Red Steel is such nostalgia for me. I got it one day on the way back from a rehab center and got Red Steel and some cake at WalMart.
Red Steel is a Wii first person shooter/launch title. That's right one of the first games to hit the Nintendo Wii. But does it hold up? Did it ever?
STORY
Red Steel is about a young body guard named Scotty gone hubby who had his wifey taken away by the evil Yakuza clan for the Katana Giri. Honesty, the setting is beyond powerful but the story is weak sauce. You will lose any at all motivation for your girlfriend and you don't even get her name because she is displayed in these non-animated CG comic panels. But the story telling overall is good as you watch scripted events and such. Makes it feel like a movie. But yeah, Red Steel has such low stakes that I can't recommend it for the story. The villians are just a bunch of waiters at a bar with guns.
GAMEPLAY
Red Steel is a very revolutionary in many ways. Red Steel has you move the character with the nunchuck and shoot with the Wiimote. You can lob grenades. It's like Halo meets John Woo but mid 2000's edition. You can stop time and blast enemies in their heads and torso. They feel it! It's amazing! The gameplay can get repetitive but you'll like it. All you'll really fight up against is the same guys but with quirkier/exotic outfits.
Here is Red Steel's biggest missed opportunity. The swordplay. At some point you will get into sword fights and these are just broken. All you do is waggle the Wii mote to slice the guy when most opportune hear him cry in pain dodge and block or dodge some more and it's super awkward. You can either spare the opponent or kill them. Sparing will bring you honor. Even the swordplay isn't noteworthy you can slices someone with melee knife.
There is some platforming.
Multiplayer is just boring Goldeneye knock off with nothing good about it.
GRAPHICS
In the beginning, Red Steel had the most realistic and beautiful 3D graphics on the console I have seen so far and in trailers (whom I assume where all CGI) however Red Steel is still stunning in many ways. Sparks fly, explosions are volumetric, light bounces models are shiny and detailed, quirky art, post processing effects, good animations, water looks like water, and the entire setting is Asian themed.
It's so stunning that it doesn't even run at a capped frame rate for Red Steel dips below 30 into the Anime zone. Which makes you question the Wii's graphical capabilities.
Then there is the bad part of the graphics. This is and Unreal Engine 2 game. Everything feels super fake at time. Some of the animations are unnatural, many textures are left blurry and low res, bland locals like warehouses, and poor FOV. Oh and the fresnal backlighting on enemies looks weird and fuzzy. I don't care if it enhances realism it looks weird. And this weird face zooming thing during cutscenes should just stop.
Despite the realism from the Wii mote movement and the name being Red Steel there is no blood to be found. This is a T-rated video game.
Overall though I think you will like how Red Steel looks.
SOUND
The sound in Red Steel is awesome at first. Plenty of Jpop and Rock mixes with some fun and techno. It's pretty good.
That voice acting is very stereotypical though. Lot's of "Engrish" and Japanese blurbs. It's quite cheesy.
OVERALL
Red Steel is a good game. It's fun if you are a weeaboo and this is what appeals to you.