Red Steel  Preview for Nintendo Wii

- Luke, Staff Writer

Saturday, July 29, 2006

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Title: Red Steel .............................................. System: Nintendo Wii .............................................. Genre: First Person Shooter .............................................. Publisher: Ubisoft .............................................. Developer: Ubisoft .............................................. Release: November 2006 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: Rating Pending (RP) .............................................. Ubisoft was, by far, one of the busiest companies at this year’s E3. They had an incredible amount of games being showcased for the first time. New editions of Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six were both recognized as some of the best games of the show, and both most certainly impressed anybody who had a chance to spend some time with them. There was however, an almost "dark horse" game if you will, that turned many heads of the press... and this was the Wii title: Red Steel. The Wii exclusive first person action game gave the word "innovative" a whole new meaning with its unrestricted interaction and control and has really opened eyes and shown what the Wii can offer. Ubisoft is looking to make their first venture into Nintendo’s next generation console a brilliant one, and with all the right elements there, this could well be a major success. Red Steel puts gamers in the shoes of a yet un-named American, set to marry the girl of his dreams, a girl from Japan. Upon meeting her father however, he recognizes him as a powerful Yakuza leader, one that has many demons lurking in his closet. An ambiguous group tracks him down and tries to capture and/or kill him, but you manage to successfully save him. All is not what it seems however, as unbeknownst to you, your fiancée has been swiped from under your nose, and you must now venture through the gang lands to claim her back. With nobody else to trust, her father gives you the Katana-Giri; a powerful sword and unquestionable symbol in the Yakuza world. Realising that her fate is in your hands, you take the sword with pride and set off on an incredible quest to save your future wife. Gameplay is handled much like any other first person shooter, but because of the Wii's unique design, it has some amazing twists and innovative ideas. You essentially make your way through different areas and eliminate any potential threats at hand, all while looking cool and calm. Environments are very interactive, and you can use objects around you for cover -- all the while smashing up enemies -- due to the great physics engine the game has. AI in the game is incredibly smart too, and you can see that Ubisoft has taken more than just experience from the Splinter Cell games by giving the AI routes and different behavior schemes in order to root you out. They will turn over tables, hide behind walls, and basically do anything they can in order to get the upper hand on you. Not only this, but Ubisoft has set them as dynamic as possible; to come at you from every possible direction so the threat never lets up. They will come from above you, to the side, or even attempt to sneak up and surprise attack you when necessary. Red Steel’s main forte is easily its control scheme, so let’s get right to that. By using the Wii-Mote and the Nunchuck attachment, players are immersed into this gaming world like never before. While it still has some errors and misinterpretations needing to be fixed, the game has completely shattered the boundaries of what we can do when presented with this quirky controller. The Nunchuck is used for movement of the characters, while the Wii-Mote is used to aim across the screen. When controlling a gun, the action you are doing with your Wii-Mote translates to exactly the same thing on the TV. Moving your Wii-Mote from side to side will correspond to the character doing just that. You can even tilt (or twist) your gun to the side and play the game in true gangster style, which is a major plus in any game. Shooting is done by using the trigger at the back of the Wii-Mote, and allows gamers to move their hands more freely and actually feel like they are holding a real gun. You can also do some pretty nifty things with your hands too, the most unique of which is opening doors. While it may seem that this is trivial in any game, the Wii-Mote actually allows you to, in theory, twist the door handle with your left hand and slowly slide the door open. While aiming is sensitive, Ubisoft allowed you to modify options in the game so that you can fit the control scheme to what you like. For example: to reload you have to pull the controller back, but you can alter and change it to whatever you want, all for the benefit of making the game more enjoyable. If you want to manually reload, you can assign a face button to that task. Likewise, if you want to shoot using the A button, you can do that. Ubisoft has made sure that you don’t have to stick to one control scheme and be uncomfortable. You can adjust and tweak to your liking, making sure that the experience you have is smooth all throughout the game. It’s not all shooting, though. The main gameplay feature of the game is its unique sword fighting mechanic, which is a first in any game of this type. Again, by using both the Wii-Mote and the Nunchuck, you can execute some pretty snazzy combos and showboating techniques on screen. You use the Nunchuck to block any incoming attacks, and the Wii-Mote to start some offense with combos or power attacks. Unfortunately, given the sheer complication of the controller sensing what you are doing, and Ubisoft not being able to animate the characters sword, you cannot come up with your own attacks. Instead, a brief tutorial will guide you through the sensitive movements you must do in order to fully carry out the slashing of the sword. You can still go wild and use extra slow movements, but it’s rare that the controller will know exactly what you are doing, so sticking to the layout is best. You can also use a cool dodge technique while sword fighting, and it makes the fight very tension based and much more fun. Quick flicks of the Nunchuck will make the character dodge any incoming swipes with ease, and if you manage to dodge perfectly and then block, you can carry out a parry attack that will stun your enemy. Stunning an enemy will give you precious time in order to eliminate them with joy. The audio in the game is very cool and different from anything heard before, as it will change according to what you are doing at that time. If you are blazing through a level with guns for instance, it will switch on some heavy metal music allowing you to really immerse yourself even more. Going through a level stealthily will trigger a calm ambiance of music which fits in perfectly with what you are currently doing. It’s simple but effective and lends a helping hand to keeping you as enjoyed with the game as you possibly can be. All the sound effects are there too. Gun shots will ricochet and pound your eardrums as they zoom in from every possible direction. And, the sword fighting has had it's own sounds recorded to make sure it is completely authentic. Graphically, Red Steel is one of the better looking Wii titles, with some very good looking lighting and particle effects and some detailed texture work. Lighting especially, is very pretty. It slides off surfaces while causing gleaming lens flare. Everything looks polished environment wise too, with some of the casino locations looking especially great, and it really stands out when traversing your way through them. While the game doesn’t match up to visuals of other next generation games, it still has a good look and one that will be constantly improved before its launch with the Wii console. Red Steel looks set to become the must have game for the Nintendo Wii when it launches alongside it. It is so unique and individualistic by using the Wii-Mote that it simply cannot be missed. Sword fighting has never been this immersive without actually doing the real thing. The whole control scheme altogether is original and fun. There are still a few sensitivity issues with the aiming, but it’s a certainty that Ubisoft will iron these out before its release.