Red Steel 2
Encyclopedia
Red Steel 2 is a first-person shooter
video game developed by Ubisoft Paris
for the Wii
video game console
. It is the sequel to Red Steel
. The game was released on March 23, 2010 in North America and in Europe on March 26, 2010.
The Hero meets up with Tamiko, a member of his clan's research division, as well as Caldera's sheriff and Tamiko's father, Judd. They provide information for the Hero to help him track down Payne, while sabotaging the Jackals' operations in the Upper City, as well as meeting a fight club-operating businessman named Songan. The Hero eventually locates and defeats Payne in the Jackals' hideout, Rojo House, recovering his katana during the battle. He interrogates Payne and, before killing him by throwing him off a ledge, learns that his entire clan had been annihilated by a man named Shinjiro.
The Hero travels to the Lower City, encountering another rival clan called the Katakara. He finds Shinjiro in the Kusagari Temple and the two swordsmen fight. After a fierce battle, the Hero breaks Shinjiro's katana and pushes him to the edge of the Temple's roof. However, before the Hero can strike his foe down, a mysterious ninja saves Shinjiro. Jian then tells the Hero that the katanas of the Kusagari, called Sora Katanas, have great unpredictable power and that the method to make these is known only to them, and Shinjiro, who trained with the Kusagari as a child, plans to make more of them.
Following a tip from Judd, the Hero discovers Shinjiro trying to escape the city on a train and manages to board it before it leaves. After the Hero fights his way through the train, which is full of ninjas and Katakara, he finds Shinjiro atop the front car; however, the "escape attempt" is revealed to be a trap, as Shinjiro detaches the rest of the train (with the Hero on it) from his own car. Surrounded by explosives, Shinjiro then throws a grenade to destroy it. The Hero survives, but is forced to walk through the desert for three days before finding a deserted town. While exploring the town, however, the Hero discovers Songan, who explains that the ghost town is a Jackal ammo dump. The Hero drives off the Jackals and survives an attack by a Katakara force, led by the lieutenant Calhoun.
After reestablishing communications with Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, the Hero learns that the trio have tracked Shinjiro to the isolated mining community of Rattlesnake Canyon. The Hero then takes Songan's advice and uses an old locomotive in the town's deserted train depot to travel there. While exploring the Canyon, the Hero is attacked by the leader of the Katakara, Okaji, but manages to defeat him, only for him to return from the dead, ready for the Hero to fight at a later time. Following Tamiko's plan, the Hero then uses explosives stolen from the mining quarry to destroy the gate protecting Shinjiro's hideout, the Tiger's Nest. However, Songan then betrays the hero and his allies, Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, are captured. Shinjiro demands the Hero's katana in exchange for his friends. As the Hero is about to give it to him, the two engage in a gun duel, where Tamiko is shot. The Hero pursues and confronts Shinjiro who now has created a new katana. After a fierce batle, Shinjiro is defeated. As he is weakened, Shinjiro tells the hero that other clans will fight him for that katana. The Hero then thrusts his katana through Shinjiro's chest and breaks it in half, killing Shinjiro in the process. The game ends as the hero throws the other half of the katana off a cliff and looks out into the distance with Shinjiro's dead body behind him.
Jian: The swordsmaster of the Kusagari clan, he helps the main character learn new moves as the game progresses. The Hero can also gain additional techniques and upgrade his sword in the dojos where Jian takes refuge throughout the game.
Steve Judd: The town sheriff 42 years running. Having a wide collection of firearms, The Hero can purchase firearm upgrades from Judd's safehouses at certain points throughout the game.
Tamiko: A member of the Kusagari research division.
Payne: The leader of the Jackals.
Okaji: Commander of the Katakara clan warrior caste. A ruthless and cruel psychopath, Okaji can also be considered a monster for having the ability to "return from the dead". Feared by many governments, Judd remarks that Okaji has a bounty on his head in 38 different territories.
