Short version...






Long version:

Any game I play for five straight hours on its first boot-up is a good one in my book. Especially when it requires a very physical style of play. (believe me, I can feel it this morning) If you're going to play, you're going to play standing up and with your boots on.

The Wii drought is a distant memory for me. I've been gaming non-stop for the past year, always with some disc or WiiWare on the go but it's rare that a game comes along that reminds me of the initial excitement we had when the Wii concept was first revealed. For me, Red Steel 2 doesn't just live up to that excitement it manages to do things that I hadn't expected at all.


- Red Steel 2 is so good it almost makes me want to replay the first game. If you played RS1, you know what an achievement that is. :)

- The WM+ lets you aim outside of the boundaries of the screen and turn faster the further you go. The bounding box style of play is so ingrained in me now that I had to relearn how to play with a Wiimote. But this is so much more instinctive and controllable. Every FPS should support WM+ from now on.

- Consistency. We've all played Wii games that don't respond how you expect. Even the best ones, the games that defy waggle and have definite actions you're supposed to make, leave you frustrated when they don't register what you're doing. Red Steel 2 isn't like that. You stab forward, your character stabs. You slice in whatever direction, your character slices. You guard against attacks in different directions, the game doesn't let you down. You swing harder and wider for extra damage, it works. You mix moves and button presses into a combo and a finisher, consistent results everytime. It's practically a revelation.

- No gimmicky wrist flicks. Hey, you want to play a sword fighting game but you don't want to swing your arm? Fuck you. This isn't Wii Sports Tennis, this is a physical combat simulator. If you don't perform natural motions, if you don't wind back before you swing, you will get eaten alive by the bad guys.

- One calibration per game. Red Steel 2 only requires you place the WM+ on a flat surface once when the game boots up. Then that's it. Ubisoft and Nintendo/Retro said they were working on new, invisible ways of calibrating the WM+ during play and apparently they suceeded because this isn't like Wii Sports Resort where you always have one finger on the D-pad for recalibration. It just works.

- And the big thing I wasn't expecting... I can play an action brawler game, with combos and combat strategy and finishers, without ever feeling like I'm throwing moves and hoping for the best. This is possibly the best action game I've played in terms of how you're given an expanding set of moves and they all have their uses, their variations, and they don't get muddled up in my head or forgotten. Maybe it's the benefit of using muscle memory instead of just a list of buttons, but I am loving being able to use everything that the game gives me as it was intended. I can't tell you how many action games I've played through while favoring just the flying kick, or one or two specific attacks. :D Red Steel 2 makes you feel like a bad-ass, not because you're tough and strong, but because you can more easily decide what you want to do in any given split-second of a situation, and then do it.

-=-

I've heard suggestions that the game isn't that long overall and I guess that means I'll have played through it before too long, but I am loving what is there. I'm sold on the future of this as a franchise now. Hell, a lot of other developers should be standing up and paying attention to what Ubisoft has achieved here. A great looking, great playing game on the Wii that treats its audience like gamers, not suckers.

Everyone here should get the chance to play it. Don't miss out!

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Eh how much you wanna bet it'll go to the other consoles soon enough? With Move it wouldn't surprise me one bit. It's a shame, really.

I like the idea of Red Steel being more of a concept then an actual series with a storyline. It'd be cool to explore all kinds of ideas in fantasy worlds, different eras, etc. Imagine one in Feudal Japan!! With Ninjas and Samurais battling it out! I actually want to see a Red Steel game with some gore. It's silly to have that name and not even have an ounce of blood in it. That's like Modern Warfare having Winchesters and Flintlock Pistols only!! Well..not really...but it's another purposefully terrible analogy.

Posted by

carlosrox

on: 04/05/10, 11:29

Well the concept of Red Steel is the mix of swords and guns. So although a game that plays like Red Steel 2 but set in feudal Japan would be awesome, it really wouldn't be RS without the guns. Now a game set in a modern yet lawless version of Japan would be more like it. But would it still be a mix of samurai and cowboys, or would they mix samurai with something else, maybe just old Japan mixed with modern Japan.

