The first Red Steel attempted to reinvent the first-person shooter genre as one of the Nintendo Wii's launch titles. Four years later, Red Steel 2 will attempt to do it again.
Not Your Typical Wild West
Red Steel 2 takes you away from the corporate world of Los Angeles from the first Red Steel to a samurai-themed version of the wild west, what a press release has called a "desert-bound, high tech metropolis." Your character is known only as The Swordsman, the last surviving member of a clan known as The Protectors. The game follows your mission to avenge you clan by taking out the leaders of Payne, the clan that killed yours.
Learning From Mistakes
The first Red Steel sold over a million copies, despite recieving mostly poor reviews. On metacritic, a review aggregator website, the game sits firmly at an unflattering 63. However, Ubisoft seems to be taking all of the previous criticisms to heart and have reinvented the game from the ground up. With their genuine desire to improve upon the game's predecessor and the new Wii MotionPlus allowing for far better sword and gun control, Red Steel 2 could be one of the best games to hit the Nintendo Wii, period.
Red Steel 2's Look
Red Steel 2 sports a colorful, vibrant cel-shaded style of visuals. When asked why the developers went for a cel-shaded look, Red Steel 2's creative director has said that the team likes the look and it works well for the Nintendo Wii. While this is probably because of the console's limited graphical power, it's good to see a developer taking note of that and working around it.
Although you'll be slicing and dicing foes, you won't be seeing torrents of blood. The developers have said that this is because they don't see blood as heroic, but some see the lack of violence as a way to avoid an M rating.
Multiplayer, or Lack Thereof
This is a short section because there's nothing to talk about. Red Steel 2 will not support multiplayer of any kind. Hopefully this means an abundance of care and quality went into crafting an amazing single player campaign.
A Better Red Steel
Red Steel 2, with the help of the new Wii MotionPlus, looks like it could actually deliver on the promises of the first game. It's currently scheduled to be released during the first quarter of next year.