Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Red Steel 2!?! This has to be the highly anticipated follow up to the original Wii release, Red Steel!”

Well, you’re sort of right.

It is Red Steel II. It is released on the Wii. It was highly anticipated. But it’s not a follow up, a sequel, or anything else having to do with the first one other than being called Red Steel 2.

For the late to class, the first Red Steel was a “hard core” game released on the Wii that was supposed to combine shooting and swordplay. In it’s finest moment it was…weak. You played a gangsta thug out to rescue his main squeeze from the Yakuza. Or maybe it was the Mob. Or Nazi’s. Or the Nazi Mob. Frankly, it was a highly forgettable game.

Thankfully, Red II doesn’t follow along in its predecessor’s footsteps.

To borrow from the movie industry, Red Steel II is a reboot. Instead of being a Yakuza-dude, you’re some sorta crazy Samurai Cowboy dude. I think. I’m not really sure, actually.

I mean, you’ve got the hat. You’ve got the shootin’ irons, and a katana. And a slick-ass red duster. So, I’m thinking cowboy. Or Vash the Stampede rip-off but with less slap-stick. The world is built with a sort of retro-future look that is heavily influenced by feudal-era Japan. Sort of like the Tokugawa Shogunate set in the high desert of Arizona.

Frankly, it’s a soggy mishmash of future, western, and feudal Japan.

Graphically speaking, the game is a huge leap forward for the Wii. People look like people. The cell shaded style means there aren’t a lot of “real” looking environments, but it’s all crisp, clean, and more importantly, brightly colored.

I say this is important because I am tired of the grey/brown pallet that most game company’s have gone with for their environments. No, seriously, I have to wonder if any of them have taken a long look at the world. Next time you see something that you think is brown or grey, take a moment and really look at it to see all the colors in it. You might be amazed.

Anyway.

You’re some crazy Cowboy Samurai that gets dragged around by a motorcycle. Oh, yeah, that’s how the game starts out; you’re being dragged by a motorcycle. Which sounds like a really exciting way to start a game, but all I did was wonder why a guy could get dragged around that long without getting turned into meat paste.

No, they don’t explain it. Maybe you’re “tough enough” to withstand friction?

I don’t know. After you finish the cutscene, the game gets even more linear. No, seriously, you may as well be on rails for this thing.

The story is Red Steel 2’s largest weak point. And, you long time readers know this is a big point for me. Why should I spend 8+ hours playing a game if you can’t tell me a compelling story? There are a lot of things I can do with my time, don’t insult me by bringing a weak-sauce story to the table.

I say weak-sauce because the main character never has anything to say. Everything that happens, being dragged by a motorcycle to meeting your mentor is met with the same stoic silence. I understand some designers feel having a silent main characters allows the player to project their own response to the game but I disagree.

It would be a lot like reading a novel where the protagonist never said anything, never responded to the story going on around him.

And Red Steel 2 does this. The protagonist, well I assume he is but I’m not sure since he doesn’t take a stand on what is happening around him. There’s something to be said for the Western quiet gunslinger archetype, but even those guys let you know what was up.

Consider High Plains Drifter, a western in which nothing is said for the first 6 minutes. The Stranger is a taciturn kinda guy. Not a lot of talkin’ goin on, but you still know how he feels about the situation.

In RS2, the protagonist never says anything. You never get a sense of why he’s going through this story, why he stays and just doesn’t walk away. There’s no involvement, no sense of what is at stake.

This isolation from the story is only enhanced by it’s delivery method. Just like an MMO, you go to a central point, pick up the next mission and follow the green arrow on your map to the next point. Where, inevitably, you fight some bad guys for a bit then fight their boss with leads up to a stage boss fight. And, once again, you have to use some obtuse tactic to defeat.

As an example, one of the early bosses can only be defeated if you use the dodge technique to get behind him and shoot the glowing X.

I know it’s a trope in games to do this sort of thing, but seriously? This guy is invincible EXCEPT for the X on his back? And it glows? If I had a glowing X on my back, I think I’d do everything to cover that thing up. I think I’d also paint a glowing target on my chest, just so idiots would shoot at that instead of my one weak spot.

Anyway.

The mission thing. It’s a serious disconnect from the story to go to a bulletin board to continue on to the next part of the game. It’s sort of like showing up at the post office, pulling down a most-wanted sign and heading out to catch the guy. And actually finding him 3 buildings away from where you started. I get that the MMO’s are popular with the kids. I get that. I play them too.

But do we have to tolerate the parsing of a story on a console game like they do in an MMO? Why am I constantly retreating to the same spot to turn in a mission, get experience, and level up? I can do that in a game I already own and play on a PC.

Which, I would like to point out, is far better as a game machine than any of the consoles.

It doesn’t make any sense to me. Console’s are great for delivering the single player experience where the player can make major decisions that apparently change the course of a story with lasting impact on the game world.

And Red Steel 2 really fails to deliver on the player experience.

Functionally, RS2 is a fine game. The graphics are nice. The controls are tight.

Oh, the controls. I forgot to talk about this part earlier.

Yeah, RS2 uses the Wii Motion Plus, meaning when the game says to swing your sword hard, it means it. The Wii Motion Plus is effectively used in this game, different enemies require different moves to defeat them. The game requires different levels of energy from the player to break through defenses, armor, and AI moves.

The auto-lock aiming can be a little counter fun when it’s locked onto an enemy that runs away, dragging you along with him. It’s easy to switch to a different target, but it’s not an intuitive thing.

In my Un-humble Opinion©, Red Steel 2 isn’t a bad game, and it’s certainly an improvement over the first one, but it is a game without a soul. The silent protagonist combined with the MMO-style story telling combine to create a sterile and disconnected narrative.