Red Steel 2 Updated Hands-On
We get our slashing and shooting on in our latest look at Ubisoft's Wii-only action game.
Have sword and pistol, (or shotgun, or machine gun) will travel. That's one possible motto for the upcoming Red Steel 2 from Ubisoft Paris. It's a game that looks to transform your Wii Remote (armed with a Wii MotionPlus attachment, which is required to play the game) into a virtual lethal weapon. Transformation is emblematic of Red Steel 2's entire approach. As a sequel to the original Red Steel from 2006, the game has gone through a vigorous and wholesale transformation--losing the modern-day action movie trappings of the original in favor of a hybrid Wild West sci-fi aesthetic. This is where cowboys in leather dusters commune with hacker chicks with dyed roots, and martial arts masters coexist in relative harmony with crusty, mustachioed town sheriffs. We've spent the past few days exploring the opening levels of Red Steel 2, and earlier in the month, we had a chance to speak with some of the developers behind the game to see how it's coming along ahead of its March release.
Red Steel 2 takes part in Caldera, a western town that's been overrun by a group of thugs known as The Jackals. You play as a member of the Kusagari clan--one part six-gun totin' cowboy, one part sword-slashing samurai--and, in the opening sequence, you're being dragged behind a motorcycle by a member of The Jackals. After a huge explosion separates you from your would-be assailant with a wall of flames, you get a chance to make an escape; thus begins the first tutorial of the game, which acclimates you to the game's controls. You can do a good deal in the game simply by pointing your Wii Remote; you can look around by moving the onscreen cursor in any direction. You'll also use the Wii Remote to aim and fire your revolver, which is the only weapon available to you when you start the game. In fact, producers told us that you can play the majority of Red Steel 2 as a straightforward shooter. However, it isn't too long before you get a sword, which is when the Wii MotionPlus fun really begins.
Of course, your first sword isn't actually yours--it's one borrowed from you sensei Jian, whom you save from Jackal bullies early in the game. Jian will also be your conduit to sword training. Early on in the game, he'll remind you of the basic move swings--accompanied by a video showing how to pull off the moves with the Wii Remote. The basics are simple: You simply swing your Wii Remote in any direction to swing your sword. The harder you swing, the harder the strike. You block by pressing the A button, and early on in the game, you don't need to worry about the angle of the block. As you encounter more advanced enemies, you'll need to pay attention to the strike angles of your opponent. For example, if the attack is a vertical downward strike, you'll need to block horizontally to successfully fend off the attack.
There is a good deal of hacking and slashing but you can also work in special moves and combos as you go. The dash move is particularly useful against slow, lumbering opponents; by pressing the A button and then moving the analog stick on the nunchuk in any direction, you'll do a quick dash around your opponent. Another useful attack is a combination of dashing toward an opponent and then making a stabbing motion, which results in a powerful forward attack. When a stunned or injured opponent is on the ground, you can perform a finisher that will quickly end the fight. Finally, defeating level bosses--such as the menacing Payne (who, unsurprisingly, is the guy who was dragging you behind the bike in the intro)--will earn you special moves that will prove useful as you go. For instance, after beating Payne, you'll earn an attack that will toss your enemies into the air; by pressing the A button, you can then leap into the air and beat them down before you hit the ground.
Each area in Red Steel 2 is organized around hub areas. Here, you can learn new special moves from Jian, buy weapons or ammo, and get new missions. The majority of missions are linear in the game, though there are the occasional side missions you'll pick up that can earn you extra cash. For instance, early in the game, you'll be tasked with taking out a number of Jackal trucks by shooting their gas tanks. In the early goings, most of the missions in the game are straightforward--you're looking for a particular enemy or, as in the case of blowing up trucks, looking to… well, blow things up.
One particular sequence in the opening hours of the game made us sit up and take notice: a face-off against Payne while riding atop a moving vehicle. As you try to stay perched on the vehicle, with your sword stabbed through the truck's roof, you'll need to move the Wii Remote left or right to shift your weight and maintain your balance. At one point, you end up on the hood of the vehicle, but after busting through the windshield, you can grab the steering wheel from Payne and then move the Wii Remote left or right as indicated onscreen. It's a scripted sequence but it's a nice break from the repetitive slashing and shooting that make up the majority of Red Steel 2's early gameplay. Here's hoping these action-packed sequences are more frequent as you get deeper into the game.
Look for more on Red Steel 2 in the coming weeks as we approach its March 23 release.
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- Ubisoft
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- Release: Mar 23, 2010 »
- ESRB: Teen
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