I did leave some things out but I really wanted to finish this review within a day.
Red Faction is a first-person shooter video game that was released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh by THQ and Volition. It was later ported to, that piece of marketing fail, the Nokia N-Gage by Monkeystone Games.
The Story:
Red Faction takes place on Mars in the 22nd century, more specifically around the year 2158.
Earth's minerals are being depleted and humans need more of them to survive. The vast Ultor Corporation runs the mining operation on Mars. The living conditions are deplorable, Human rights for the miners are few and a disease called "The Plague" is running rampant throughout the colony with no known antidote available - predominantly within the confines of the mine complex. Parker, a downtrodden miner, came to Mars to make a new start in his life - taken in by the promises and advantages Ultor has to offer in the mines of Mars. After a routine day in the mine with the typical aggression toward miners and cramped living conditions and poor nutrition, he witnesses the spark that starts a rebellion when a security guard abuses a miner at the end of his shift and heartlessly kills him. [Source: Wikipedia]
Parker takes up arms, with the help of Hendrix, a rebellious Ultor security technician who guides Parker through the complex. Hendrix contacts Parker shortly after the start of the rebellion over Parke's suit's communication system. The leader behind the rebellion is a woman by the name of Eos (most likely named after the Titan goddess of the dawn). Eos sends messages to the miners asking them to take up arms against Ultor.
I wont ruin the whole story for you guys but the game literally has you go from under the crust of Mars to space and back down the the surface.
Gameplay:
One of Red Faction's selling points was with the Geo-Mod engine. Geo-Mod stands for Geography Modification. This pretty much means that you can destroy terrain in real time. This can be used to explore levels, mostly in the mines, to find hidden paths/shortcuts and extra weapons. When you use explosives they create what is known as "empty space", basically a hole is created the size of the explosion. The Geo-Mod engine is always used in multiplayer to tunnel making short cuts to enemy bases in CTF matches or creating caves (for camping mostly).
The Geo-Mod engine is actually limited in the the single player campaign as the game has certain areas used to halt the player's progression. Here's an example: at the beginning of the game where you have to escape the mines. There is a part where you have to go across a catwalk while destroying the bridge that a tank is crossing. (Please, don't ask me why there's a tank in a mine. I don't know) Before you reach the catch walk there is area that the tank enters the tunnel to cross the bridge. After the tank go through the tunnel a door locks while means you can't go that way. But ever the explorer, I tried. And well, after blasting away at the wall for a minute of so I noticed I wasn't progressing any further. But while there are some materials you can destroy there are also some things you just can't. Like in the office level, you can't destroy the cubical walls.
And you can also drive vehicles such as jeeps, tanks and mini-attack-helicopters.
EDIT: RF is also one of the first console FPS games, that I recall, to have the two tier health system; Armor and Health.
Controls:
Red Faction uses controls similar to that of Halo, though I should note right here that RF came out about six months before Halo.
Weapons
You have the basic assortment of FPS weapons. The pistol, shotgun, SMG, assault rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, remote charge, flame thrower, sniper rifle, and frag grenade. And there are also some new weapons to use. The Rail Driver (in other words a rail gun), the Precision Rifle (a semi-automatic rifle that fires and explosive round), and the Fusion Rocket Launcher (Red Faction's version of the BFG). As well as two melee weapons, a baton used by the guards and also a riot shield.
All weapons, with the exception of the riot shield, remote charge and fusion rocket launcher, have an alternate fire. The assault rifle and machine gun uses burst and automatic fire. The shotgun has a automatic secondary fire. The rifles' SFs are the scopes obviously, as well as the rail driver which allows the player to see though walls. The rocket launcher has a heat seek mode, but I never noticed the damn thing working. The SMG has two ammo types which accounts for it's firing modes. The flamethrowers fuel canister can also be used as an incendiary grenade as well. And the frag grenade can be timed.
One thing I should note is that the remote charge can be used to play on enemies. Which thus makes them run around like decapitated chickens. And the rocket launchers have angle trajectory, so in other words, if you shoot a rocket into the air it will come back down.
