Red Steel 2 Preview

Before reading any more of this preview, go and pick up your Wii Remote and perform any motion you like, Go on, go ahead and do it now, and then come back to us once you’re done.

Ready? We bet you performed a slashing motion, didn’t you? No? Then you probably pointed it ahead of you as if you were firing a gun, right? We could be wrong of course, but chances are that you performed at least one of those two actions, and it’s Red Steel 2’s task to capitalize on your instincts, fusing the player’s primal sword-slashing urge with some rootin’ tootin’ gunplay.

The original Red Steel did this too, of course, and look how that turned out. But Red Steel 2 is a product determined to make amends for any misgivings found in the first game, something helped considerably by the game’s very welcome support for Wii Motion Plus.

Red Steel 2 has been designed from the ground up to work with MotionPlus, so if you’ve chosen not to upgrade until now, you’ll need to pick one up if you wish to play this. Of course, the reasoning behind this isn’t just to get you to splash out more money, but the tech behind it allows for an unparalleled level of control over your sword (or as Ubisoft would rather put it,, ‘cold-blooded accuracy’), allowing you to pull off a tone of moves, counters and combos as you navigate through the ‘Wild Wild East’.

And it makes a huge difference. By comparison, there were only eight directional inputs available for the sword-swinging combat in the original Red Steel, but here every subtle twist, turn chop and stab is accurately realized on screen, engaging you in the game world like never before.

You’ll get to take on up to six bandits at a time, and if your reactions are quick enough, even be able to deflect bullets with your sword. New moves and combos will also gradually unlock as you progress through the game, including the Dragon, which sends an enemy-crushing burst of wind flying out of your sword, and you’ll also earn cash from objectives with which you can purchase upgrades for your existing weapons.

So, Red Steel 2’s looking to be every bit that the original game promised to be and then some, and from what we’ve seen so far, shows signs of becoming the Wii’s finest first-person adventure.