[img width=550 height=754]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/redsteel2cover.jpg[/img]Red Steel 2 is an odd sequel. First off it has absolutely nothing to do with the first game other than sharing the same genre. It fixed almost every problem that the first game suffered from, but at the same time cut the only good thing out that the first one did well.
I remember being quite excited to try out the sword combat that was boasted in Red Steel when it and the Wii first launched. And then I remember finding it to be much less fun than I expected it to be. With the help of the Motion Plus accessory Red Steel 2 was able to fix most of the problems with the sword play of the first game. Not only did they fix the sword issues they made the sword a strangely robust weapon throughout the game. By the end of the game there are only a maximum of 4 different guns available to your character (which are conveniently mapped to the 4 directions on the D-Pad). That seems like a very small selection. Luckily the sword more than makes up for it. Right off the get go you can do what you would expect to be able to do with a sword: Slash, stab, cut, swing it wildly, etc. It’s not perfect 1:1 motion, but it’s fairly close, and it does take notice of how hard you are swinging it. Armored enemies for instance need a much harder hit to break into than un-armored enemies for instance.
[img width=700 height=393]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/RedSteel2Gun.jpg[/img]Now to make the sword more interesting than that you'll learn several different moves with it as the game moves along. Some are simple tricks such as dashing behind and enemy to skewer them from behind, others are more practical like blocking bullets ala Jedi style, but my favorite swordplay are the finishing moves. Killing enemies in flashy and unpractical methods using finishing moves with your sword not only looks pretty sweet, but nets you extra cash to spend on upgrades. The crazier and more complicated the move the more money in your pocket.
Each level during the game offers you several missions to finish before moving onto the next one. Some of the missions are mandatory in order to move the story along, but several are optional and sport large cash prizes for completion. Basically you’re trying to kill the guy that murdered your entire clan, and he has control over a small army and you only have a tiny handful of friends to back you up. The story is fairly cliché, but the setting and art style help set the game apart. Red Steel 2 places you in a Wild West style setting, but with a very strong Japanese flavor to it. The buildings and people are very eastern looking while the weapons, speech and background are quite western. There is also a unique blend of antiquity and modernism shown in the technology. For instance your weapons are all quite old fashioned in design and transportation like trains are still common. At the same time your communication expert has access to several computers and can talk with you via radio towers. It makes for some very interesting levels to explore.
Like most FPSs Red Steel 2 suffers from a fairly short campaign. It took me roughly 6 hours to complete and I'm far from a FPS guru. Here is the major downside comes. There is almost no reason to replay the game afterwards. For some reason they cut out the fantastic split-screen multiplayer that the first game had. Not only that there is no sort of new game + mode or any unlockables. There is a challenge mode that lets you replay any level you like and keeps track of your highest cash score. If you’re a highscore junkie this may appeal to you, but I find that FPS isn’t the best genre for pushing highscore records.
Not being one to play many FPS I found Red Steel 2 to be unique enough to keep me interested the entire way through. Not too long that I got bored and your character evolved enough during the game that it kept fresh the entire time. I would assume that people much more familiar with the genre may be less impressed than I was, but I found it to be extremely fun and simple. Because of the lack of replay value I would advise spending much on the game, but if you can find it for $15 or less (which shouldn't be hard), and have a Motion Plus it’s definitely worth picking up for a few sessions of fun.
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I agree with the skewering of the multiplayer, hell Red Steel had a pretty decent multiplayer mode. So I cannot understand why they would want to cut it out 
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The last line should read "Shouldn't be hard" instead of "should".
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@Crabmaster2000: You can edit your blogs. I fixed it for you this time though.
I remember the first Red Steel had so much hype and flopped, but I've heard very little about this one. I still haven't come across either at a good price yet though.
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After reading about this game's premise on one site or another some time back, I'm not so sure I'd be into it.
I doesn't help that, The Wild Bunch aside, I'm not really into the Western genre, be it movies or games.
But now that you've given it your blessing, I'll definitely give it a closer look...
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@NES_Rules
I see the first one for $5 at EB Games quite often and I think the second one is only $15 there right now.
I dont know why I didnt think to use the edit. Thanks for fixing that for me, I appreciate it.
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Still didn't play it, bought it as it was cheaper then just the motion plus pack.
maybe check it one day
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http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=E-132-S-01441-A&type=bf
by the way fun to see that the artwork is much more zoomed in then on the euro box
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@Crabmaster2000: I never go into game stores, maybe if I did once in a while, it would help :p
The closest I come to going in a game store is one local shop that sets up at the flea market to sell their overpriced classic games and a few current gen games.
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Love this game!
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