Red Steel

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Red Steel
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Paris
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.5
Release date(s)	November 19, 2006 December 2, 2006 December 7, 2006 December 8, 2006
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer (4)
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T) PEGI: 16+ OFLC: M
Platform(s)	Wii
Input	Wii Remote/Nunchuk

Red Steel (レッドスティール, Reddo Sutīru^?) is a first person shooter video 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 19, 2006, the date of the first Wii launch.^[1][2]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Gameplay 3 Artificial Intelligence 4 Characters 5 Graphics 6 Multiplayer 7 Reaction 8 Trivia 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot

Scott Monroe, the protagonist of the game, is engaged to Miyu Sato, daughter of Isao Sato. At a hotel in Los Angeles, California, Scott is to meet Isao for the first time. A gang manages to disguise themselves as the hotel staff, and open fire on Sato's room. Scott tries to help, but is knocked unconscious. He awakens and grabs a pistol off a dead bodyguard and meets up with Isao on the roof, who is injured.

Scott learns the ways of the Katana from Isao after being attacked by a waiter with a sword. Isao and Scott retreat to Isao's personal suite, where Scott covers Miyu, Isao, and Ryuichi, one of Isao's guards, as they head to their car in the parking lot. Scott eventually meets up with them, but Ryuichi turns on them and kidnaps both Isao and Miyu. Scott pursues the car and saves Isao after shooting the car and besting the driver in sword combat. Ryuichi manages to escape with Miyu.

At the Little Tokyo, the store of Tony Tanaka, Isao's friend in Los Angeles, Sato is revealed to be the Oyabun of one of the largest Yakuza families. To track down Ryuichi, Scott raids the Angel's Heaven, whom Ryuichi's mistress, Angel, owns, and Extreme Wheels, Ryuichi's car workshop. Ryuichi confronts Scott at an airport and bests him in combat, but spares him. He escapes to Japan with Miyu. The enemies will only hand Miyu over if the Katana Giri, a katana once used to execute dishonorable godfathers, was given as ransom. Isao gives Scott the Giri, and dies of his injuries.

At Tokyo, Scott makes contact with Otori, a samurai, and Harry Tanner, nightclub owner, who assist him in tracking down Ryuichi. Harry leads Scott to a waste processing plant off the coast of Tokyo, where Ryuichi delivers Miyu to Tokai, the antagonist of the game. Ryuichi duels Scott again, but is defeated. Scott spares him, but Ryuichi is murdered by a sniper while giving information to Scott.

Tokai is revealed to have taken over the major districts: the financial, gaming, Geisha houses, and docks, bringing down the Sanro Kai, the leaders of these districts. The Kai work together with Scott to convince the new leaders of these districts given control by Tokai to be on their side to bring down Tokai.

Eventually, Scott delivers the Giri to Otori. Back at Harry's bar, Tokai was waiting for Scott in the conference room. Harry suddenly turned on Scott; knocking him unconscious. Scott is brought down into the cellar to be tortured by Dozan, one of Tokai's henchmen. Scott manages to grab a sword and bring down Dozan, and escape the cellar to interrogate Harry. Harry grabs a katana and battles Scott, giving him information after he is defeated. Whether Harry lives or dies, like most duels, is up to the player.

Harry reveals that Tokai has raided Otori's dojo, hiring the Komori, a new wave of ninjas. The attack is thwarted, and Scott travels to one of Tokai's bases, where he is going to execute the members of the Sanro Kai. He duels Tokai, learning he wanted the Giri to kill the Kai; they killed Tokai's father with the sword, and he wanted to kill them with the same sword they used against him. Scott bests him and saves most of the Sanro Kai, but Tokai escapes. Scott pursues, and duels the Komori leader. He overcomes the Komori leader, but it is unknown whether life or death of the leader is canonical.

Otori and Scott travel to Tokai's private residence for the final battle, where Otori is poisoned by a poisonous blade. Scott battles Tokai one last time, and overcomes him, but spares him after learning Tokai has the antidote for Otori's poison. Scott defends Tokai from Otori, breaking the Katana Giri. Otori respected Scott's action and now honors him. Otori is cured with the antidote.

At the end of the game, all the characters are at Isao's funeral. The Sanro Kai explains that they understand Tokai's motivations for his actions, but he must be punished.

An alternate ending takes place if Scott fails to defend Tokai from Otori. Otori kills Tokai and dies, while it is assumed that Scott and Miyu escape and return to America.