Shinjiro: The main antagonist. In the years before the game's beginning, Shinjiro was a trusted server of the Kusagari clan. He has killed every Kusagari clan member in an attempt to find the secret to making Kusagari Sora katanas which are said to contain mystical powers within each blade.
executive director, Alain Corre. It was also confirmed to use Nintendo's new accessory, Wii MotionPlus
and will be included in a bundle.
Red Steel 2 features stylized, cel-shaded
graphics, in contrast to its predecessor's more realistic aesthetic. The visual style is similar to Ubisoft Paris' own XIII
, released in 2003. The game does not include gore or excess amount of bloodshed, which resulted with Red Steel 2 getting a rating of T, for animated blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes, and violence. Enemies disappear in a cloud of dust as they die. Players will have at their disposal both a gun and a katana
, which they can switch between at any time.
Commenting on the mix of East and West in the game creative director Jason Vandenberghe explained: "What doesn't work is to take those Western and Eastern elements, and sort of mix them into one thing. What does work is to say: here's Joe's bar and grill and here is Ming Pow's sushi's place. It's not a Western-looking cowboy katana; it's a katana, and a revolver, and they're clearly in their own place."
In April 2009, Ubisoft announced that Red Steel 2 would not feature a multiplayer mode. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe later explained that they did explore the possibilities of a multiplayer mode, but that it would never fit in the development time window, and that they preferred to deliver a great single player experience over a mediocre multiplayer game.
based on 73 reviews, representing favorable reviews. IGN
awarded Red Steel 2 a score of 8.6/10 along with an editor's choice award, praising the "awesome style and energetic gameplay" calling it "one of the top titles on Wii." Official Nintendo Magazine gave Red Steel 2 an 86% score, praising the MotionPlus controls, visuals and audio, but criticised the mission design, referring to it as being "average." Eurogamer
gave the game a score of 7/10, praising the "thrilling set pieces" but calling the game's character "flawed, certainly, but entirely honorable with it." 1up.com
were considerably less impressed, giving Red Steel 2 a C+, stating that while "occasionally exhilarating" the game was "mostly unremarkable." Gametrailers.com gave Red Steel 2 8.6 out of 10. GamesRadar gave the title 9 out of 10, praising the controls and "the engaging, intuitive combat." GamesRadar also noted that the game was drastically superior to Red Steel
, noting that there was "no comparison between the two." Classic Game Room
received the game well. Bussler claimed that this was the best motion controlled first person shooter that "I ever played".
Ubisoft originally expected to sell 1 million copies of Red Steel 2, but after poor sales of their game Avatar, they slashed their sales predictions in half. According to Jason VendenBerghe at his keynote speech at the 2010 European game developers conference, Red Steel 2 has sold approximately 270,000 copies worldwide.
Jason VandenBerghe feels enthusiastic about making a sequel, but in his opinion the current state of the motion control market does not yet justify making a sequel, and it is certain not to be a Wii-exclusive making use of the Wii Vitality Sensor.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game developed by Ubisoft Paris
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. It is the sequel to Red Steel
Red Steel
Red Steel 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. It was released on November 19, 2006 in North America, the date of the first Wii launch...
. The game was released on March 23, 2010 in North America and in Europe on March 26, 2010.
Plot
The game begins as an unnamed Hero, the last member of the Kusagari Clan, is being dragged across the desert, tied to the back of a motorcycle. He manages to break free, but Payne, the leader of the Jackals - a vast gang of thugs, murderers and thieves - steals the Hero's katana. While running from the Jackals, the Hero rescues his old swordsmaster Jian who was to soon be executed by the Jackals. After the rescue, Jian allows the Hero to borrow his sword until the Hero can recover his own from Payne.The Hero meets up with Tamiko, a member of his clan's research division, as well as Caldera's sheriff and Tamiko's father, Judd. They provide information for the Hero to help him track down Payne, while sabotaging the Jackals' operations in the Upper City, as well as meeting a fight club-operating businessman named Songan. The Hero eventually locates and defeats Payne in the Jackals' hideout, Rojo House, recovering his katana during the battle. He interrogates Payne and, before killing him by throwing him off a ledge, learns that his entire clan had been annihilated by a man named Shinjiro.
