dancing to Delusional Victory.

There's no denying the inexperience of a developer.  Paying $50 for Geist wasn't the purchase of a supposedly FANTASTIC game, it was an investment for a FANTASTIC FUTURE.  If a game can't even earn enough revenue to justify a "niche," we'll see no follow-up title, and any good it had will not have the opportunity to mature (until someone else steals/borrows the idea).

That was my approach to purchasing in the last generation (since i had more spending power/near-wreckless credit card spending).  I didn't want good ideas to go unnoticed.

[KDR_11k]

The European thing might be, as you suggested, overrating a European made game.

I don't think so. Maybe it's because European games tend to be geared for European tastes but I'm not sure if that applies to Red Steel.

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: Svevan
Nintendo gamers have lower standards for first person shooters. This is why the reviews say it sucks, but the people on the boards tend to like it.

I played Halo back when it was called "Marathon" and was Mac only and required you to aim up and down by holding down a modifier key and pushing up or down (and I could plant a missile at an opponent's feet from across an entire arena this way, but that's beside the point).

I take the game for what it is: the graphics seem a bit washed out in some places but fabulous in others, you can glitch into some objects and get stuck there, but the combat system offers enough options that the end result is a satisfying FPS experience.

The true beauty of the game is when headshots become a second nature, something that can ONLY be pulled off with the Wiimote. When three enemies pop up and you move your hand across the screen and pop each one right in the head in rapid succession, you know you're harnessing a control scheme that would NOT be possible with a regular controller or perhaps even a keyboard and mouse.

And once you get the rhythm of the swordfights down, it also becomes a second nature, with figuring out which enemies you can beat via health and which need to be beaten via breaking their weapon. The enemies later in the game require that you either get your katas in there or you parry-crack their weapon to the point of near-breaking at which point they'll be careful and won't allow you to deliver the final blow directly. Then, you have to throw in a strong blow of your own to finish their weapon off and hope they don't dodge it or let it strike them.

Also, I hate to say it, but the story was decent. There were a few twists which I didn't see coming and the last battle brought a very poetic ending to the whole quest for honor and revenge. Sadly, it takes a few hours to really get INTO the story, but it was leagues better than those of most FPSes I've played.

I played PD0 all the way through and thought it was perfectly par: it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It was just a perfectly average FPS experience. The story sucked and the gun battles were predictable. All in all, the game didn't even provide a worthy hold-over until Halo 3.

Red Steel could have used a few more months in the oven, but it still was a truly satisfying gaming experience and in the end, that's all I care about.

As for Geist and SFA, I thought SFA was an acceptable Zelda clone with lots of signature Rare puzzles. Nothing fabulous, but certainly not worthy of all the bashing it receives.

And Geist was so much fun that I didn't give a rat's ass about the aiming being bad: there wasn't much aiming that needed to be done in the game anyway. More of it was possession, timing, and puzzle-solving, and that game made for some WAAAY outside the box puzzles. Any game where you can break plates across a chef's face like porcelain frisbees and then feed rat poison to a room full of guards is too awesome. Then there was possessing a showerhead in the women's locker room and dive-bombing a guy with a bat.

If people keep dismissing FPSes that try to innovate beyond the current FPS experience, then the genre will forever stagnate.

[NWR_pap64]

I thought SFA had a decent story to it. It provided a nice diversion in the SF universe (although the final boss battle was lame as hell). My favorite part is the part where Fox sees Krystal for the first time and his mouth is wide open, then is brought back down to earth by Peppy. Hilarious! But other than that, the game provided very little charm to get me back to it. I literally finished it for good.

As for the shooting and aiming in Geist, I agree the game was more about exploring the story, puzzles and possession but that doesn't mean the shooting could've been better. The reloading is SLOW AS HELL. This is clearly evident during the simulator scene in which you had to stop a horde of soldiers from leaving the building. There were too many of them and you had to be fast. If you ran out of ammo the game WAS over. It took me and my nephew several tries before we could successfully complete it.

I ain't no FPS expert since I played like 5 games my entire lifetime, but even when the shooting takes second place to something else it needs to be polished and solid, and Geist could've used a bit more polish (which can be forbidden because its my understanding the N-space are somewhat new developers).  

[UltimatePartyBear]

I finished Red Steel on Friday, and it's not just fanboyism that makes me praise it.  I had fun with it from beginning to end, especially near the end.  Once I had the controls mastered, the game started requiring me to use all my skills.  On the last few missions, my accuracy score broke 70%.  A lot of that was because I stopped using spray and pray tactics.  Just like the early hype for the game said, I had to switch to precision pistol shooting to survive.  It helps that some of the most satisfying weapons in the game are pistols, too.

I only got stuck in objects when I was goofing around and trying to get into places I shouldn't, and the only other glitch I noticed was when I shot a bottle in the first level, causing it to break and spawn an invulnerable clone in its place.  Considering how ambitious the game is for a launch title, the glitches could have been a lot worse, so I'm willing to overlook them.

I only have two complaints.  The first is that two of the sword katas are nearly impossible to pull off because they require vertical slashes.  I had a heck of a time getting past the training of those moves and just gave up any hope of actually using them.  The other is that the ending is a little too abrupt.  On the other hand, the ending leaves room for a sequel that could pick up immediately where this game left off.  If the dev team had the time to perfect it, a Red Steel sequel or successor could easily be game-of-the-year caliber.  And yes, haters, I did just imply that Red Steel itself isn't GOTY caliber.  I'm willing to overlook its flaws to enjoy it, not to give it a perfect 10.

[Smash_Brother]

What did you have your sword sensitivity set to, short or long? Short is basically flicks of the wrist only. Anything where your arm moves should be long.

My favorite Kata was the little scorpion because it was easy to pull off and did good damage (also, only one I could remember). I would have liked to see more from swordfighting in the game because most enemies could be dispatched with the same strategy (though, you had to be quick).

And yes, it ends very quickly. Do you only have 85% completion or is that just me?

[UltimatePartyBear]

My sword sensitivity was set to short.  I just couldn't get vertical slashes to work reliably in either direction, although top to bottom was slightly doable.  I have a natural tendency to hold the remote with a twist to the left that probably has a lot to do with it, but even with complete concentration on holding it level, it took a lot of tries to even complete the training.  One lesson developers should learn quickly is that gamers need a way to set the controller's "home" position.

I have 78% completion for some reason.  Considering there's nothing else to do, I didn't know what that meant.  If you have something different, I think it might mean I should replay all the levels and try to get higher ranks.  It wasn't until the end that I started getting ranked Warrior instead of Disciple or Novice.  I assume there's a higher ranking than that, too, since my time was always C or D because I took time to look at everything.

[Smash_Brother]

I tended to have higher accuracy but longer time.

I'm wondering if there's anything unlocked once you get 100%...