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Red Steel 2

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Red Steel 2
Red Steel 2
Developer(s)Ubisoft Paris
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Director(s)Jason Vandenberghe
Producer(s)Bruno Galet
Designer(s)Roman Campos-Oriola
Programmer(s)Stéphane Lavergne
Writer(s)David Neiss
Jason VandenBerghe
Composer(s)Tom Salta
EngineLyN
Platform(s)Wii
Release
  • NA: March 23, 2010
  • AU: March 25, 2010
  • EU: March 26, 2010[1]
Genre(s)Shooter/hack and slash
Mode(s)Single-player

Red Steel 2 is a first-person shooter/hack and slash video game developed by Ubisoft Paris for the Wii video game console. It is a stand-alone sequel to Red Steel. The game was released worldwide in March 2010. The trailer was premiered at the Los Angeles video game E3 2009 starring the actor Karl E. Landler.[2]

Plot

The game begins as an unnamed Hero, the last member of the Kusagari Clan, is being dragged across the desert, tied to the back of a motorcycle. He manages to break free, but Payne, the leader of the Jackals - a vast gang of thugs, murderers and thieves - steals the Hero's katana. While running from the Jackals, the Hero rescues his old swordsmaster Jian who was to soon be executed by the Jackals. After the rescue, Jian allows the Hero to borrow his sword until the Hero can recover his own from Payne.

The Hero meets up with Tamiko, a member of his clan's research division, as well as Caldera's sheriff and Tamiko's father, Judd. They provide information for the Hero to help him track down Payne, while sabotaging the Jackals' operations in the Upper City, as well as meeting a fight club-operating businessman named Songan. The Hero eventually locates and defeats Payne in the Jackals' hideout, Rojo House, recovering his katana during the battle. He interrogates Payne and, before killing him by throwing him off a ledge, learns that his entire clan had been annihilated by a man named Shinjiro.

The Hero travels to the Lower City, encountering another rival clan called the Katakara. He finds Shinjiro in the Kusagari Temple and the two swordsmen fight. After a fierce battle, the Hero breaks Shinjiro's katana and pushes him to the edge of the Temple's roof. However, before the Hero can strike his foe down, a mysterious ninja saves Shinjiro. Jian then tells the Hero that the katanas of the Kusagari, called Sora Katanas, have great unpredictable power and that the method to make these is known only to them, and Shinjiro, who trained with the Kusagari as a child, plans to make more of them.

Following a tip from Judd, the Hero discovers Shinjiro trying to escape the city on a train and manages to board it before it leaves. After the Hero fights his way through the train, which is full of ninjas and Katakara, he finds Shinjiro atop the front car; the "escape attempt" is revealed to be a trap. As the Hero approaches the front car, Shinjiro detaches the front car from the rest of the train. Shinjiro then throws a grenade to kill the Hero and destroy the rest of the train. The Hero survives, but is forced to walk through the desert for three days before finding a deserted town. While exploring the town, the Hero discovers Songan, who explains that the ghost town is a Jackal ammo dump. The Hero drives off the Jackals and survives an attack by a Katakara force, led by the lieutenant Calhoun.

After reestablishing communications with Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, the Hero learns that the trio have tracked Shinjiro to the isolated mining community of Rattlesnake Canyon. The Hero then takes Songan's advice and uses an old locomotive in the town's deserted train depot to travel there. While exploring the Canyon, the Hero is attacked by the leader of the Katakara, Okaji, but manages to defeat him, only for him to return from the dead, ready for the Hero to fight at a later time. Following Tamiko's plan, the Hero then uses explosives stolen from the mining quarry to destroy the gate protecting Shinjiro's hideout, the Tiger's Nest. Songan then betrays the hero and his allies, Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, are captured. Shinjiro demands the Hero's katana in exchange for his friends. As the Hero is about to give it to him, the two engage in a gun duel, where Tamiko is shot. The Hero pursues and confronts Shinjiro who now has created a new katana. After a fierce battle, Shinjiro is defeated. As he is weakened, Shinjiro tells the hero that other clans will fight him for that katana. The Hero then thrusts his katana through Shinjiro's chest and breaks it in half, killing Shinjiro in the process. The game ends as the hero throws the other half of the katana off a cliff and looks out into the distance with Shinjiro's dead body behind him.