The Hero travels to the Lower City, encountering another rival clan called the Katakara. He finds Shinjiro in the Kusagari Temple and the two swordsmen fight. After a fierce battle, the Hero breaks Shinjiro's katana and pushes him to the edge of the Temple's roof. However, before the Hero can strike his foe down, a mysterious ninja saves Shinjiro. Jian then tells the Hero that the katanas of the Kusagari, called Sora Katanas, have great unpredictable power and that the method to make these is known only to them, and Shinjiro, who trained with the Kusagari as a child, plans to make more of them.
Following a tip from Judd, the Hero discovers Shinjiro trying to escape the city on a train and manages to board it before it leaves. After the Hero fights his way through the train, which is full of ninjas and Katakara, he finds Shinjiro atop the front car; however, the "escape attempt" is revealed to be a trap, as Shinjiro detaches the rest of the train (with the Hero on it) from his own car. Surrounded by explosives, Shinjiro then throws a grenade to destroy it. The Hero survives, but is forced to walk through the desert for three days before finding a deserted town. While exploring the town, however, the Hero discovers Songan, who explains that the ghost town is a Jackal ammo dump. The Hero drives off the Jackals and survives an attack by a Katakara force, led by the lieutenant Calhoun.
After reestablishing communications with Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, the Hero learns that the trio have tracked Shinjiro to the isolated mining community of Rattlesnake Canyon. The Hero then takes Songan's advice and uses an old locomotive in the town's deserted train depot to travel there. While exploring the Canyon, the Hero is attacked by the leader of the Katakara, Okaji, but manages to defeat him, only for him to return from the dead, ready for the Hero to fight at a later time. Following Tamiko's plan, the Hero then uses explosives stolen from the mining quarry to destroy the gate protecting Shinjiro's hideout, the Tiger's Nest. However, Songan then betrays the hero and his allies, Tamiko, Judd, and Jian, are captured. Shinjiro demands the Hero's katana in exchange for his friends. As the Hero is about to give it to him, the two engage in a gun duel, where Tamiko is shot. The Hero pursues and confronts Shinjiro who now has created a new katana. After a fierce batle, Shinjiro is defeated. As he is weakened, Shinjiro tells the hero that other clans will fight him for that katana. The Hero then thrusts his katana through Shinjiro's chest and breaks it in half, killing Shinjiro in the process. The game ends as the hero throws the other half of the katana off a cliff and looks out into the distance with Shinjiro's dead body behind him.
Characters
The Hero: The unnamed primary protagonist of the game and referred to as "The Swordsman" and "the last Kusagari". The Hero was exiled a number of years before the game began. His master left him with a Sora katana before he was exiled. That particular katana in time turns out to be the most treasured katana of the Kusagari clan.Jian: The swordsmaster of the Kusagari clan, he helps the main character learn new moves as the game progresses. The Hero can also gain additional techniques and upgrade his sword in the dojos where Jian takes refuge throughout the game.
Steve Judd: The town sheriff 42 years running. Having a wide collection of firearms, The Hero can purchase firearm upgrades from Judd's safehouses at certain points throughout the game.
Tamiko: A member of the Kusagari research division.
Payne: The leader of the Jackals.
Okaji: Commander of the Katakara clan warrior caste. A ruthless and cruel psychopath, Okaji can also be considered a monster for having the ability to "return from the dead". Feared by many governments, Judd remarks that Okaji has a bounty on his head in 38 different territories.
Shinjiro: The main antagonist. In the years before the game's beginning, Shinjiro was a trusted server of the Kusagari clan. He has killed every Kusagari clan member in an attempt to find the secret to making Kusagari Sora katanas which are said to contain mystical powers within each blade.
