Red Steel 2 Review (8/10)

Red Steel 2 is a classic example of a Wii game coming so close to greatness, to standing up tall with the best of the 360 and PS3, but ultimately being held back by the most irksome of flaws. The story revolves around a modern cowboy tracking down an ancient foe who is attempting to create an invincible army- it's well presented, to be fair, yet doesn't really serve much of an effect than simply progressing the locations and events the hero travels through. What really will prove noticable upon starting up Red Steel 2 are the stunning visuals: this really could pass as a title on one of the other two major consoles out right now, boasting a beautiful drawing-esque style that is used to its full potential thanks to extensive explosions and battles. For the Wii, the gameplay on offer here is developed fully- it makes great use of the Wii MotionPlus peripheral to offer 1:1 accuracy when battling either with a sword or a gun, and there are several great setpieces which are simply brimming with creative innovation. So, where do said flaws crop up in such a promising title? The aforementioned setpieces are sadly far and few inbetween, with the majority of Red Steel 2 consisting of run-and-gun Point A to Point B missions and returning back to a 'dojo' to collect more missions once those laid out before are complete, and when it's 8-12 hours of just doing this with the odd action sequence or boss battle, repetition sets in fast and things become mundane pretty quickly. It's a real shame because, with just a bit of tweaking, this could have been a real hit, a console-seller of sorts for the Wii if it had been promoted enough. Instead, we're left with a game that feels like just a glimpse (albeit a beautiful and technologically impressive one) of the huge potential the franchise had to offer, and with its poor sales I sadly must admit it's unlikely that potential will ever be tapped on the WiiU because there's not enough incentive for dev Ubisoft Paris to return.