Mulitplayer:
The PS2 version of Red Faction doesn't have online multiplayer as it came out just a few months before online capability. On the PS2 you have split-screen mulitplayer which features bots. On the PC and Mac you of course have the online multiplayer that should come with a game like this. Multiplayer is very flawed in that there are numerous exploits be a dick and use. This is obviously due to the lack of server-side authority. There were only two officially patches released of the game and three, well five, third party patches released. The third party patches, Pure Faction and Crystal Faction have also fixed many hardware issues which were prominent on newer high end PCs.
It's also worth noting that in some RF multiplayer circles it is frowned upon to use the Rail Driver. So players wanting to pick up the game on the PC can rest easy that not everyone online are pricks. Though to be honest only hardcore fans still play it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you can choose your multiplayer skin. Unlike games like Halo or Call of Duty you get to choose out of a number of in-game character models to play as. The character models have no influence on gameplay though, but it's a nice touch.
Related Info:
Many fans of Red Faction are aware of Volition's prior series Decent. Volition had a prequel to Decent in the works called Decent 4, but it was canceled for unknown reasons. Some of the plot was incorporated into RF though, namely the protagonist Parker. And also the game's engine.
Conclusion:
Red Faction is one of the greatest FPS games I have ever played. It plays similar to Half-Life (which I should have noted earlier and some people will ***** about me placing that comparison here instead) and the pacing is really nice. The length of the game is also fairly decent as at two points that I could remember I thought the game would end, but to my surprise and delight it kept going on. The script for the game is rather short but the game is so nice you really wont care.
Final Score: 9/10
Final Complaints: To be honest I can't think of anything else but I did play this game years ago so if I can remember anything I'll edit the post.
Trivia:
I actually picked this game up on a whim at the store on day. I was 12 and I had $60 dollars in my pocket. I bought a Gameshark for my PS2 and had $30 left so I was browsing the games and this game caught my eye. So I picked it up. And it was one of the few great things that I ever bought on a whim.
Red Faction is a first-person shooter video game that was released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh by THQ and Volition. It was later ported to, that piece of marketing fail, the Nokia N-Gage by Monkeystone Games.
The Story:
Red Faction takes place on Mars in the 22nd century, more specifically around the year 2158.
Earth's minerals are being depleted and humans need more of them to survive. The vast Ultor Corporation runs the mining operation on Mars. The living conditions are deplorable, Human rights for the miners are few and a disease called "The Plague" is running rampant throughout the colony with no known antidote available - predominantly within the confines of the mine complex. Parker, a downtrodden miner, came to Mars to make a new start in his life - taken in by the promises and advantages Ultor has to offer in the mines of Mars. After a routine day in the mine with the typical aggression toward miners and cramped living conditions and poor nutrition, he witnesses the spark that starts a rebellion when a security guard abuses a miner at the end of his shift and heartlessly kills him. [Source: Wikipedia]
Parker takes up arms, with the help of Hendrix, a rebellious Ultor security technician who guides Parker through the complex. Hendrix contacts Parker shortly after the start of the rebellion over Parke's suit's communication system. The leader behind the rebellion is a woman by the name of Eos (most likely named after the Titan goddess of the dawn). Eos sends messages to the miners asking them to take up arms against Ultor.
I wont ruin the whole story for you guys but the game literally has you go from under the crust of Mars to space and back down the the surface.
Dr. Capek is who created "The Plague". Capek has been experimenting with nanotechnology, and the Plague is a side-effect of injections at the miners' annual medical checkup.
Gameplay:
One of Red Faction's selling points was with the Geo-Mod engine. Geo-Mod stands for Geography Modification. This pretty much means that you can destroy terrain in real time. This can be used to explore levels, mostly in the mines, to find hidden paths/shortcuts and extra weapons. When you use explosives they create what is known as "empty space", basically a hole is created the size of the explosion. The Geo-Mod engine is always used in multiplayer to tunnel making short cuts to enemy bases in CTF matches or creating caves (for camping mostly).