Gameplay

Red Steel 2 is played in a first-person perspective where players can alternate between shooting and sword fighting. Players are able to fight up to six enemies on-screen, though enemy packs can go up to twenty, and can deflect opponents' bullets with their swords.[3] Tougher enemies have specific vulnerabilities that can only be exploited through the use of Wii MotionPlus technology; some enemies can parry off sword attacks with a defensive stance that the player must circumvent either with a slash parallel with the enemy's blade or three consecutive heavy strikes performed with large, fast swings of the Wii Remote, and some enemies wear armor that makes them immune to damage unless they are removed with heavy strikes. Attacking enemies in certain ways will stun them, giving the player a brief chance to finish them off with a particular Wii Remote gesture. The player begins each enemy encounter with full health that automatically replenishes once all enemies are defeated; should the enemies overwhelm the player to the point where all health is lost, the game ends and play can be resumed from the last checkpoint passed.

As the player progresses through the main missions, new techniques, armor, and weapons become available for purchase from safe houses established by non-player characters who ally with the main protagonist, but are not considered part of his clan, while additional side missions, represented as wanted posters in the safe houses, are available to play, earning the player a monetary reward upon their completion. Money can also be earned by destroying many small objects throughout the game world with equipped weapons, opening chests or defeating enemies, with double money earned for performing finishers correctly and triple for doing so with a combo. New techniques involve inputting a series of attacks that can significantly damage, stun or launch enemies into the air, and every time one is purchased, the player must go to a training area in the current safe house to practice it. Another source of money is a separate challenge mode that allows players to revisit previously cleared story chapters.

Red Steel 2 is the first game besides Wii Sports Resort to use the Wii Motion Plus Accessory, as well as only one of three third-party Wii games to require it, with the others being My Personal Golf Trainer and B-Units: Build It!. The game features an expansive amount of movement with the Wii MotionPlus allowing it to be quite an interactive game, including certain hands-on minigames such as opening combination lock safes.

Development

Red Steel 2 features a vastly different art style from its predecessor

Development of Red Steel 2 began in the summer of 2008. Red Steel 2 was announced by Ubisoft executive director, Alain Corre in July 28.[4] The game uses Nintendo's new accessory, Wii MotionPlus and was included in a bundle.[5][6] It was developed using the proprietary LyN game engine.[7]

Red Steel 2 features stylized, cel-shaded graphics, in contrast to its predecessor's more realistic aesthetic. The visual style is similar to Ubisoft Paris' own XIII, released in 2003. The game is also free of graphic violence, like its predecessor, save for occasional unrealistic blood-like splash effects when enemies are slashed or finished off with a stab, before vanishing in a cloud of dust upon defeat.[8] Players have at their disposal both a gun and a katana, which they can switch between at any time.

Commenting on the mix of East and West in the game creative director Jason Vandenberghe explained: "What doesn't work is to take those Western and Eastern elements, and sort of mix them into one thing. What does work is to say: here's Joe's bar and grill and here is Ming Pow's sushi's place. It's not a Western-looking cowboy katana; it's a katana, and a revolver, and they're clearly in their own place".[9]

One feature that did not carry over from the first game was a multiplayer mode. Vandenberghe explained that they did explore the possibilities of including one, but determined that it would never fit in the development time window, and that the developers preferred to deliver a great single player experience over a mediocre multiplayer game.[9] He also stated that plans to enhance the challenge mode by adding new enemies and unique objectives were also similarly scrapped due to technical and developmental obstacles.[10]

Reception

Red Steel 2 received favorable reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[11] IGN praised the "awesome style and energetic gameplay" and called it "one of the top titles on Wii".[21] Official Nintendo Magazine praised the MotionPlus controls, visuals and audio, but criticised the mission design, referring to it as being "average".[27] Eurogamer praised the "thrilling set pieces" but called the game's character "flawed, certainly, but entirely honorable with it".[14] 1UP.com were considerably less impressed, stating that while "occasionally exhilarating" the game was "mostly unremarkable".[28] GamesRadar praised the controls and "the engaging, intuitive combat". GamesRadar also noted that the game was drastically superior to Red Steel, noting that there was "no comparison between the two".[29] Classic Game Room received the game well. Bussler claimed that this was the best motion controlled first person shooter that "I ever played".

