I was trying to come up with a catchy subtitle for this review, but I couldn't decide on one. My first idea was "Red Steel: Don't Jump on the Cars" (more on that later). Then I thought, "Red Steel: It's better than GoldenEye: Rogue Agent." I decided to forgo a subtitle, as more ideas began to pop-up.
Here is a quick back story, for those of you that have lived under a rock since July. Red Steel was the first game shown to the media, for Nintendo's new "Revolution" game system. In an exclusive story, given to Game Informer Magazine, the game was described as an epic story of an American’s journey to rescue his girlfriend from the grips of the Yakuza, during which you must hone your skills with both the gun and the katana.
They lied.
Well, in concept they were being honest. Yes, you are dating the daughter of a Yakuza boss. Yes, she does get kidnapped. Yes, you do have to use a sword and a gun to rescue her from the Yakuza. Yes, I'm pretty sure Scott (your character) is American.
Likewise I'm also pretty sure Scott is retarded. He has multiple opportunities to end this whole mess with a single shot, but instead watches the Foe de Jour run off. He only talks four or five times and that minimalist dialog decision makes every time he does talk seem silly.
Don't worry; he's not the only one with mental issues. When Ubisoft first broke the silence about Red Steel they commented that the aiming speed the unique controller offers the player required a rethinking of the enemy AI. "You won't see enemies waiting behind cover points waiting to get shot in Red Steel... They won't walk around a table to come after you, they'll simply jump over it." The AI doesn't really meet the standard being set here.
Only once did I see an enemy jump a table, and that was clearly a pre-scripted event. However, it wasn't uncommon for an enemy to come around the corner I was ducked behind, and simply not adjust their aim for the fact I was kneeling. Rest assured; if that wall was alive...he probably would have found a way to miss it. The enemies have some of the worst aiming I’ve seen in a game.
On another occasion, I walked into a room full of circuit breakers for a hotel. There were about 6, lined up in a grid like this, where each black box is one of the circuit breakers:
Now, these things explode when shot, so clearing the room could have been painfully easy. However, it wasn't. Why? Well because “painfully easy” doesn’t really embody how easy this room was. For some reason the level designer thought giving the all the enemies in this room a shotgun was a good idea. As soon as one of them shot at me it caused the box he was behind to explode, which triggered a chain reaction killing all three of them. The AI killed itself...and its allies.
Also, the AI didn’t really seem to know how to use the guns it had. I would see enemies with rifles charge me or enemies with shotguns try to hit me from a balcony. The problem is neither really works, because the rifle requires a certain amount of aiming and the shotgun is pretty worthless at long range.
Ubisoft’s staff was right. If the AI wasn't really good this game would be easy. It is, I beat it in 7 hours, and more often died because of the poorly executed sword combat than the actual skill of my enemies.
Sure, sword combat sounds cool, but it's broken. The game takes a second to recognize your swings, and since your windows of opportunity are pretty small that can doom you. "Sword Katas" are impossible to execute for that very reason. Essentially all sword combat comes down to this series: parry three regular attacks, dodge one strong attack, and then slash twice. Do that until the battle ends.
I have to give some credit to the shooting controls. While sometimes it would wonk out, generally it was pretty good. I was executing headshots, at a good distance, in a few minutes. In a way, this is a problem. Sure, the shotgun is fun; there is a certain amount of joy derived from blasting some guy with the remote. However, it is much more effective to use a handgun. In fact, I often passed on more powerful guns because executing head shots were so easy. Enemies would duck behind cover, but the top of their heads were often still exposed. Bang! Dead.
The only real problem with the shooting controls was the zoom function. If you press and hold the A button, then move the remote towards or away from the TV you can zoom. However, sometimes the zoom will shift suddenly or require you to almost lean out of your chair to get the needed amount of zoom to occur.
Explosions are one thing Red Steel does well. The explosions look very good, and seeing enemies fly 60 feet into the air, when a single crate of ammo blows, up is hilarious. I do, however, take issue with when things explode. In one level, an auto body shop, I cleared the room but couldn't figure out how to reach the balcony. I tried to jump up from a car sitting next to the balcony. After jumping on the roof of the car three or four times it exploded.
Yeah...I blew up a car from jumping on it. It was at this exact moment where I realized what kind of game I was in for. The game is full of little quirks like this, stuff that should have been caught in even the most minimal testing.
Cars blowing up from being jumped on
Sword fights not starting as I jumped to the deck instead of using stairs, even as I got nose to nose with my opponent
Subtitles being cut off at the bottom of the screen
Characters fluctuating in size during cut-scenes (getting wider and thinner at a rapid rate).
Being able to walk through the bodies of people you're "following."
Replaying a level allows you to “use new skills” in that level, except it actually doesn’t. You can’t use them.
Yes, this game is buggy. It's also not pleasing to look at. Some places look nice, or at the very least passable. Like I said before, explosions are great looking, as are light effects and some reflective surfaces. However, it isn't hard to find a texture that would be better suited on the N64. Granted, the Wii isn't designed to be the most powerful hardware, but it has to be capable of more than that. If it hadn’t been made by Ubisoft I would swear they ported assets from EA's 007 Nightfire (GCN) to this project.
The story is stupid, and full of lines that make you think this was translated using Babblefish.com. “Scott-san, use the blade!” But I have a gun! At the end, the resolution is that Scott has taught the Yakuza members that “killing helps no one.” I’m not sure if he accomplished this by the fifty or so people he killed in the last half-hour or by his eerie lack of dialog. Somebody get back to me on that.
Breakdown:
Graphics: 7 Some of the effects are great, but the assets are not. Common clipping issues also plague the game. The settings are generic FPS material (factory, warehouse, office building).
Sound: 7.5 Original (Japanese) music was a nice touch, but the limited number looping themes hurt it. The sound effects are nothing you haven’t heard in every other FPS from the last 5 years, and some of the voice acting was pretty lame. Also, reloading was done in the remote’s speaker, but gunfire should have been too.
Control: 6.5 This was so close to being great. It was fun to blast guys with the remote, however the zoom needs work. I have no doubt this is where FPS is going on the Wii, but I have a feeling we’ll have to wait for Metroid Prime 3 to see FPS action perfected. The sword combat was fun for a little while, but katas are impossible, the lack of a quick response made more skilled enemies frustrating, and sometimes the sword combat feels a little like rock paper scissors.
Gameplay: 6 It is a fun game, for a while. It would have been better if the issues with sword combat have been resolved, as it was a primary selling point for the game. If the sword combat has been visceral this could have easily been an 8+ score.
Lastability: 4 Brutal? A bit, but the game is AT MOST 9 hours. You could replay levels “with your newer skills,” if not for the fact you really can’t replay levels with your newer skills. You can replay levels, but when you do the skills are “locked.” Also, sometimes when I’d replay a level my stats would change and other times they wouldn’t reflect improvement at all, even though I know I played the level faster and with a more accurate shooting.
Final: 6 So much promise, so little execution. Red Steel falls flat on its primary selling point, sword combat. While the remote is a fun way to shoot your enemies, if this game was on any other system it would be nothing more then a generic shooter that would generate almost no buzz. Ubisoft,
please, if you’re going to make a sequel (and we all know you are) don’t release it till those issues are fixed. If anyone is thinking about buying the game, don’t. Rent it. I don’t regret renting it, but I’d be kicking myself right now if I paid fifty bucks for it.
Topic: Red Steel (Read 3250 times)
