Red Steel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Red Steel
Developer(s) Ubisoft Paris
Publisher(s) Ubisoft
Engine Modified Unreal Engine 2.5
Release date(s) United States November 19, 2006
Japan December 2, 2006
Australia New Zealand December 7, 2006
European Union December 8, 2006
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer (4)
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen (T)
PEGI: 16+
OFLC (AU): M
Platform(s) Wii
Input Wii Remote/Nunchuk

Red Steel is a game published by Ubisoft for Nintendo's Wii console. It was developed by the Ubisoft Paris studio and was unveiled in the May 2006 issue of Game Informer. Red Steel was the first game for the Wii platform to release in-game screenshots, thus giving the public an idea of what the console was capable of. It was released on November 16, 2006, three days before Nintendo's seventh generation console, Wii.[1] A version of the game was playable during E3.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tokai, the antagonist of the game and leader of the Shibuya Giris, attempts to take control of six Yakuza clans, including the Financial Clan, who controls major banks. While Tokai persuades the clans, it is Scott Monroe's (the protagonist) job to convince them to join him and fight Tokai.

At the same time, Monroe's fiancé, Miyu Sato, is kidnapped during what was supposed to be his first meeting with her father, Isao Sato. Sato is revealed to be the Oyabun (a Godfather of sorts) of one of the largest Yakuza families, and gives Scott the "Katana Giri", a legendary weapon once used to punish dishonorable Godfathers and now a symbol of peace, to find his captured daughter.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Gameplay

The game takes full advantage of Wii's unique motion-sensitive controller, along with the "white nunchuk" attachment. The use of a katana and a firearm have been confirmed. The game is extremely immersive (e.g. twisting the controller while handling the gun causes the on-screen gun to twist as well). Players can push objects to use them as cover by pushing the controller forward. Shaking the "nunchuk" attachment reloads the gun. The player can also lob grenades in a more realistic fashion, with underhand or overhand, employing the controller as the thing being 'thrown'.

The AI characters can "care for themselves" according to project leader Roman Campos Oriola; enemies are aggressive, moving around objects and the environment to attack the player (like jumping on a table instead of running around). The developers hold the computer game F.E.A.R. as their standard for the AI.

The AI is completely unique, with an option that allows the player to force the enemy mob bosses to surrender, rather than take their lives. This is done by disarming the boss and holding them at the player's mercy instead of killing them. This is done by swinging the nunchuk down and sheathing your sword rather than swinging the "Wii Remote" to deal the killing blow. This actually becomes beneficial, as the bosses may then help the player if the player can convince them to join the player's faction, possibly handing over new weapons or paths. A violent approach will also be possible, but it will not be as beneficial, wise, or encouraged. The bosses' factions may actually join Tokai (instead of the player) in his quest for Yakuza control, making the final confrontation with the mobster more difficult.

The game places less influence on killing the enemy and a greater influence on defeating them and convincing them to join the player rather than to join the opposing faction. Recklessness will be strongly discouraged by a unique system that adds 'freeze points' for accuracy/efficiency while using one's weaponry. When a certain number of points is accumulated, the player is able to momentarily freeze time thus allowing for amazingly accurate attacks.

The control scheme was revealed in a recent interview. [2] The biggest revelation was that the above nunchuk trigger (the C button) makes the player's character jump, as this functionality was not present in the E3 build. The bottom button (Z) makes him crouch, the B trigger shoots, the D-pad reloads and the A button zooms the player's gun in and out. For sword fighting, the motion sensitivity of the Wii remote controls the katana, and the accelerometer in the nunchuk moves the tanto (short sword).

Another interesting aspect of multiplayer is that when playing a Killer match, the remote acts as a telephone using its internal speaker. It rings for the player to place it against their ear. The mission objectives are then given without the other players being able to hear what they are.

[edit] Artificial Intelligence

Red Steel's A.I. is supposedly highly advanced (the developer's standard was F.E.A.R. for the A.I.). It is described in Official Nintendo magazine: 'In Red Steel you do genuinely feel like you're in a shoot-out with an enemy who's actually thinking'.

While the developers claimed that F.E.A.R. was their standard for AI, it has been widely criticized in several respected magazines and websites.

