A promising game, held back by some unfortunate flaws.
I think it says something about it's predecessor that Red Steel 2 completely disassociates itself from the first Red Steel in every way except in title. Having never played the first Red Steel, I won't comment on what is the same or different, but I will say that even though basically everyone seemed to be let down by the first, Red Steel 2 was a very enjoyable experience for me, and one of my favorite third party games on the Wii.
You take the role of a western-style samurai who happens to be the last of the legendary Kusagari clan. The plot of Red Steel 2 is basically a story of getting revenge against those who killed your people, while protecting the Kusagari sword that you wield - which is what the bad guys are really after. The plot and characters are stereotypical, one dimensional, and at most times downright boring. It's a good thing, then, that Red Steel 2 has some top quality action, and the best use of Wii motion plus I've seen.
The basics of combat are simple - you have a sword which you can swing via the Wiimote, and a gun which uses the Wiimote pointer to aim and the B button to fire. Switching back and forth between slicing and shooting feels natural and fluid, and allows to you constantly barrage your enemies with attacks, whether you are close or far away. Throughout the game you gain new equipment, abilities, upgrades, etc. You unlock combos and damage upgrades for your sword, making you a lethal, close range killing machine, and you also acquire new guns and upgrades for your guns, giving you a small arsenal of ranged firepower. The sword combos are really fun, and generally easy to execute in rapid succession across a field of enemies. These make the battles very cinematic, but from a first person perspective, so it's really not quite like anything I've seen before. Some combos involve slipping around an enemy to stab them through the back, smacking them in the face with the hilt of your sword, and there are even aerial combos.
You also learn some tricks with your firearms, and between the variety of weapons and the on-the-fly switching between ranged and melee, fights can get pretty crazy. The real problem in this combat system is that things get kind of old after a while, because you fight mainly the same enemies throughout the game. Some added variety in enemy types (as well as some larger scale or slightly more difficult fights) would have gone a long way towards making this a truly epic first person action game.
Another issue is level and quest design. There are side quests which can be found on job boards usually located in the same area where you upgrade and buy things. The problem is that these side quests just have you going through areas that you've either already been through, or places that look exactly the same as somewhere you've already been through. While the game technically looks nice, and even the art style is fairly distinct and interesting, the environments tend to be sort of barren and boring.
In theory, Red Steel 2 is an action game with a well designed combat system that is fluid and fun, even if the other parts of the game are somewhat lacking. In reality, Red Steel 2 is a game with a well designed combat system that is held back a bit too much by boring plot, environments, characters, and enemies. That being said, I did enjoy the time I spent playing Red Steel 2, and feel as though it was worth the price of entry.
