TheGrayGhost
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And I'm not talking about the cherished classic making a return on the virtual console. I want an FPS for the Wii that follows in Goldenye's footsteps. Goldeneye added stealth elements to the genre. It gave the genre a brain. With games like Halo and Halo 2 being the genre kings, we went back to the standard shoot everything repeat, repeat, repeat, Doom style of gameplay.
With the Wiimote lending itself to the FPS genre, when are we going to see that game? Do we have it in Red Steel? Take a look at this early review from NGAMER MAGAZINE:
Now, I'm not jumping to any conclusions from just one review.
There have been a lot of comparisons between Red Steel and Goldeneye. Do you think the comparisons are justified? I'm not entirely sure. I want Red Steel to be the Goldeneye of the Wii, mapping a way for future FPS games to grow and evolve, but I'm not entirely confident in Ubisoft. Do you have any ideas on how to make a Goldeneye for the Wii?
For the record, I think Metroid Prime 3 will be a remarkable game that demonstrates the superiority of the Wiimote over traditional controls, but as has been said before, Metroid Prime is a different type of FPS that is in a class all by itself.
With the Wiimote lending itself to the FPS genre, when are we going to see that game? Do we have it in Red Steel? Take a look at this early review from NGAMER MAGAZINE:
NGAMER REVIEW:
RED STEEL
The katana is out of the bag. Find out why Red Steel has to be played on launch day.
Yakuzas are calm and collected. Gamers wanting to play as them are not. Every game show glimpse of Red Steel was met with nervous chatter over the controls, graphics and griping about sword grip. Forget the glimpses. Only by playing the game as it was meant to be played, from start to finish, could you ever appreciate just how fun, exciting and more importantly right Red Steel actually feels.
AIM TO PLEASE
Getting your first gun in Red Steel is a defining moment for the Wii. See an enemy? Then aim at him. No manual aim button, no analogue stick tweaking to align sights on a soon to be graved-occupier; all die by your hand and your hand alone. It doesn't feel like you're directing a marksman; you are the marksman. And it feels great.
It's liquid movement. No longer burdened by dragging a sluggish crosshair, you can arc Uzi fire as you see fit. We found ourselves at first just emptying rounds and rounds into the environments, simply satisfied to be completely in control. It's a massive improvement on previous console FPS control, but it's an improvement that requires you to forget some of what you already know. Luckily, this relearning process isn't a chore. Finding ways to curb an initial cackhandedness and working out how to translate your old dog tricks with this fresh new pup of a controls scheme is a delightful treat.
Who needs a mouse and keyboard to play an FPS when you have a nunchuck to move and strafe and turning controlled with the remote? PC fans will shake theirs fists in anger when they see what the Wii is capable of.
FOCUS
A-button paired with a fast remote push towards the screen 'focuses' your view into the game. Time stops and you can select where your bullets will and. Groins and faces a go-go!
SWORD
No one-to-one direct control. Remote movements trigger corresponding moves. Controls adjusts between long and short remote strokes. Go with short.
PINS
When sword dueling, the nunchuck button lets you dodge powerful attacks, and a nunchuck shake will deflect a weak attack. Don't get the two confused. Or you will die.
LIKE SWORDS? LAIDO!
Sword play isn't the freedom slash-a-thon some were hoping for, but the system used is sensible and makes for some thrilling encounters. The fights feel highly choreographed: parrying blades spark off one another sending both fighters stumbling under the impact; the fluidly animated foes dance between your swipes, launching into you with a selection of blows that even Uma Thurman would raise an eyebrow to.
In on clever section your swords are stolen from you and you have to make use of a mannequin's wooden replica. With only one sword you can't parry or deflect, forcing the normally more defensive player to develop their aggressive bloodlust from scratch.
MERCY? MERCI!
Win a sword fight and you choose whether to execute or show mercy. Wiggle the nunchuck to spare their lives and get some tasty respect points.
SWORD LOSER
Choosing to wiggle the remote instead delivers a killing blow. Not only do you lose precious respect points - making it harder to unlock special moves - but a little bit of your soul dies every time.
LIGHTS, KATANA, ACTION
Boss duels are pretty spectacular. You can't help but grin as you step out into a pagoda atop a castle, rain lashing the arena, with lighting exploding across the sky - ready to face a ninja with an instant kill poison blade. Worlds away from the quiet sword fights of films such as Hero, Red Steel loves the Hollywood aesthetic.