[edit] Characters

  • Scott Monroe: (the Hero) a man without a description
  • Miyu: Scott's fiancée
  • Isao Sato: Miyu's father and Scott's future father in law.
  • Tokai: Main antagonist; takes control of six Yakuza companies
  • Harry Tanner: Teaches player how to use firearms
  • Otori: Reformed Yakuza member; teaches player katana combat

[edit] Graphics

The May issue of Game Informer magazine had the first ever screenshots of this game, Polaroid photos of which leaked onto blogs and fan sites all over the Internet. Ubisoft Paris claimed they were rendered in real time. The demonstration of the game during Nintendo's E3 2006 press conference seemed to confirm that the in-game graphics were very similar to the shots seen in the magazine. Since the E3 demo, Red Steel went through a major overhaul, to improve the graphics even further.

The associate producer of Red Steel Jean-Baptiste Duval, said in an interview with Australian video game magazine Hyper that the game runs on a modified Unreal Engine 2.5. He said that much of the Ubisoft staff had worked on the engine and knew its strengths and weaknesses. The graphics of the game have been designed to achieve a defining artistic style rather than photorealism.

In the September edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine of Europe, there was a featured article that looked at the newest build of the game. The magazine staff who had the opportunity to play it said that the graphics were looking far more incredible than before, and that "People should be expecting visuals that are a more pretty version of Resident Evil 4".

[edit] Weapons

(names are subject to change)

[edit] Melee

  • Katana - Giri
  • Tanto - Can be used with the katana using Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryo style.
  • Bokken - Used when training in Otori's dojo

[edit] Firearms

[edit] Multiplayer

Red Steel's innovative way of playing makes it a unique experience compared to most first person shooters. With the multiplayer feature, four people can play together. Katanas and other guns can be used. It has been confirmed that the game will have at least 4-player multiplayer: split-screen multiplayer with traditional deathmatches.[6] According to the project leader, "Perhaps most impressive is the fact that although split-screen reduces the amount of on-screen space you are playing in, you don't have to make smaller movements —you can gesture as wildly as you want, and it won't interfere with the other player's on-screen quadrants."

Red Steel features three multiplayer modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Killer:

  • In Deathmatch, each player fights for himself and must kill as many people as possible to win.
  • In Team Deathmatch, the players are in two teams. The team with the most kills wins.
  • In Killer, each player fights for himself or herself. The game consists of rounds. At the beginning of each round, each player receives a secret objective through the Speaker of the Wii Remote. The objectives are private. A timer is set that defines the duration of the round. The first player to complete his objective wins the round. Depending on the difficulty of the round, players will be rewarded by different quantities of points. Killer mode is only playable with four players.

Red Steel also features four maps. Dojo, Restaurant, Games, or Docks. Another feature of Red Steel multiplayer is bonuses. Before you play you may chose one of three bonuses More Damage, More Life, or Unlimited Ammunition. During play the more people you kill the higher your bonus gauge goes up. When the gauge is full you press the '1' button activating your bonus for a period of time depending on how full the gauge was.

[edit] Reaction

Red Steel has the dubious honor of being the first third party game on the Wii to have screenshots released. This caused a massive amount of excitement among Nintendo enthusiasts. However, the game was met with a lot of initial negative response at its showing at E3 2006. Many critics complained that the controls were too loose and that the sword fighting portions did not mimic the player's movement with the Wii Remote. Ubisoft later announced that they got the Wii Remote development kits about a month before E3 2006, so they couldn't make the game function in the style that they had originally intended. Ubisoft took this criticism into account, and had announced that the game was being fine tuned. When released, the sword movement now closely, but not exactly, mimics the player's movements on screen.

The critical reaction to Red Steel since its release has been mixed to unfavorable. The average score for the game from various media outlets, according to ratings aggregator Game Rankings is 66%.[7][8] The breakdown is as follows:

[edit] Gallery

Recent, updated graphics for Red Steel from Ubisoft 27/07/2006

Recent, updated graphics for Red Steel from Ubisoft 27/07/2006

Recent, updated graphics for Red Steel from Ubisoft 27/07/2006

Updated graphics for Red Steel from Ubisoft 14/07/2006

Updated graphics for Red Steel from Ubisoft 14/07/2006

Official American boxart

[edit] Trivia

  • In one of the levels, The Rabbids from Rayman Raving Rabbids, Another game by Ubi Soft are seen acting as robotic models and are also used as exploding bombs.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8922
  3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGZDTdxtWwU
  4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGZDTdxtWwU
  5. ^ http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/736/736454/red-steel-20060928055012400.jpg
  6. ^ http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/27-10-2006-3921.html
  7. ^ http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/932528.asp
  8. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/redsteel/review.html?mode=web

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/e/d/Red_Steel_6c5a.html"