The Geo-Mod engine is actually limited in the the single player campaign as the game has certain areas used to halt the player's progression. Here's an example: at the beginning of the game where you have to escape the mines. There is a part where you have to go across a catwalk while destroying the bridge that a tank is crossing. (Please, don't ask me why there's a tank in a mine. I don't know) Before you reach the catch walk there is area that the tank enters the tunnel to cross the bridge. After the tank go through the tunnel a door locks while means you can't go that way. But ever the explorer, I tried. And well, after blasting away at the wall for a minute of so I noticed I wasn't progressing any further. But while there are some materials you can destroy there are also some things you just can't. Like in the office level, you can't destroy the cubical walls.
And you can also drive vehicles such as jeeps, tanks and mini-attack-helicopters.
EDIT: RF is also one of the first console FPS games, that I recall, to have the two tier health system; Armor and Health.
Controls:
Red Faction uses controls similar to that of Halo, though I should note right here that RF came out about six months before Halo.
Weapons
You have the basic assortment of FPS weapons. The pistol, shotgun, SMG, assault rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, remote charge, flame thrower, sniper rifle, and frag grenade. And there are also some new weapons to use. The Rail Driver (in other words a rail gun), the Precision Rifle (a semi-automatic rifle that fires and explosive round), and the Fusion Rocket Launcher (Red Faction's version of the BFG). As well as two melee weapons, a baton used by the guards and also a riot shield.
All weapons, with the exception of the riot shield, remote charge and fusion rocket launcher, have an alternate fire. The assault rifle and machine gun uses burst and automatic fire. The shotgun has a automatic secondary fire. The rifles' SFs are the scopes obviously, as well as the rail driver which allows the player to see though walls. The rocket launcher has a heat seek mode, but I never noticed the damn thing working. The SMG has two ammo types which accounts for it's firing modes. The flamethrowers fuel canister can also be used as an incendiary grenade as well. And the frag grenade can be timed.
One thing I should note is that the remote charge can be used to play on enemies. Which thus makes them run around like decapitated chickens. And the rocket launchers have angle trajectory, so in other words, if you shoot a rocket into the air it will come back down.
Mulitplayer:
The PS2 version of Red Faction doesn't have online multiplayer as it came out just a few months before online capability. On the PS2 you have split-screen mulitplayer which features bots. On the PC and Mac you of course have the online multiplayer that should come with a game like this. Multiplayer is very flawed in that there are numerous exploits be a dick and use. This is obviously due to the lack of server-side authority. There were only two officially patches released of the game and three, well five, third party patches released. The third party patches, Pure Faction and Crystal Faction have also fixed many hardware issues which were prominent on newer high end PCs.
It's also worth noting that in some RF multiplayer circles it is frowned upon to use the Rail Driver. So players wanting to pick up the game on the PC can rest easy that not everyone online are pricks. Though to be honest only hardcore fans still play it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you can choose your multiplayer skin. Unlike games like Halo or Call of Duty you get to choose out of a number of in-game character models to play as. The character models have no influence on gameplay though, but it's a nice touch.
Related Info:
Many fans of Red Faction are aware of Volition's prior series Decent. Volition had a prequel to Decent in the works called Decent 4, but it was canceled for unknown reasons. Some of the plot was incorporated into RF though, namely the protagonist Parker. And also the game's engine.
Conclusion:
Red Faction is one of the greatest FPS games I have ever played. It plays similar to Half-Life (which I should have noted earlier and some people will ***** about me placing that comparison here instead) and the pacing is really nice. The length of the game is also fairly decent as at two points that I could remember I thought the game would end, but to my surprise and delight it kept going on. The script for the game is rather short but the game is so nice you really wont care.
Final Score: 9/10
Final Complaints: To be honest I can't think of anything else but I did play this game years ago so if I can remember anything I'll edit the post.
Trivia:
I actually picked this game up on a whim at the store on day. I was 12 and I had $60 dollars in my pocket. I bought a Gameshark for my PS2 and had $30 left so I was browsing the games and this game caught my eye. So I picked it up. And it was one of the few great things that I ever bought on a whim.