[edit] Gameplay

The game takes full advantage of Wii's unique motion-sensitive controller, along with the Nunchuk attachment, to control a katana and a firearm. 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 or pressing "right" on the D-Pad reloads the gun. The player can also throw grenades in a more realistic fashion, with underhand or overhand, employing the controller as the object 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. The player can shoot the weapon out of the enemy's hands, causing him to surrender. In the swordfighting aspect, a similar option exists. After winning a swordfight, the enemy gets on his/her knees and the player has the choice of whether to deliver a coup de grace or to show mercy. 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 is also 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 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 more accurate attacks.

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. 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'.^{[citation needed]}

While the developers claim that F.E.A.R. was their standard for AI, it has been widely criticized in several respected magazines and websites.^{[citation needed]}

The A.I. does seek cover by pushing over objects and will support each other. They will also flank if the level design allows it. However, the A.I. may occasionally glitch and freeze momentarily, or run into your character's line of fire.

[edit] Characters

• Scott Monroe: (Main Protagonist) a man without a description, except that he was Miyu's bodyguard at one point.
• Miyu Sato: Scott's fiancée and Isao's daughter
• Isao Sato: Miyu's father and Scott's future father in law.
• Tokai: (Main antagonist) takes control of six Yakuza companies
• Otori: Ancient Katana teacher that aids Scott in Katana techniques.
• Harry Tanner: Club owner who gives the player information about the Yakuza
• Kajima: Teaches player how to use firearms
• Ryuichi: Isao Sato's former lieutenant who betrays him and kidnaps his daughter Miyu and takes her to Tokyo. He is one of the game's principal antagonists.
• Tony Tanaka: Reformed Yakuza member; teaches player basic katana combat
• Mariko: Teaches advanced katana combat and Otori's daughter

[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 prettier version of Resident Evil 4".

[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. The game has 4-player multiplayer: split-screen multiplayer with traditional deathmatches.^[3] 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 is 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 negative response initially 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 received 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. The average score for the game from various media outlets, according to ratings aggregate Game Rankings is 65%.^[4][5] The breakdown is as follows:

• Deeko: 5/10
• Edge Magazine UK: 5/10
• 1UP: 5/10 ^[6]
• Advanced Media Network: 5.5/10 (Not counted toward average)
• GameSpot gave 5.5/10, saying apart from the unique aiming mechanic, Red Steel was thoroughly unimpressive ^[7] In its Best & Worst 2006 Red Steel was nominated for the Most Disappointing Game category, but 'lost'.^[8]
• IGN UK: 8.0/10 ^[9]
• Xplay gave the game a 3/5 noting the new ideas were enjoyable ^[10]
• GameBrink: 70/100
• Game Informer: 7.5/10
• Cheat Code Central: 3.8/5
• GameTrailers: 7.8/10 ^[11]
• eToychest: 78/100
• Console Game World: 79/100
• IGN US: 6/10 ^[12]
• Gamesmaster 79% of 100%
• Nintendo Power Volume 211: 8.0/10
• Computer & Video Games: 8/10
• Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game a 34/40 (8/9/9/8) (Not counted toward average)
• NGamer January issue: 90%
• Official Nintendo Magazine: 91% of 100%
• Linkingames: 7/10 ^[13]

Further criticism regards a cursor glitch, or "rubber-band effect," in which the cursor frequently reappears in the center of the screen, deterring movement and aiming. This can be resolved by muting all active Wii remotes. ^[14]

A sequel is expected due to Red Steel's sales. Ubisoft has unofficially confirmed the sequel.^[15]

[edit] Trivia

• Due to an early, mislabelled box for the game in PAL regions, a rumor arose that Ubisoft were not going to convert the game to 576i, and that only people with 480p compatible TV sets would be able to run the game. Ubisoft later clarified that this was not the case, and that the box should have read "EDTV/HDTV Compatible" instead of "EDTV/HDTV Only." [2]
• While the robotic Rabbit puts you through puzzles, there are certain parts where you can hear the Rabbids from Rayman Raving Rabbids famous scream. The scream is played and then stopped, then it rewinds itself and plays again over and over again.
• According to www.play.com, a sequel to the game is due soon, even though there has been no official announcement by Ubisoft and there's no evidence of the game's existence. Link found here: http://www.play.com/Games/Wii/4-/3308513/Red_Steel_2/Product.html
• In a video viewable on IGN and Electric Playground, a very early version of Red Steel is shown, in which the aiming was much different. Ironically, the change to a wider aiming box and slower turning was a main point of criticism for the final Red Steel build.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Red Steel site
• Official Red Steel community
• "Personal Review"
• "Red Steel" Reviews at Metacritic.com
• Red Steel at IGN
• Red Steel at 1UP
• Sliced Gaming interview
• [3] Interview with Lead Game
• [4] Designer, Computer and Video Games, 2006-10-16