Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The first Red Steel showed a lot of promise, but was let down by some shoddy controls. Does this Wii Motion Plus enhanced sequel deliver the goods? The controller addon is a mandatory part of the game now, but will it improve over the ultimately sloppy original?

 

There is probably quite a lot riding on "Red Steel 2", as it is the only game other than Wii Sports Resort to actually require the Motion Plus.

 

 

The story opens in spectacular fashion, and really sets the tone for the rest of the game- an awesome futuristic spaghetti western. You wake to find yourself being chained to a motorcycle, and are then dragged through the desert into a city populated by masked gun and sword-wielding psychos.

 

The one criticism of the story is that too much of it feels like a disconnected tutorial, but once it gets going, there are a host of crazy, fantastic characters and a story that is really well told through plenty of great cutscenes.

 

 

So... here we are... three years (plus) on- has this game been worth the wait? Is the Motion Plus a revelation in game control? Well, the answer is both yes, and no. It soon becomes clear right from the very first tutorials that Ubisoft have done a magnificent job at providing 1:1 motion control.

 

The sword just feels and reacts brilliantly in your hand. If you move the remote whilst you’re walking around, the sword will move with you, making you feel like a warrior ready to pounce!

 

 

Unfortunately, though, Ubisoft have realised the possibilities, and perhaps tried to cram too many possibilities in. By the end of the game, there are a staggering amount of moves available to you- but with some fairly complex combos, you’ll a) probably struggle to remember all of them and b) each move normally has you take part in a tutorial mission or two, leaving the entire first half of the game feeling more like an extended tutorial or tech-demo. By the time the story really gets going, there’s barely anything left, which left me a little disappointed, to say the least.

 

There is a challenge mode, but with no multiplayer, and no real reason to play the game on a higher difficulty level once you’ve gone through everything once, this certainly isn’t the best value for money Wii game out there.

 

Having said that, you probably won’t care very much- when you are slicing your way through hordes of enemies, blasting them in the face, or executing brutal combos and finishing moves, Red Steel 2 is an absolute joy to play. This is really what I wanted to see when the Wii was announced. It’s not exactly a work out, but the fact that you control the sword exactly with your sweeps and stabs using the motion controller is far more satisfying and enjoyable than it could ever be on a standard controller.

 

The Wii Motion Plus definitely makes a noticeable difference too, so I think Ubisoft made the right decision to potentially drop some of the target audience in the quest to make a better playing game, and I respect them for that. Hopefully this will encourage other people to make a use of the nifty little device- it has a lot of potential that third party developers, in particular, have been thus far very reluctant to use.

 

 

Whilst more content, or at least more ‘proper’ story missions would have been appreciated, RS2 is an brilliant game to play, and certainly one that anyone with a Wii Motion Plus should experience.