by Kabir Kaler
Welcome to Kollection, the column that tells you of the games you should have in your collection.
Today I will be talking about a Wii game called Red Steel 2, a sequel by name only. It is a totally different game that is personally
one of my favorites.
A quick summary of the game: you are an unknown protagonist who winds up in a town overrun with bikers, ninjas and a lot of armored samurai. Your mission? To save not only this town, but others as well. You accomplish this with the help of allies such as the sheriff, a hacker and a disgruntled sword master who (I’ll put it bluntly) hates you and with their help you uncover the secrets as to why the Kusagari clan (your clan) was decimated.
One of the things the game developers said in making this game is “it’s fun to hit things” and I agreed completely. The game is an FPS which means you get guns but they aren’t your main style of attacking; it is your sword. This style of FPS is both a melee and a shooter and it does this very well. You can attack both horizontal, vertically and forward with both light and heavy attacks but this is just the beginning. Later on you learn different sword strikes that are both practical and awesome, which are good for any circumstance. In the guns category you can get up to 3 guns (minus your revolver); sawn-off shotgun, Tommy gun, and rifle. Both your sword and your guns they can be upgraded; with the sword more damage, and the guns either the bullets themselves meaning more damage, or the guns themselves giving you better stability, carrying capacity for ammo.
The best thing is that you can use both the sword and the guns in conjunction with each other in a given battle. Along with your sword and guns you can also upgrade everything else from your health to acquiring new sword techniques. There is a considerable amount of things to upgrade and to do this you need money which
you can get from the sidequests to beating enemies which aren’t many but they do take you all over town. Depending on how you beat you enemies the money will vary from $1000 to 10 grand, which isn’t much since some upgrades cost as much as 100 grand but little by little it will help.
The total area of the game takes place in a fictional world where eastern and western building structures have come together. In certain areas you can see western architectures and a quick glimpse to the right, let’s say, you will see a giant Japanese house that looks to have royalty living in it. This idea of eastern and western coming together, with what can be described as a touch of anime style artwork and water color paintings is in more than the buildings. It is woven in the enemies, their appearance, and the mannerism of your allies.
In the beginning you see regular bikers just out to hurt you which is nothing new but soon after they start to wear makeshift armor that resembles samurai and they are holding a katana and they are harder to beat. As for your allies, the sheriff is a gunslinging cowboy who looks and sounds like he is from Texas; your sword master who talks honorably and with irritation and looks every part Eastern; and your hacker who also talks with a Texan accent while looking eastern; making her the best of both worlds. The fourth is actually a British guy who dresses weird. He actually doesn’t fit in the eastern/western style but he’s quirky at times but due to his short visit it doesn’t matter much. They give you the main quests and you can do them immediately or at your pace.
The artwork, and the gameplay are the selling point in this game. The story though clear and interesting lacks a little something to make it great and the npcs (your allies for example) could use more dialog and show more emotion when talking to you. The best part is this game came out in 2010 so it’s pretty cheap and what’s better than a great game at a cheap price? I have this game and I am glad I do. You do need motion plus when you play this game but the game comes with it if needed. This game is T rated
and has no blood so anybody can pick this up and play it. It is a little short which is the only bad thing I can say about this game (which can’t be said for other games). Hope you enjoy.