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Red Steel 2

Red Steel 2

Red Steel was one of the most anticipated launch titles for the Nintendo Wii, but it failed to deliver as promised. The sequel is a brand new beginning and Jonas finds himself entertained...

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"Do it again, and do it right this time!" certainly seems to have been the motto for Ubisoft Paris as they returned to the Red Steel franchise. There is hardly any relation to the original game at all, and instead of a mafia story we now get to step into the boots of the silent cowboy samurai Hero. He is busy slicing up and shooting down enemies as the Far East meets the Wild West.

The story isn't all that important to the experience so a short summary will have to do. The Kusaragi clan hang out in the desert town Caldera and our hero returns to his old stomping grounds after being banished for five years. The biker gang The Jackals have torched your house, and started to wreak havoc, and as soon as you get your blade back it's simply a matter of slicing your way towards justice and a showdown with Jackals' leader Payne.

It's as simple as that. On to the more important things...

Apart from the occasional round of hoops in Wii Sports Resorts, my Wii Motion Plus has been idle lately, but with Red Steel 2 I got a reason to dust it off (the weak support for Wii Motion Plus is a discussion best held elsewhere, but it is disappointing). Your hero switch from his blade to his gun with a simple swinging motion - very handy. Hopes were high that Red Steel 2 would deliver the most realistic sword play in a Wii title to date, and Nintendo's peripheral does the job admirably. It's not quite one-to-one detection yet, as one movement is often translated into another one on screen, but it's realistic enough to satisfy a cynical game reviewer like myself.

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The game detects how violently you swing the Wiimote and the translates it into a heavy or light thrust. You are going to have to make room to move about, and you will experience a bit of lactic acid after a prolonged session. Motion Plus indeed. If you don't enjoy flailing your limbs around, Red Steel 2 may not be your thing, but it is well enough implemented that you won't exert yourself too badly (at least I didn't). When I had to chip away at the armour of more seasoned foes the immersion was at its peak. I felt like the bastard child of Luke Skywalker and The Bride...

In addition of regular swings there are more elaborate special attacks you can pull off with your katana. If you steer your analogue stick to the left, press A and swing your Wiimote horizontally you activate "The Matador" and quickly move in being your enemy, where you can do a lot of damage swinging away. There are other special attacks such as "The Guillotine", where you launch yourself up into the air and crash down with a bang, and the defensive move "The Tiger" that allows you to parry almost any attack. Well thought through, entertaining and varied.

I have nothing against crisp visuals and Red Steel 2 delivers a coherent, unique and very appealing graphical experience. The mix between Japanese and the wild west seems strangely logical, and the enemies are well animated as I slice them to bits. The stylised, unrealistic look is something that works well on the Nintendo Wii and Red Steel 2 is one of the more visually impressive games to hit the console. If you enjoyed the visual style of Borderlands you are going to enjoy Red Steel 2.

The single player campaign took about ten hours to run through, and apart from one or two boring spells, it provides motivation and drive to enjoy the entire adventure. But after credits have rolled by there isn't much left to enjoy in Red Steel 2. There is no multiplayer mode, and the Challenge mode, in which you replay levels in order to register better scores, doesn't wet my appetite.

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There are other minor grievances. No matter how much I enjoy the sword play, the game sometimes misinterprets my motions, and this was cause for frustration, especially towards the latter parts of the game. This seems to have been compensated by making the katana somewhat overpowered (thanks to regular upgrades), which relegates the gun to a supporting role.

You navigate the world by pointing towards the edge of the screen in order to turn, and its 18 million times smoother than in the original, yet a part of me longs for dual analogue sticks. Another problem that messes with the pacing of the game is the need to collect money in order to buy upgrades. You are going to have commit "wooden box genocide", and this is just as much fun as it sounds...

Red Steel 2 isn't perfect, but it entertains on both a superficial visual level and a deeper gameplay level. There is a lot of well made close combat to be had and to be honest killing is much more fun up close than a distance. Red Steel has been remade and redeemed, and this time they made the right calls. Sharpen your blade and grease up your guns!

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08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Great sword duels, good controls, unique and beautiful design, nice music.
-
No multiplayer, some boring parts.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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