Gameplay
Red Steel 2 is played in a first-person perspective where players can alternate between shooting and sword fighting. Players are able to fight up to six enemies on-screen, though enemy packs can go up to twenty, and can deflect opponents' bullets with their swords. As the player progresses through the main missions (which progress the storyline), new techniques, armor and weapons become available for purchase or earning,(these can also be upgraded later, also by spending) while additional side missions are available to play, earning the player a monetary reward for their completion.Development
Development of Red Steel 2 began in the summer of 2008. On July 28 of the same year, Red Steel 2 was announced by UbisoftUbisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
executive director, Alain Corre. It was also confirmed to use Nintendo's new accessory, Wii MotionPlus
Wii MotionPlus
The is an expansion device for the Wii Remote video game controller for the Wii that allows it to more accurately capture complex motion. According to Nintendo, the sensor in the device supplements the accelerometer and Sensor Bar capabilities of the Wii Remote to enable actions to be rendered...
and will be included in a bundle.
Red Steel 2 features stylized, cel-shaded
Cel-shaded animation
Cel-shaded animation is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in video games...
graphics, in contrast to its predecessor's more realistic aesthetic. The visual style is similar to Ubisoft Paris' own XIII
XIII (video game)
XIII is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Ubisoft. It was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube consoles and the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The game is based upon the 1984 Belgian XIII comic book series.XIII was developed and published by...
, released in 2003. The game does not include gore or excess amount of bloodshed, which resulted with Red Steel 2 getting a rating of T, for animated blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes, and violence. Enemies disappear in a cloud of dust as they die. Players will have at their disposal both a gun and a katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...
, which they can switch between at any time.
Commenting on the mix of East and West in the game creative director Jason Vandenberghe explained: "What doesn't work is to take those Western and Eastern elements, and sort of mix them into one thing. What does work is to say: here's Joe's bar and grill and here is Ming Pow's sushi's place. It's not a Western-looking cowboy katana; it's a katana, and a revolver, and they're clearly in their own place."
In April 2009, Ubisoft announced that Red Steel 2 would not feature a multiplayer mode. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe later explained that they did explore the possibilities of a multiplayer mode, but that it would never fit in the development time window, and that they preferred to deliver a great single player experience over a mediocre multiplayer game.
Reception
Red Steel 2 was met with positive reviews. It currently holds a score of 80% on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on 73 reviews, representing favorable reviews. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
awarded Red Steel 2 a score of 8.6/10 along with an editor's choice award, praising the "awesome style and energetic gameplay" calling it "one of the top titles on Wii." Official Nintendo Magazine gave Red Steel 2 an 86% score, praising the MotionPlus controls, visuals and audio, but criticised the mission design, referring to it as being "average." Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
gave the game a score of 7/10, praising the "thrilling set pieces" but calling the game's character "flawed, certainly, but entirely honorable with it." 1up.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
were considerably less impressed, giving Red Steel 2 a C+, stating that while "occasionally exhilarating" the game was "mostly unremarkable." Gametrailers.com gave Red Steel 2 8.6 out of 10. GamesRadar gave the title 9 out of 10, praising the controls and "the engaging, intuitive combat." GamesRadar also noted that the game was drastically superior to Red Steel
Red Steel
Red Steel 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. It was released on November 19, 2006 in North America, the date of the first Wii launch...
, noting that there was "no comparison between the two." Classic Game Room
Classic Game Room
Classic Game Room is a video game review show produced, directed, edited and hosted by Mark L. Bussler of Inecom, LLC. The show reviews both retro and modern video games and broadcasts its reviews via video-sharing website YouTube, under the screen name 'InecomCompany', named after Inecom, LLC...
received the game well. Bussler claimed that this was the best motion controlled first person shooter that "I ever played".
Ubisoft originally expected to sell 1 million copies of Red Steel 2, but after poor sales of their game Avatar, they slashed their sales predictions in half. According to Jason VendenBerghe at his keynote speech at the 2010 European game developers conference, Red Steel 2 has sold approximately 270,000 copies worldwide.
Sequel
In April 2010, a French website spread the rumor that according to Nintendo magazine, Red Steel 3 was in development.Jason VandenBerghe feels enthusiastic about making a sequel, but in his opinion the current state of the motion control market does not yet justify making a sequel, and it is certain not to be a Wii-exclusive making use of the Wii Vitality Sensor.