It's more movie-like than any actual movie licensed title we've played in a long time. A shotgun battle in a skyscraper had us running between pillars as they disintegrated under heavy fire, tiles and plaster work littering the marble floor. Activate time-slowing focus mode and voila: a five minute fight better than the entirety of Enter the Matrix. And during a shoot out on an airfield luggage conveyor belt, a la John McClane in Die Hard 2, we could swear we heard crying. Oh yes. It was Die Hard Vendetta weeping it weak, rubbish eyes out.
STOKE YOUR PIPES
Gunplay is extremely explosive stuff, literally, at times. Entering a room snaked with pipes, all labeled highly explosive, one misplaced shotgun blast bursts them open with a cyanic mushroom cloud, toasting the poor saps nearby. Flood the room with gunmen and you have a fiendishly explosive set piece; to avoid frying we had to run like crazy from non-ruptured pipes, whilst trying to shoot out pipes near the enemy. It looked great, but was pretty unforgiving, and as the game filled with propane, we were filled with profane mutterings.
Each sizable level is packed with location change. One mission sees you chasing a gang member through a kitchen, breaking into a ship, getting taken hostage and having to escape again. Forget those ridiculous car adverts - these levels are mini adventures every time.
BARMY OF ONE
It's not all macho action, and can be surprisingly amusing. Like when you're fighting in a steam filled sauna against assassins with only towels and Uzis to cover their modesty. Or how about when your sword fighting tarty geisha girls, learning the focus ability from a crazy barfly, or shooting at a janitor to learn how to slow time? The peak of this inspired silliness appears in the casino level - a piece of level and character design so unexpected that it's worth playing just to see. We won't give it away, but it involves freakish bunnies and fireworks.
With all current FPS titles seemingly WW2 themed or asking you to fight aliens, mutants, ghosts or mutated alien ghosts, to fight people in recognizable settings - not that we spend much time in dojos and ancient Japanese castles - gives Red Steel a purist feeling. A return to the good old days of killing our fellow man in an everyday world. Wait - that came out more menacing than we meant it to.
GRAPHICS VIOLENCE
And, it's a looker too. When entering sky-lighted rooms and seeing the beams of light cutting through the murky air, you'll know you're dealing with more than souped up GameCube graphics. Atmospheric effects and beautiful incidental detail abound: the furnace's heat shimmer; the rippling water features of Harry's nightclub; reflections on the vanished wooden floors; the view-swamping smoke of the burning dojo; the general sense of a natural light in the outdoor areas that somehow still manages to permeate the dark neon nightmares of the sordid clubs and dens.
It's almost a shame to shoot the areas up, in fact, as the attention to detail makes us have to wipe away tears with our nunchuck. Still, most of it is destroyable, and for good reason. Every time we came across a villain hiding behind a wooden post we chose not to wait him out, because splintering his cover with a shotgun looks amazing. Similarly, even running through a generic office full of desks, monitors and wall dividers is like living your wildest John Woo fantasy when they're all blown to smithereens.
A few jaggy edges need a sharp katana slice, and one grenade-lobbing incident combined with frenzied disco lights caused minor slowdown, but it only happened once. All in all, it's a pretty polished game.
WHO LIVES IN A HUB LIKE THIS?
Relive your bright eyed Karate Kid fantasies in the Otari Dojo, or your grimmest Leaving Las Vegas booze nightmares in Harry's bar.
When you reach the Japan missions, instead of returning to a mission select screen, you return to the dojo or the bar. The Otari Dojo, complete with beautiful ornamental gardens and lots of people bowing to you, allows you to train with your sword. New training sessions, and new moves, become unlocked as you collect respect during the missions.
In all honesty these moves don't make fighting much easier, and are impossible remote waggling combos that need to be timed to perfection, all with names like 'The Hammer' or 'The Scorpion'. If you do activate them they eat through the enemies' health - but you'll be so knackered from doing them you'll let your guard down and end up on the receiving end of 'Squirrel Nutmeg's Thunder Poke'.(We made that one up.)
The bar has an air of the Carringtion Institute to it. Completing shooting tests on the firing range unlocks weapons to take into subsequent missions and the whole place has Kill Bill-esque Japanese pop music piping through the speakers. In one portion of the game you choose which order you face the missions by chatting to the patrons. Real freedom? No. Nice touch? Certainly.