The gore thing doesn't bother me that much, sure the name's a bit hypocritical, but it's overdone these days. And we've seen what happens when Ubisoft does something like adding violence. Instead of just adding a little bit of blood, they focus entirely on making the game "Hardcore" and "Mature" by making the hero into a generic two dimensional "bad ass" and replacing all the original music with Godsmack.

I think it's possible that it could end up on PS3, for some reason I don't think it would be well received by the Sony fan base at all. I wouldn't worry about a 360 version however, I don't think anyone would want to wave their empty hands around and shoot by going "pew pew" with their finger.

Posted by

nhatch

on: 04/05/10, 12:13

Man! This game keeps getting better and better. From the Water Gardens and on...it's just a ramp up.

It started out "okay" as a game...then it got good, but started to get repetitive. And then the Water Gardens started and I got some new moves and it became awesome.

Agreed with everything in the original post.

And yeah I think RS3 could possibly end up on PS3 and/or Wii. Developers wanna make cool-looking shit, and they'd want to make a PS3 one since the controllers are the same now.

I personally hope this stays a Nintendo exclusive; there aren't many third party ones.

Posted by

Griptor

on: 04/06/10, 02:36

@Griptor

We should expect the next Nintendo system around 2012, which would be around the time we can expect Red Steel 2. So they technically wouldn't need to make a PS3 version. And from what I've heard, pointing with the Move isn't as good as with the Wii's IR pointer. So the only advantage of putting it on the PS3 would be the graphics, which wouldn't matter if the Wii's successor were to come out by then.

On a side note. I'm hoping that the next system has an IR pointer on the nunchuk, that way they could make a Red Steel where you can use the sword and have a gun in your off hand. Technically they could do that if the next nunchuk has motion plus and no IR pointer, you would just use the normal remote in your off hand to point and shoot, and the nunchuk to control the sword.

@Simbabbad

Similar situation here, just with dollars instead of euros. I wonder if my opinion of the game would be as high if I had purchased it at full price. Then again, it's a lot closer to the type of sword games I thought I would be playing when I purchased the Wii three years ago. It has heightened my expectations for the next Zelda, far beyond what they were less than a week ago.

Posted by

nhatch

on: 04/06/10, 12:01

Edited:

04/06/10, 12:02

Okay, beat the game last night, and without making any spoilers, I can say that one thing really disappointed me.

After spending all that time buying upgrades and collecting tokens and sheriffs stars, I soon came to realize after the credits rolled that all that work was for not. There seems to be no system that keeps track of the tokens and stars you have collected, collecting them seems to only be for the extra cash. Which makes no sense that there are like twenty of them after you enter the last point of no return, where there are no shops.

I thought that maybe there would be one saving grace to attaining this extra cash and also upgrading most of my weapons, ammo, armor, life, hidden strikes and Kusagari powers. I thought that you could do like you where able to do in RE4 almost 6 years ago, and play through the game again, with what you had equipped when you beat the game the first time. Still a great game, but that feature would have made it RE4 great.

Maybe I should make a separate thread about little changes that would make Red Steel 3 better, since it seems to be most of what I've talked about in this thread.

Posted by

nhatch

on: 04/07/10, 04:01

Wow nhatch, I was afraid of that. I'm liking the hidden tokens and sheriff stars, but I fear they won't be documented. Now you've confirmed that...

What's the final point of no return? I'm such a cash pack rat, I'm usually afraid of spending too much in case something really good is available to buy later on. I have over 800,000 dollars and I just got on the second train (the one I was "trying not to blow up"). Someone cut the tracks and the train fell down a canyon.

How far am I, and should I just spend everything now? I have most sword upgrades, but no gun upgrades and still using the initial gun you get.

