Red Steel 2 Updated Impressions From GamesCom
Gaming Union had the privilege of seeing Red Steel 2 at this year's E3, but with GamesCom 2009, Ubisoft Paris, the developers of the title, had another opportunity to show off their new title to the media.
Demonstrated by Jason Vandenberghe, the Creative Director for Red Steel 2, this time around the focus was on showing off a later section of the game. While the E3 demo was geared towards the beginning and introducing the controls, this new setting was much more advanced. The new locale for the demo was a desert temple, and action took place outside. Now armed with a sawed-off double barrel shotgun, the protagonist can make much lighter work of the generic enemies.
An extensive range of combo attacks were also shown, some of which involve dashing and jumping. They really help to add a new dimension to the combat, and it stops the game being just about waving the Wii Remote from side to side frantically. They also help to initiate execution-style moves, which can be performed on enemies that are drowsy.
To further focus on the combat, there has been an extra element added to the sword-play. Due to the strange mystical origins of the sword, it has the ability to emit sonic shock waves in both a horizontal and vertical fashion. These can be used to throw enemies up in the air for juggling, or to push enemies into walls or off cliffs; something which is exceedingly helpful against the new enemy type that was revealed - a ninja.
The stereotypical enemies just seem to run at the player, and try their hardest to get hit; they are essentially cannon fodder to a good player. The ninjas, however, offer quite a different experience. From what was seen, there will be two types of ninja: a close-range fighter and a long-range gun bases ninja. The close-range fighter will be able to dodge gunfire and the majority of sword strikes, so using the shock wave to stun them will become necessary. The long-range ninjas will also be very adept, but at close range they will be vulnerable. Being attacked by multiple ninjas is certainly going to be a challenging facet of the game.
To add to replayability, the newly found powers and weapons will be fully upgradable when visiting safe houses. This is essentially reason for collecting money throughout the game, but it's unknown if the money will contribute to anything else. A new feature is also the ability to completely customise the Wii MotionPlus. In the menu-system there will be a huge level of customisation, so players can tailor its sensitivity to their needs, or just use a pre-set setting. Definitely a nice feature and one that players will surely appreciate.
Currently Red Steel 2 is scheduled for a Q1 2010 release, and it will be coming out exclusively on the Nintendo Wii.
