Guns and Swords, Cowboys and Samurai, and old western town with electronics, diesel and computers??? Confused yet – I was…

The story behind Red Steel 2 is vastly different from the first Red steel (or so I have read – as I didn’t play Red Steel) where the location was in the blustering Metropolis of Tokyo, Red Steel 2 takes place in a semi-futuristic Asian inspired Western and is a fast paced first person shooter with a twist – the up close and personal feel of the Katana. Firing up Red Steel 2 and strapping on the Wii Motion Plus I was ready to hit the trail, after the slightly too long Wii Motion Plus How to Video, and swing me some Steel!

The controller actions used in this game are hardly a stretch of the imagination; Aim by pointing the Wii-mote (also controls where character is looking), B Button is your guns trigger and the nanchuck moves the character – Typical Wii First person type controls. But with the addition of the Wii Motion Plus a few interesting effects are added… force sensitive based sword fighting – harder swings mean more sword damage – and motion sensitive safe cracking where the Wii-mote becomes the actual safe dial and your hand twisting determines the success of your opening these locks or not. However increased sensitivity or not there were still control issues with the safe cracking – the dial moving to far or not far enough based on the movement of the Wii-mote.

Weapon upgrades and the collection of money seem to be a non-starter – finding funds is easy and they accumulate quickly, making the upgrade of weapons something that is far to easy to accomplish. Purchasing new weapons and upgrades could have been better tied to the progression of the story line as early sword upgrades may many of the basic enemies easy to dispatch with a few single half hearted swings. Weapon upgrades include – Stronger swords, new ammunition types, and additional guns (shotgun and tommy gun).

I have captured some Game Play footage to show how the systems look and feel. You’ll see three different cuts here; 1 – Fighting multiple enemies and environmental destruction, 2 – Fighting armored enemies (sub-bosses) and 3 – a training/base interaction:

Pros:

• Music and Story were interesting and engaging
• Future-Western setting has not been over done in dozens of games
• Easy of game play would make this a winner for many age ranges and not just hardcore FPS players

Cons:

• Wii Motion sensitivity/accuracy issues for some interactions (ex: safe cracking, character vision movements erratic)
• Stereotypical NPCs – Country Sheriff/Sensei characters
• Weapon upgrades to fast/easy

Feed Your Console gives Red Steel 2: 7 out of 10