Red Faction
FPS : 1-2 players : PS2 Memory Card : Analogue Dual Shock
Result : 6 - solid Half Life FPS
 | Graphics: 6 - deformable and functional |
| FMV : NA - prerendered |
| Sound : 7 - meaty gun sounds |
| Music : 5 - innocuous |
| A.I. : 7 - good simulated AI and scripting |
| Lifespan : 6 - very reasonable story plus DM |
| Gameplay : 7 - action and adventure |
| Adrenaline : 5 - story makes it less intensive |
Red Faction has you playing a guy who decides to travel to Mars and become a miner as the pay and advertised benefits are good. Unfortunately all the Ultor Corp are dealing out is beatings and a double helping of hard work. The miners riot and the story unfolds of your tale to get justice, survive and escape. The other big thing Red Faction is known for is the Geo-mod engine which allows fully deformable environments, this basically means shooting effects the environment. If you have enough ammo you can bore holes through the walls, and you can cause stalactites to collapse, bridges to fall and towers to topple.
I guess the Geomod engine is doing a bit of work, and therefore the graphics aren't quite up to Q3R levels of detail, but the are quite nice looking and the people are well skinned. Sound is equally pleasing, again not the best but very solid and everything feels like it should, combined you get a very believable world.
The game is similar to Half Life, with scripted events occurring to keep the pace up, and has a healthy does of action sections and the seemingly compulsory stealth levels too. You also get to drive various vehicles, which is quite good fun, and there are of course various gadgets and weapons to collect and utilise. The deformable walls generally are only useful shooting at reasonable obvious locations, these often open up secret rooms, or alternate ways to avoid or engage the enemy. The AI is pretty functional, with the bots dodging, running for help and normally managing to act quite realistic. There are a couple of exceptions, if you slap an explosive charge on a guard they run about screaming, ok thats quite realistic you say, but since you control by remote when it detonates you can leave the poor guy running about indefinitely... You think he'd settle down after a bit and try to slap it off?!
Still Red Faction oozes quality and is a fun game for single player fragging. Timesplitters still rules the 4-player roost, but if you are lacking in friends this is the game to play until the likes of Project Eden or Soul Reaver appear. Trust no-one, save the big guns for when you need them.
Cheats/Hints:
none