OH NOH!
Unfortunately though, there is a downside. It's a decent sized tale, but outside of replaying levels to improve your accuracy and timing ranks, there aren't any obvious game extending rewards. There's only one difficulty setting, and old levels can't be replayed with out redoing the tutorials within them. It's certainly no GoldenEye or Perfect Dark.
Gunplay is such a joy that we really welcomed the chance to pit our aiming skills against each other in multiplayer. It's not a deep experience - limited to four levels and a handful of playable characters - but the 'Killer' mode, where secret objectives are spoken to you from your remote speaker, is a real unique treat, and it's nice to have an adult multiplayer experience amongst all the cutesy party games.
END YOUR FRIEND(S)
With no sword fighting you can't ninja your friends. But you can injure them.
Whilst Red Steel's multiplayer is no Time Splitters-rivaling features-and-mode behemoth, it certainly has enough tricks up it's baggy kimono sleeve to keep you coming back.
JUST US
The traditional free-for-all and team combat modes play a lot like GoldenEye's multiplayer. No bots, no weapon configuration; just two to four players placed in one of four simple arenas.
WHAT A CHARACTER
Each arena has level-specific character models. They may not be all that big on variety, but they got plenty of inventiveness. You'll find yourself fighting with your friends before the match has started, over who gets to play as the Yakuza or the man in the dinosaur suit. We don't, however, foresee many tears being shed over the inability to play as the 'Magic Girl', a muscular man dressed as a school girl - one of modern gamings most abhorrent sights.
NO FOCUS
Focus mode is disabled, so there will be no slo-mo friend-gunning in this multiplayer mode, young fellamelad.
In it's place you pick a power up pre-match, a health, damage or ammo boost, which can be activated with the 1-Button once you've filled up a power gauge by landing consecutive shots.
It doesn't ever really change the flow of the battle, but it is certainly very useful when you want to wipe off a friend's smug smirk with a sudden burst of incredible gunfire.
KILLER QUEEN
The real selling point of the multiplayer, though, is the 'Killer' mode. You start playing as normal, then 20 seconds later every players's remote begins to ring and vibrate like a mobile phone. Pressing the 2-Button answers the call, and on bringing it up to your ear, you'll hear a female voice giving you a secret objective to complete.
The objective correspond with one another to create particular scenarios. If you are told to kill Dinoboy, for example, someone will be told to protect Dinoboy. Meanwhile, the poor sap actually play as Dinoboy will just be told to avoid dying. Each batch of objectives has a time limit: if you succeed you are rewarded five points, then the whole process begins again with a new batch of phone calls.
The objective setting voice is a bit too loud - your secret task is too easily public knowledge - but this can be overcome by shouting while you answer the 'phone'.
Who cares that it's gimmicky? It's innovative and fun - and definitely one to show your friends.
This is an important title. So many launch titles falsely claim to be 'pick up and play'. Newcomers can pick up and 'do', certainly, but this offers a proper playing experience. If you want to see what your Wii can really do, Red Steel is a slice above the rest.
GRAPHICS - 8
Not realistic, but delightfully hyper-real. Nice special effects and plenty of level variety.
AUDIO - 8
The burst of warbling during sword fights is weird, but suitable explosions and comical voiceovers.
GAMEPLAY - 9
It's got a real great eye for action, but is not afraid to be a bit silly. A tad shallow maybe?
INNOVATION - 9
Controls are logical and handle like a dream. Analogue stick, hang your big plastic head in shame.
NG SUMMARY
Not only making excellent use of Wii's controllers, this is huge fun in it's own right. For a launch title to get so much right is an indicator of great things to come.
SCORE - 90
Now, I'm not jumping to any conclusions from just one review.
There have been a lot of comparisons between Red Steel and Goldeneye. Do you think the comparisons are justified? I'm not entirely sure. I want Red Steel to be the Goldeneye of the Wii, mapping a way for future FPS games to grow and evolve, but I'm not entirely confident in Ubisoft. Do you have any ideas on how to make a Goldeneye for the Wii?
For the record, I think Metroid Prime 3 will be a remarkable game that demonstrates the superiority of the Wiimote over traditional controls, but as has been said before, Metroid Prime is a different type of FPS that is in a class all by itself.
x infinity. AMEN, brother.
