At first glance of the game, the visuals did seem to be quite impressive and nice to look at. Comparing to some other previous FPS, in some cases this was definetly a step up from the previous consoles. Almost everything in the environment was destructible at a gun shot and this was very precise. The action sequences can be quite impressive(especially through high explosions that is extremely impressive through sound and sight) as you shoot your way all over the place, not only will you take down your enemies but also destroy anything the bullet passes. The FP gun had a very glossy effect and incredible animation through its gun shots and reloads. Although aside from atmospheric and impressive environment, in other cases after a while you will notice that Red Steel also reveals some dull scenery that was a little disappointing. Yet the most impressive scenes are without a doubt the explosions that can have all your enemies fly through the air that is pretty laughable and very enjoyable just to look at that makes up for some dull scenery.
The controls do take a bit of getting used to, even more than Call of Duty 3 as Red Steel is a Wii exclusive with some new control ideas. But when its done the aiming system can come to be extremely accurate. I never saw myself take down so many head shots so quickly. The aiming again like Call of Duty is basically the same yet much more precise. The gun and hand is fully 3D as turning left and right, your hand gun will be in different views. Also by simply rotating the wiimote left or right, causes your character to rotate his gun in that position. Unlike Call of Duty, changing weapons is done by pressingy the D-Pad. The Nunchuck is used for opening doors and reloading, both, by flicking forward. Yet when you arm yourself with a grenade, flicking the nunchuck forward causes him to throw at a distance while flick from down to frwd causes him to roll the grenade across the ground. When it comes to a FPS control system for Wii, this was a dam fine job yet unfortunetly, here comes the sword fighting.
At first I was looking forward to this attempt as I was expecting so much more. At first glance it didnt seem all that bad. When you enter a sword battle, you arm yourself automatically with a sword. You face your enemy in a sword fight face to face. The first few fights was easy as you simply swing the wiimote for to slash him apart but eventually when your enemies get harder you will begin to realise that the sword battles arent as free fighting as you think. Once you defeat him you can either let him go(swing the nunchuck) or kill him(swing the wiimote). Letting them go will gain you extra points. When in battle you dont have control to walk freely as this is done automatically while face to face. While against harder enemies the battles are less sword slashes yet it seems very turned based as you have to wait for him to attack to take advantage. The sword slashes are done simply by swinging the wiimote left, right, up, down or any diagonal direction. No forward slashes or stabs. Block by swinging the nunchuck just as he attacks or dodge using the analogue. There are also combo attacks that uses both wiimote and nunchuck yet doesnt seem to be attacking with a sword but just pointless motion movements. In some cases, this sword fighting can be extremely frustrating.
When it comes to just FPS, this is a great attempt with some new unique controls, great ideas and decent visuals with a tough yet standard difficulty rating. Unfortunately, with these silly and annoying sword battles Ubisoft are adding a more frustrating and irritating gameplay within the sword battles that we would all be better off without.