Not all non-video game publications gave the game moderate success. The Escapist gave it four stars out of five and said: "Over three years after the Wii hit store shelves, Red Steel 2 finally delivers the motion-controlled swordplay we expected from the original Red Steel, and it more than makes up for any niggling flaws in the level design".[26] The Daily Telegraph gave it seven out of ten and called it "effortlessly likable".[25] Wired also gave it seven stars out of ten, saying: "I've never played anything quite like Red Steel 2, which lets you use swords and guns simultaneously, switching back and forth between wild swinging and precise aiming".[30] The A.V. Club gave it a C+: "Though the pesky lag is largely gone, all too often, gameplay still devolves into breathless, embarrassing exercises in flailing".[31]

Ubisoft originally expected to sell 1 million copies of Red Steel 2, but after poor sales of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, they slashed their sales predictions in half. According to Jason VendenBerghe at his keynote speech at the 2010 European game developers conference, Red Steel 2 has sold approximately 270,000 copies worldwide.[32]

Future

In April 2010, a French website spread a rumor that a sequel was in development, according to a Nintendo magazine.[33] Jason VandenBerghe expressed interest in making the sequel, but said that the current state of the motion control market does not yet justify making a sequel. There were rumors at the time that such sequel would likely be a Wii exclusive and make use of the Wii Vitality Sensor.[34] There has been no further word on the possibility of a sequel after Nintendo shifted focus towards subsequent successors of the Wii.

References

  1. ^ East, Tom (2010-01-26). "Red Steel 2 release date revealed". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  2. ^ "Red Steel 2 Trailer". YouTube. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  3. ^ "Ubisoft - Red Steel 2". Ubisoft. 2010-03-26. Archived from the original on November 1, 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  4. ^ Wales, Matt (2008-07-28). "Ubisoft Confirms Red Steel 2". IGN. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  5. ^ Martin, Joe (2008-07-28). "Ubisoft: Red Steel 2 will use Wii Motion Plus". BitGamer. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  6. ^ Casamassina, Matt (2009-06-01). "E3 2009: Wii MotionPlus Bundled with Red Steel 2". IGN. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  7. ^ Casamassina, Matt (2 June 2009). "E3 2009: Red Steel 2 Hands-on". IGN.
  8. ^ "Red Steel 2 rating summary". ESRB. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  9. ^ a b Müller, Martijn (2010-02-27). "Interview met creative director Red Steel 2". NG-Gamer. Archived from the original on 2010-03-06.
  10. ^ "Red Steel 2 devs had bigger plans for Challenge Mode". NintendoEverything. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Red Steel 2 for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  12. ^ Sterling, Jim (2010-03-28). "Review: Red Steel 2". Destructoid. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  13. ^ Edge staff (May 2010). "Red Steel 2". Edge. No. 214. p. 94.
  14. ^ a b Donlan, Christian (March 23, 2010). "Red Steel 2". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 23, 2010.
  15. ^ Gifford, Kevin (May 19, 2010). "Japan Review Check: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Alan Wake". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  16. ^ Cork, Jeff (May 2010). "Red Steel 2: Stellar swordplay makes it easy to overlook a few dull edges". Game Informer. No. 205. p. 90. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  17. ^ Kim, Tae K. (2010-03-23). "Red Steel 2". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  18. ^ Petit, Carolyn (2010-03-23). "Red Steel 2 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  19. ^ "Red Steel 2 Review". GameTrailers. March 23, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  20. ^ Hopper, Steven (2010-03-24). "Red Steel 2 - [WII] - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 2010-03-28. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  21. ^ a b Harris, Craig (2010-03-23). "Red Steel Review". IGN. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  22. ^ Reed, Kristan (2010-03-23). "Red Steel UK Review". IGN. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  23. ^ Shea, Cam (2010-03-23). "Red Steel AU Review". IGN. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  24. ^ "Red Steel 2". Nintendo Power. 254: 84. May 2010.
  25. ^ a b Hoggins, Tom (2010-04-09). "Red Steel 2 video game review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  26. ^ a b Deam, Jordan (2010-04-01). "Review: Red Steel 2". The Escapist. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  27. ^ Long, Neil (2010-03-23). "Wii Review: Red Steel 2 review". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-10-11. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  28. ^ Barnholt, Ray (2010-03-23). "Red Steel 2 Review". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  29. ^ Elston, Brett (2010-03-23). "Red Steel 2 review". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  30. ^ Kohler, Chris (2010-03-23). "Review: Stand, Shoot and Slash in Red Steel 2 Wii". Wired. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  31. ^ Jones, Scott (2010-03-29). "Red Steel 2". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 2010-10-07. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  32. ^ Keza MacDonald (2010-08-16). "VandenBerghe: Motion Control Must Become Standard". Edge. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  33. ^ Mike Jackson (2010-04-28). "Red Steel 3 revealed, uses Vitality Sensor". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  34. ^ Müller, Martijn (2010-08-23). "Geruchtenkiller: Red Steel 3 nog even niet". NG-Gamer (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2010-08-25.
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