Red Steel 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor, but some design choices keep it from being a far better game.
You play as a nameless member of the Kusagari clan, a clan of protectors that have been mercilessly slaughtered. Now you are the only one left. The game begins by a Jackal dragging you across the desert on his motorcycle. You eventually break free, obtain a sword, and then start your journey for revenge, slashing whatever is in front of you and shooting whatever your katana can't reach.
It's rather hard to care about the story, because there's really not that much to it. Honestly, the entire game is about finding out who killed your clansmen and extracting revenge. You run across only three friendlies who keep communication with you via radio, but aside from that, the game's very dry when it comes to character development. You are barely even given any back story of yourself, not to mention that you hardly speak. This makes it pretty hard to get attached to your own character.
The layout of the game is pretty formulaic. You start off in a modern-style western town and can explore in just about every direction you want. Eventually, you'll come across the Sheriff's station or the dojo. At these places, you can purchase weapon upgrades and learn new moves, as well as check the bulletin board to accept missions. The majority of these missions are nothing more than "find three/five/ten of these", tacked on to your main story-related missions. After the main missions are completed, you'll reach a "point of no return", which will let you go back and complete whatever you didn't finish. The game then gives you a linear path to the next area, where the entire process starts all over again.
The first Red Steel was focused on gun combat, but it's evident that its swordplay has taken center stage in the sequel. Thanks to the Wii Motion Plus, the Kusagari's sword slashes are represented more realistically by how you hold and swing your controller. You can slash in any direction as well as vary the force of your swings. Of course, aiming with the remote is just as intuitive as it has been in any other Wii shooting game.
The real joy in sword combat comes in the different special moves you can execute. You can dodge and counterattack, rush your opponent and jump in the air for a downward slash, and do a 360 degree swipe to catch everyone around you. There are many different ways to knock down or stun your enemies, and there are even special finisher moves to execute them. After stabbing enemies behind you in the chest, and running up to them, putting your gun under their chin and letting them have it, you'll forget very quickly the mediocre gameplay of the first Red Steel.
Sadly, the gun play just doesn't seem to be as fun. The problem is once the enemies become harder, they block and dodge far more often, and you're pretty much forced to engage them in sword fighting or run the risk of being flanked. Shooting really only serves to stun enemies or shoot at objects in the distance. It would have been nice if there were other kinds of enemies you could engage with in firefights, but as it stands, you're better off having more fun killing them with your sword.
The biggest issue with this game is the repetitiveness of bashing objects for money. There's simply no way of obtaining enough money to purchase all the weapons, upgrades and moves by the end of the game unless you spend extra time destroying every barrel, crate and chair (yes, as in furniture). You receive a lot of money from missions, killing enemies (and you can increase the money more by obtaining multipliers by using finishers), and finding tokens, but it just isn't enough. All this mindless object bashing just seems like an artificial way to pad the game's length.
There are a couple of other issues. For one, there's a rampant collision detection issue throughout the game. It doesn't really happen when fighting enemies, but it happens a lot with object bashing. There are also instances where enemies end up shooting through walls because their guns pass through them. Those are issues you're supposed to catch through testing! Some battles can also be frustrating, because the Wii Motion Plus can easily get confused if you're too wild with your swinging (see Wii Sports Resort).
The most noticeable change in Red Steel 2 is the graphics. Not only are they technically better, they have taken on a completely different look. The game's given up its realism in exchange for a cel-shaded style. This helps the game not only look more stunning, but also allows the characters and objects to animate better, producing better special effects as well. It's also rather impressive during cut-scenes, and speaking of cut-scenes, only one has you executing a QTE, which makes you wonder why none of the other cut-scenes had them. Still, the graphics aren't perfect, as there is some clipping in several places.
The audio has also been improved as well. Sound effects are much more lively in this game. The swings of swords, and the clanging of metal sound deadlier. Gun fire and explosions sound louder. The voice acting is also resoundingly better. Although it still sounds corny in places, it's no where near as bad as the first game's horrible Japanese accented voice acting. The game's sound track is pretty decent, blending western and eastern themes together with great effect.
If something's too broke to be fixed, you start over, and that's what's been done here with Red Steel 2. You'll find a game that features the best sword fighting on the Wii, thanks to the stylish moves you can pull off. You'll also enjoy crisp new visuals. You may get tired of the monotonous missions and constant money farming, so don't expect to play this game in long sessions; it's perfect for quick bursts. A better structure, more variety in both missions and enemies, and a bit more fine tuning, and Red Steel 2 could have been the most improved sequel of this generation.