GoNintendo Preview mit der finalen Version von
RED STEEL!
I saw a lot of emails asking me about Red Steel.
I have been swamped with the site lately, but I took
the last half hour to write up some quick impressions.
My apologies for any punctuation/spelling errors.
As I said yesterday, I went to my local GameStop and
was able to pick up Red Steel. I have been very eager
to check out how well this title controls. We have followed
the Red Steel controls story way back from E3 when things
were horrible, up until recent weeks when reports came
in that they had really tightened things up. Going into the
game I was really nervous that I just wouldnt be able to
handle the controls. Coming off of playing three levels,
I can say that things have worked out extremely well.
First up, I want to say that Red Steel is a lot of fun. I ho-
nestly have to attribute this to the Wiis controller. I cant
see the game being this much fun with a more traditional
game controller. It seems to be a running theme with the
Wii. Every game I play seems to make me burst out with
audible joy. I cant remember the last time I was so vocal
while playing games. That is for another article though.
Okay, a breakdown of the controls. Moving your character
forwards, backwards and side to side is done via the analog
stick, turning is through the Wiimote. B trigger is for shooting,
A button is for lock on, and directional pad left changes
weapons. Z button crouches, C button jumps, or dodges
(in conjunction with the analog stick) when in a sword fight.
I obviously have to get more in depth with the Wiimote contols.
When your aiming cursor is somewhere near the middle of the
screen, you are free aiming. When you start to push towards
the top/bottom/or sides of the screen, you will begin to look/turn
in that direction. The further you press, the faster you turn. Its
true that your top turning speed really isnt super fast, but that
was never an issue with me during gameplay. Just something
I noticed while wandering around. Pushing the Wiimote towards
your screen will allow you to zoom in with your current weapon.
If you use this in conjuction with the A button, you can lock onto
and enemy, and zoom in for your shot. The lock on feature is
much like Z targeting in Zelda. Your camera will stay fixed on
the enemy, and will also make a box around them on screen.
The Nunchuck movements are used for picking up guns, opening
doors, and reloading. A quick flick down will pick up a gun on the
floor, as well as reload your gun. The same motion will allow you
to open a door, but only when there is a green hand icon on the
screen.
Now both the Wiimote and Nunchuck change control schemes
when you enter swordfighting. You have basic up, down, left,
and right sword swings by swinging the Wiimote in that direction.
To tell you the truth, I remember seeing diagonal swings, but I
dont know if they were a result of diagonal Wiimote movements
or not. Once again, this is not one-to-one sword control. The Nun-
chuck is used for dodging enemy sword slashes. All you do is hold
the C button, and move left or right with the analog stick. The real
fun is the parry move, which you need another sword to do. A flick
of the nunchuck left or right will block your enemys sword attack,
leaving them open for your attack. I found it much more natural to
swing the Wiimote left to right to parry. A right to left movement
with my left hand does not feel natural to me
and I had more
trouble parrying like that. The good news is that it doesnt matter
which way you do it to parry, both complete the same movement.
Wiimote aiming felt very nice. It took me all of about 5 minutes
to start getting headshots
and trust me, I am not FPS expert.
The mixture of lock on, zoom, and free hand shooting gives
you plenty of options to see what works best for you. I never
used lock on unless an enemy was in the distance. Then I would
use lock on, push the Wiimote forward to zoom, and it makes
for an easier kill. When you lock on to zoom, you have a better
accuracy of going for headshots than you would freehand aiming.
Freehand is best for close to mid-range gunfights. The aiming
didnt feel floaty, it has a very ridgid feel. The cursor is also
very forgiving
as in you wont find it twiching all over the place
if you dont have a steady hand. I never changed the default
sensitivity options, they worked perfectly fine for me.
Honestly, the only complaint I have with the game is the
turning speed. As I said, this was never an issue during
a fight
but you never know what will happen later in the
game. You never want to be left getting shot in the back
simply because you cant turn fast enough. The turning
is not slow
dont get me wrong. It just isnt as fast as
you would like. If there was a quick 180 turn button
combo, then I would have no complaints at all. As far
as I know there isnt, nor have I been taught one in
the game.
The controls work a million times better than I expected.
We have all heard horror stories of Red Steel controls,
but the truth is that they have tightened things up a
great deal. The reports from journalists such as Chris
Kohler are the ones you should listen to. He had never
played the game before two weeks ago, and found no
issue with the setup at all. They really have tweaked
things, and what they have now works almost perfectly.
The Wiimote is going to make for one hell of an awesome
FPS experience, and you can already feel that coming
through in Red Steel.
Okay, now my gripes with the game. Even though Ubisoft
has been working on this title for quite some time, there
are still some areas I feel it was rushed. There is some
slowdown from time to time
but not due to heavy action
on the screen. Sometimes the physics just go insane, and
things slow down due to it. This only happened once, but
I feel it is worth mentioning. I shot a guy in the head, and
he flew all around the room like he was full of helium,
which obviously caused slowdown. I am not too sure why
this happened, but I feel this could have been fixed with
more time to catch bugs. There were also a few instances
of pop-in. For instance, I would be talking to a character
in the game, and then all of a sudden a piece of them
would become HUGE. It lasted for a 10th of a second,
but you do notice it. This has happened probably 3 times
through the 3 levels I played. These are in no way deal-
breakers
but they are noticeable, and could have been
fixed with more time.
As far as losing the Wiimote, that never happened to me.
I watched Nicky Hill play, and it happened to him once.
I believe that was due to his error and not the game.
He is admittedly not the best FPS player, and was very
nervous at the start. He lost the cursor for a second
while in an elevator, but picked it right back up. Even
though he says he sucks at every game, and will tell
you that he wasnt doing very well, I will tell you the
truth. He made it to almost the end of the second level
(due to time constraints) and he was impressing me
with how well he was doing. I hadnt even played the
game yet, but was confident that I could do well based
on watching him. For a novice FPS gamer like him, he
managed to get a hang of the controls midway through
the first level.
There is also one other glitch that popped up maybe
twice. If you are pushed right up against an object
(table, desk, cabinet), and you try to peak out from
the corner while aiming the Wiimote, it may jump
back and forth about an inch from where you aim.
As I said, this happened maybe twice. This is the
same issue that happens in numerous first person
shooters. The target can get hung up on a corner,
wall, or object if you are too close. You just think
that it is the Wiimote screwing up, which it isnt.
It is your target jumping from the near to far object.
I have had this happen to me in F.E.A.R., and Ghost
Recon Advanced Warfighter to name a couple current
games.
Red Steel is a lot of fun to play
and the Wiimote really
gets you into the action. I didnt feel tired at all while
playing
I felt more
into the game. I felt more in-tune
with what was going on. I had full intentions of continuing
my Zelda game last night. I was going to play Red Steel
through the first level, and then pop Zelda in. I stuck with
Red Steel for the rest of the night because it was damn
fun
and because I dont ever want Zelda to end! I am
very much looking foward to hopping back into Red Steel
later tonight. The game isnt without its glitches, but so
far they have been minor, and not detracted from the
game. If you are a hardcore FPS person, it may take
a little time to adjust to the differences from PC to Wii-
mote control. Having said that, I have never felt like I
had so much control in an FPS game since I first started
playing them on the PC. Then again, I never felt so in-
volved in an FPS game
ever. Red Steel, so far, is a
great way to show off the potential the Wii has when
it comes to the FPS genre.