Posted by

Griptor

on: 04/07/10, 04:07

Edited:

04/07/10, 04:07

You can use your weapons, armor and upgrades in challenge mode. But The only purpose to the challenge mode besides playing it for fun is to get more cash in the main game. It should have been more like mercenary mode in RE4, where you can unlock a special weapon, but that would require a second play through option.

As for the final point of no return. Rattlesnake canyon is the last set of shops, so you should spend it all there.

And a few suggestions as to what weapon upgrades to get. Don't buy the last revolver upgrade, it's kind of useless. Maybe not the Johnnygun's either, in fact you could just skip the Johnny altogether(unless you've got the extra cash), but that's just me. The Double Barrel and Sidewinder's final upgrades on the other hand, are very useful.

As for T2 cocking with the Sidewinder, nope, no T2 cocking.

Posted by

nhatch

on: 04/07/10, 06:48

Hmm, wasn't sure which of the numerous threads about Red Steel 2 to bump, but this one looks as good as any.

I bought Monster Hunter Tri recently, so being true to myself, I left it shrink-wrapped while I'm playing Red Steel 2, which I bought weeks ago but left shrink-wrapped while I was playing No More Heroes 2, which I had bought weeks prior but left shrink-wrapped while... well, you get the idea.

And I'm really liking it so far. I wasn't too impressed initially because of the mission structure and the fact that there is perhaps a little bit too much handholding, but now the difficulty has ramped up and the game is pitting me against groups of armored enemies. And I must have fallen against the same group of enemies a dozen times before I remembered to give the Tiger move a shot, which was just what I needed to beat them, apparently, so maybe the handholding was necessary after all.

I'm digging the fact that it's a first-person brawler. I don't think we've seen anything like that before (though I may be wrong). The shooting is really secondary: it's all about dodging, blocking, slicing and comboing. As far as Wii brawlers go it's not even a contest: Red Steel 2 trounces MadWorld.

I think I'm only at the end of the second chapter, too. Unless the game takes a drastic turn for the worst (unlikely since most people seem to enjoy it more and more as they progress), I have no problem recommending it.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/03/10, 18:33

@Pandareus

What difficulty did you start on, out of curiosity? Once I can finally play my copy I'd like to know where to start.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 05/03/10, 19:57

The normal one, whatever it's called.

Really, I got the crap kicked out of me once the armored squads showed up, but I haven't had too much trouble once I figured out the controls and upgraded a bit. In fact, I've heard the game gets easier the more you progress, because your upgrades make you near invincible. But I don't mind that, personally.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/03/10, 20:03

@Simbabbad

Fair enough. It's true that I'm scratching my head as to what exactly it does that a Wiimote alone couldn't do. Detect the strength of your swings? But I find myself never, ever triggering a move I didn't mean to do just by scratching or repositioning myself, and that's something that happens all the time in many, many Wiimote-only games. So there's that, I guess. But as you said, it's also something simple buttons couldn't do.

There's something to be said for the added immersion of swinging the Wiimote like a sword, though.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/03/10, 20:43

I'm actually really liking the game so far, though I do think it could use a bit more variety. As fun as it is, it is getting somewhat tiresome that it just keeps repeating enemies appear, cut them to bits, go smash stuff to find money, more enemies appear, repeat. While it may be repetitive, at least it's a lot of fun, and the game is quite the looker.

I don't really get the Challenges though. I mean why make them based off full missions? That's too long, and challenges like that should be short and quick, like taking out as many enemies as you can before you die, or something. The Chase is pretty short since it's just the train sequence (right?), but the others are far too long.

Posted by

Brick

on: 05/04/10, 02:37

Oh yeah, the challenges are stupid. A last minute attempt to inject some replayability, I suppose, but come on, there are better ways to do it. Heck, they could have just made some arenas to fight in (or used the arenas from the boss fights, they would have done nicely) and made up challenges like "beat up X number of guys" or "clear the room only using your guns".

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/04/10, 05:46