Red Faction II

"A game that has improved in almost all aspects, except for the most important one."

After playing the first Red Faction on the PS2 I was more than delighted to hear that a sequel was to be made. All the possibilities: better graphics, more devastating weapons, cooler stages, and most important of all, a polished geo-mod system. This game met most of the requirements...aside from the most important one of all.

Story...

What's this? A shooter with a story? Although it isn't another Deus Ex, the story is decent and tolerable. It's pretty much about a team of rogue nano-enhanced soldiers, who each have their own characteristics and specialties, who try to take down a dictator who has gotten his hands on nano technology. The story does progress (*gasp) through cut-scenes and dialogue, quite well I must add, and they throw in some random twists to make sure you don't get too bored. Ya, the story is the classic ''good guy take down the bad guy who has potential to take over the world'' but who cares, it's an FPS.

7/10

Gameplay...

First, let me review the gameplay without touching on the destroyed geo mod system. I think it was done quite well with some interesting AI and arsenal of weapons. You pretty much have to get from point A to point B in all the levels without dying and the objectives just make it sound more interesting, but then again, there aren't many shooters that don't do this. While you progress through the game you get to experiment with different (and usually for powerful) weapons and test drive some vehicles. The health system is rather different, you have a small health bar and a bunch of health packs under it (3 at most), when your health bar reaches zero, a health pack is used and you're like brand new. It was pretty much a fancy way to represent your health. I didn't find the game too difficult (in fact, I've found most shooters easier ever since I got used to playing CounterStrike) as all you have to do is keep jumping and shooting and you should be fine. Multiplayer is quite the same as the last except for the lack of the geo mod, but like I said, I'll talk about it later. The only problem I had with some of the gameplay is the enemies. Some of them need to have two whole uzi clips into their masked faces before they finally succumb to death, which is not too fun to do.

Now, to talk about how they messed up the geo mod system, first, the not-too-bad. Now, in single player, the geo mod takes more of a role as you must break through some walss to progress whereas in the previous game you will probably only be demolishing the walls to find little secret items. That was pretty much the only good thing, now the ugly. Quite bluntly, geo mod hardly plays a role anywhere else. The places in which you can actually blow holes into are quite scarce and it's not much use to do so. In the first game, geo mod was apparent pretty much everywhere, you can blow yourself into a crevice a million hectares away from the battlefield and snipe people down as they curse after futile attempts to find you. This was the highpoint of pretty much the whole game as you marvelled at the distance you can journey. Now, there is none of that. Even if you find a vulnerable spot you can only go so far, plus, the chances of someone walking by you are slim to none.

Overall, the gameplay was improved but the one thing it needed was taken away, the geo mod system, now Red Faction II almost feels like a regular, generic shooter.

6/10

Graphics...

I have low standards for graphics, as long as I won't go blind by trying to find out which is the good guy and which is the bad guy and finally realizing those were by bullets, I'll be ok. The character's mouths do move during speech although it looks quite funny as they open their mouths as big as possible. There weren't many details in anything but it doesn't really matter, graphics don't make or break a game.

7/10

Sound...

I love the speech, it sounds quite authentic with it's emotion and unique accents. I love how the enemies taunt at you then slowly die a painful and loud death. The screaming is what you would normally hear from any other game and so are the sounds of you firing your weapons. Also, the menu screen has some dialogue in the background talking to you, but I never really listened to it, but it sounds cool. Overall, great sound, nothing extraordinary but it's great.

8/10

Replayability...

Without the geo mod of the multiplayer I sadly cannot find a reason to keep playing this game. The single player is good enough once and the multiplayer gets old quick. Overall, I can't find a reason within me to play this game again.

1/10

Buy, Rent, Trash?

Rent, the game is good to try to see the improvements but the lack of geo mod and the vapid multiplayer is no reason to buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/03