The Video Game Critic

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 4:05 am**

I rented RedSteel tonight and have been playing for a couple hours, and here is my take thus far.

Aside from the bottom-of-the-Gamecube level of graphics and really annoying and repetitive voice acting that sounds not unlike something from South Park (You Bastard!!), the game is fairly decent. Controls feel a bit oversensitive, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make good use of the "lock-on" system using the A button, but I REALLY enjoy the swordfighting, even if it is simplistic. What I HATE HATE HATE is that you have to turn your body by moving the cursor to the far edge of the screen... the farther to the side you move it, the faster you turn. If you want to turn quickly you have to pretty much just fling the remote to the side and pray you don't overdo it, because if you do the bad guys get about a dozen free shots while you turn back around. This really gets in the way in the middle of a gunfight, and cause some frustration. But the more I play, the more I think that it is mostly just an incredibly steep learning curve that I have not mastered yet, but we'll see.

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 8:10 am**

No offense Paul but that is an awful lot of excuses to make for a game. This is one of the worse FPS I have ever played. Have you got to the sword fighting (if you can call it that) yet? I would be interested to hear your take on that. I mean, if you want a really good FPS I could recommend about a hundred others you could play.

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 12:19 pm**

[QUOTE=Shawn]

No offense Paul but that is an awful lot of excuses to make for a game. This is one of the worse FPS I have ever played. Have you got to the sword fighting (if you can call it that) yet? I would be interested to hear your take on that. I mean, if you want a really good FPS I could recommend about a hundred others you could play.

[/QUOTE]

No offense Shawn, but did you even read my post? First of all, I already stated that I love the swordfighting. I know it could be done alot better on the Wii, but it was fun doing the blocking and slashing. I was able to school guys almost immediately, without too much practice.

Second, I didn't say the game was spectacular. I said it was decent. It does have some flaws. I could mention many more for this game, as I could for many other, much better, games. The graphics are plain, the control is mediocre, the voice acting is repetitive (which has no bearing on gameplay), but there were still a couple of exciting moments, and I was beginning to have a bit of fun after I had some practice. I rented it, but at this point am not enjoying it enough to buy it.

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 12:34 pm**

Get used to these comments if you say anything but Red Steel is the most awful game released in the history of the universe. Just like if you say Gears of War isn't A+ (or my favorite, the & symbol).

Anyway, I would go into the options and mess around with the sensitivity settings. That did help. And yeah, the lock in system is a bit ridiculous. I think I might have turned that off on my game, which also helps (it defeats the purpose of accurate wii mote aiming).

Your gripes are spot on, to be sure, but it sounds like you are going through the same thing I did: an initial "what the heck?" followed by the increasing sense of "ah, ok, I'm getting it now." And the sword fighting is fun and a good feature within the game.

I'm sure Shawn thinks that we aren't just bombing this game simply because of some fanboy deal. I can't speak for you, but I can say that I am biased on one point: I'm very interested in FPS with new controls. I looooove shooting bad guys with the Wii mote acting like a sort of advanced "light gun."

I'm willing to overlook the mediocre turning (should have used the wiimote just like a mouse, or put the game on rails IMO) if some other things are done well. Again, Red Steel is a divisive title. I suspect if you are a huge FPS fan you aren't going to like the game that much. It's too much of a reinvention of the wheel. But if you are looking for something different, you'll like it enough to enjoy it.

Oh, and to cut off this criticism "at the pass," to those who might gripe that I'm defending Red Steel while being critical of Gears: I gave on D+ and the other a B+. (-: Obviously Gears of War is in another league, to be sure.

-Rob

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 12:48 pm**

[QUOTE=Paul Campbell]What I HATE HATE HATE is that you have to turn your body by moving the cursor to the far edge of the screen... the farther to the side you move it, the faster you turn. If you want to turn quickly you have to pretty much just fling the remote to the side and pray you don't overdo it, because if you do the bad guys get about a dozen free shots while you turn back around. This really gets in the way in the middle of a gunfight, and cause some frustration. [/QUOTE]

Yeah, Far Cry does that too, and it's really annoying. There's one sequence where you are trapped inside a small hut and are being shot at through the windows by a bunch of soldiers, and thus need to turn around on the spot a lot so you can shoot them before they shoot you. Horribly frustrating, and needs to go in future games.

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 4:43 pm**

From what I have read, Metroid Prime 3 gets FPS control on the Wii perfect, and is what we should be looking forward to as a gauge of what the Wii can do for the genre.

Posted: **February 4th, 2007, 10:56 pm**

I find that when you hold your gun sideways, it is much easier to turn with more control. Try that on for size.

The Video Game Critic

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....

RedSteel so far....