Red Steel Preview

Boasting one of the strongest launch line-ups to ever grace a videogame console, the Nintendo Wii truly has something for everybody come this Christmas. Leading the third-party charge with an astute sense of confidence is Ubisoft, sharing Nintendo's vision of the future, when the reception shown towards the Wii seems to have caught many other third-party publishers by surprise. Amidst the instantly enjoyable and highly accessible nature of titles such as Wii Sports and Wii Play, it's welcoming to see that traditional videogames are not being sacrificed on the Wii, with Ubisoft's Red Steel one of the highlights of the system to date in the fiercely popular first-person-shooter genre.

Making its debut at E3 in Los Angeles, the team from Ubisoft Paris were on hand at last week's Wii event held in London to demonstrate the latest version of the game in action. Unlike many of the other titles on display at the event, Red Steel was not playable, a decision allegedly due to the sheer difficulty of the current build. Although disappointing, the news should come as a great relief given the concerns expressed over its apparent ease at E3 - though we are hoping the Paris team has a close eye on the calendar, with less than two months to go until launch.

With a plot that focuses on the kidnapping of the main character's fiancé and the murder of her father, Red Steel takes players into the shadowy world of the Yakuza and the Tokyo underworld. With undeniable influences from Japanese cinema, Ubisoft are being coy when it comes to revealing too much about the plot at this stage.

The build at the event demonstrated how hard the team have been working since E3, with the introduction of new weapons, features and techniques, most notably the adjustments made to sword fighting in the game since we last saw it at E3. Taking place in a rain-soaked environment, the demonstration followed the main character's attempt to track down a character named Fugu, working his way through the kitchens of a Japanese restaurant, dealing death and questioning other characters along the way.

Continuously working away on the control system, the latest iteration finds players taking control with both the Wii remote and the Nunchuk controller. With movement, jump and controllers assigned to the latter, the Wii remote governs the players' ability to aim and shoot. Like much of the game, the build featured numerous enhancements to gun combat, the most obvious being a forward motion of the Wii remote used to activate the zoom-in function instead of the button press used before. In this Free-Aim mode, time is slowed down and players have the ability to either put enemy characters down for good, or incapacitate them and make them surrender by shooting the gun out of their hands and making sure they kneel down on the floor before they have a chance to escape.

The representative from Ubisoft Paris took a lot of satisfaction from the introduction of the Automatic Shotgun in the current build, a new weapon that epitomises the relentless and powerful nature of the game - and does a good job of demonstrating the sheer carnage that can be raged on the gameâ??s environments. The new build also introduces body armour to the game, with a gauge underneath the health bar depicting this; though we're unsure whether the game relies on hackneyed pick-up's or something a little more creative.

The biggest draw behind the demonstration was to see how the team have developed sword combat in the subsequent months since E3, along with addressing some of the criticisms raised after the game's debut. Although not entirely dynamic, swordplay in the game appears to be a lot more responsive then it was at E3, with the representative suggesting that aimlessly waving the remote around is a quick way to die, but at the same time, making sure the player doesn't have too much freedom to prevent over-complicating matters. Swordplay also incorporates special techniques demonstrated at the event, with both the "Hammer" and "Cross-Over" on display. Requiring an up-and-down motion on both controllers, the "Hammer" is essentially a powerful downward blow that is enough to disarm an opponent. The "Cross-Over", however, appears slightly more elegant and a means to opening up the defence of an opponent, with a natural motion of both hands passing over one another to create a sideways slashing effect with the katana and kodachi. Thankfully it does seem apparent that Ubisoft Paris are determined to ensure elements of finesse, skill and timing govern sword fighting in Red Steel, a crucial factor in determining whether the game succeeds in its portrayal of the player as a trained martial artist, or mindlessly flapping around in a similar manner to the latest EyeToy title.

What continues to stand out from the E3 demo earlier in the year is the AI of the enemy characters you will come across, particularly the natural motions, highly believable covering, and combat techniques that they employ. Vivendi Games PC (and forthcoming next-gen) first-person-shooter, F.E.A.R, has rightfully been held up by the team behind Red Steel as the standard to aim for â?“ from what we've seen they're certainly on their way to achieving this.

With final development kits the team at Ubisoft Paris is currently putting the finishing touches to Red Steel, optimising and playtesting to ensure Red Steel not only looks like one of the most impressive Wii titles at launch, but also provides one of the most entertaining launch experiences.

Red Steel has duly become a showcase title for the Nintendo Wii, highlighting the possibilities it provides for hardcore gamers along with the new audience that Nintendo is targeting.

Bearing the weight of expectation surrounding the possibilities of what Wii brings to first-person-shooters, we could not think of anybody more suited to the job. Although the brief demonstration did little to satisfy our craving for more, the only question seems to be whether Ubisoft Paris can tie it all up together in the two months until launch.