What do you get when you mix Half Life, Total Recall and tunnel making? Answer: One of the PS2's best shooters.
Red Faction follows the story of an oppressed group of miners underneath Mars surface, who are being manipulated by the evil Ultor corporation. You play as Parker, an earth man lured to Mars in hopes of making a good living as one of the miners. But Parker soon discovers that he's being deceived by Ultor, and many of the miners are dying from mistreatment and an unknown plague. A rebellion is started when one of the miners kills an Ultor guard, and you are instantly thrust into the conflict.
It can't be understated how heavily Red Faction was influenced by Total Recall for its Martian/miner theme, and Half Life for its lonely, but engaging battles against an overwhelming oppressive force. It plays like most fps games on the ps2, and its a linear corridor shooter. But what seperated Red Faction from all other console (or even pc) games at the time was its amazing terrain deforming technology called Geo Mod. Basically, it allowed you to blow holes or make tunnels out of most of the terrain in the game, such as rock walls, floors and ceilings. As long as you have the explosives or firepower necessary, you can literally tunnel your way through, around, or under locked doors, walls or gates -- something never before seen in a first person shooter, or any game for that matter. It's amazing that this game is now 10 years old, and no other game, with perhaps the exception of Fracture (which wasn't good) , has ever offered anything similar.
While Red Faction's Martian setting is intriguing, the story itself is pretty cookie cutter. It's you and a small band of miner rebels trying to take down the generic, {insert any menacing corporate name here} organization, and find out their true motives. There are sympathetic characters who communicate with you throughout the game via your headset, filling you in about Ultor, and giving obectives. There are boss like battles involving tanks and subs which you can also pilot, and fights against mech robot drones that are fun, and keep things from becoming samey and stale. The enemy a.i. isn't what I would call good. Tt definitely can't live up to something like Halo. The enemy tactics consist of them running back and forth and sideways behind walls and objects for cover, and when played on the hardest setting, it can get aggravating watching them repeat the same tactic over and over when you're trying to blow them away. The pacing of the game is done very well, particularly during the downtime moments where you aren't shooting. These quieter parts of the game involving simple puzzle solving reminded me of Half Life the most.
With the exception of some tricky aiming controls (worst when zooming), the combat is pretty enjoyable, and you have a good selection of weapons at your disposal. One of the weapons in particular, a remote detonator, is incredibly funny to use when thrown on an enemy. Watch him run around, screaming in horror right before you blow him to kingdom come. That never gets old. : ) You also have a tazer-like rod to zap the bad guys with, a few automatic machine guns, rocket launchers and pistols.
Red Faction graphics weren't cutting edge, even when the game released in 2001. Most of the characters and environments are fairly low poly count, and the game had a very blurry, dark look to it, requiring you to adjust the brightness level on your tv. If you have an HDTV, you'll definitely have to do some adjusting to get the picture to look even halfway decent. The frame is fairly stable, save for a few instances with lots of explosions involving Geo Mod.
The sound is one of Red Factions weakest elements. The weapon sounds and explosions are all pretty poor and unconvincing. Better sounding explosions and gunfire would have really complimented the awesome Geo Mod tech. The dialogue and voice acting isn't good , but it's serviceable.
There is an offline multiplayer component in the game allowing you to play alone or with one other person against 6 bots, but the maps are pretty bland, and the bots are either incredibly stupid or too good of a shot, depending on the level of difficulty. It's really not even worth trying with all the current gen shooters out,with superior bot battles like Killzone 2-3.
Red Faction is still a fun first person shooter. The Geo Mod tech is what steals the show. If you can bare with the extremely dated visuals, annoying enemy a.i. patterns and weak sound effects, there's fun to be found here. This game can be had for around $2.00, and it's probably still the best $2.00 fps you can find, even if it is ten years old. No other game at this price let's you make your own tunnels .