A bold new direction for the RF series....and it works!!!
That's what they say right? That's exactly what I thought the 1st time I heard that they where turning Red Faction into a 3rd person shooter. Well, tell Bus Driver, AutoExer, Messenger and Cletus to sit this one out, because they're not coming along on this ride.
The 3rd installment of Red Faction takes place back where Parker and the red faction story began. Yup you guessed it, where going back to mars baby! This time you play as Alec Mason. A simple minded man who left Earth in search for an honest living on the red planet. Only to find out that the honest living he was promised was nothing but a lie. After watching his own brother get shot to death by the EDF (Earth Defense Force) he is left with no other option but to join the resistance. So before I ruin anything else for you, let's get down to business. How dose this game stack up to its predecessors?
This is an 3rd person open world shooter and when I say open world I mean open world. The amount of land you cover in this game is insane. But don't worry, there are plenty of vehicles at your disposal. Futuristic tanks, 6 wheeled mars rovers, Mechs and futuristic tanks just to name a few of your choices. The driving controls are simple and the vehicles handle very well except for the occasional roll over. Some of the vehicles also have mounted guns, which is always nice for those impossible situations this game often puts you in.
Yes, this game is far from easy. Many times you will be fighting what seems to be an entire army just to complete one mission. These epic battles will happen often. Side mission? Yes, there are side missions a plenty in this game and yes, these missions are equally has hard. So if your wanting to blow through a game and own everything in your way, stop reading this review and start looking for a different game, but if your looking for a challenge, then here you go.
The controls for this game are surprisingly crisp. The aiming mechanic is very fine tuned for this game and enables you to run'n gun with ease. If you'd rather swing your sledge hammer and shatter your foes bones, that works just as smooth as shooting. Yes, you can play this as a hack'n slash! Well, more like swing and destroy.
Now, to the star of this game. The Geomod technology. If it's a man made structure, it can be destroyed. No game dose destruction like this. A lot of your missions revolve around killing enemies then destroying the check point they where guarding. Now destroying towers and building doesn't go without it's spoils. After destroying a structure you can rummage through it to find scrap which is used as currency since money holds no effect for the red faction. In the since of time I'm going to sum up a lot of the parts of this game as follows.
Story: The base story is good, but this game lacks good story telling. Never did I feel an overwhelming since of revenge towards the EDF. It's almost as if they put all of there time into the game mechanics and the Geomod tech, a little more attention to the story would have been nice.
Graphics: Solid, nothing to call home about here. It runs smooth, with very few frame rate issues. At no point to the graphics hinder the game experience.
Online: You have 7 different game modes to choose from, many of which involve destroying bases and check points, who knew? There's no classes, all of the guns and power ups are spread out across the map, so combat is always fair. All though when some rocket launcher stalker is hovering in the sky raining hell down on you and your teammates you might think otherwise. My only real complaint here is that I wish there where more people online.
Overall this game is far from perfect, but is a chaotic adventure that is well worth the price of admission. Especially now since the price has dropped to $20.