Red Faction II

"Those of you who have been thinking of buying X-Box for Halo should look at this."

I was recently at my local Circuit City returning a game that I had gotten 2 copies of for my birth day. Browsing through their section I noticed this a game that had been getting pretty good scores and that had looked interesting in the few articles I had read about it. Besides it was on sale for ten bucks so even if it was only ok I'd still get my money's worth. After playing for an hour however I was blown away. The graphics were impressive and although a little slow or choppy at times looked great, the soundtrack solid as was the voice acting. The thing that really got me however was the weapon and level design. Anyway I'll cover all that and more in the actual review below.

Graphics: 9.5
These are up with MP and Halo in terms of quality its very cool to see enemies get hit by a grenade and just leave there legs or to blow a hole in a wall. The models all have high polygon counts too. It loses the .5 for occasional slow down or choppiness.

Audio:10
The BGM (when not drowned out by your enemies screams and assorted explosions) is definitely solid I won't be humming much of it but it isn't annoying and the tracks are a good length plus it never seems out of place. The sounds are great some of the most atmospheric I've heard even counting RE games every explosion, bullet, ricochet, and gunshot sounds excellent. What really impressed me however was the sheer number and quality of voice samples. Its pretty rare to hear a repeat and they are all crisp. The voicing varies from average to great and its well written to there's even some humor although some of it may be a bit over-sadistic.

Control:8
Since they're fully customable you should feel pretty good. However I have 2 complaints. 1. There are only enough buttons for one weapon cycle key. Near the end when you've got about 20 weapons it can be a pain to go through them all. I wouldn't have minded even if they put them on the start menu or had holding R while pressing it go in reverse or something. 2nd when you're in vehicles a few just don't feel right. The y button while fine for gun reloading doesn't fit for dive in submarine to me.

Gameplay:10
The meat of RF2 is its SP so I've decided to grade it separate from the MP. The level design is probably the best I've seen. It may be tied with my other all time FPS Dark Forces for PC but regardless of how they compare this is incredible easily blowing Half Life and Halo away. The objectives both normal and hidden are complex enough that they can require a little thought but you won't spend 20 minutes trying to get to the next area. The enemies vary from basic security grunts to well armored soldiers (and I mean takes a couple of shots to kill with the average weapon in the head armored) to cyborgs/mutants plus half a dozen vehicles thrown in for fun. They come at you with every one of the games impressive weapons from pistols to rocket launchers. Speaking of which them weapon design is also on the Dark Forces/Best Ever level. Now adays many games might have several near identical weapons or give every weapon a secondary fire but have many be useless. RF2 however is innocent on both counts. The weapons are one of the most varied sets I've seen counting TS2. You've got the obligatory pistol, lock-on rocket launcher, and assault rifle but you also have some fancy stuff. How about weapons that can target and/or fire through walls. Dual wielding of smaller weapons like pistols is allowed and you have the ability to use 1 of 5 different grenades while holding all but a few weapons. There's also the vehicle sections. These aren't like Halo vehicle's where you jump in at any time but when you do get them they're a lot of fun. The first one you get it the gunship. You'll man a turret equipped with lock-on missiles and a machine gun while someone else flies. Along the way you'll take out other flyers or spray attackers on balconies or inside buildings. Next you'll spend some time in the tank. Its almost the same just replace the missiles with a tank gun and get rid of the flying part and again you're only the gunner. Next however is the Battle Armor you have full control of this bad boy. Anyone who saw the old show Exo-squad or is a fan of Battle Tech should picture an e-frame or elemental but minus the flying ability. You have full control of this and there's even a cool canopy closing sequence. You're far more durable than on foot and you can kill people by running into them (presumably you use you're battle suit's strength to knock them down and step on them) you also have Dual Miniguns, an incendiary grenade launcher and a rocket launcher. Finally you have a submarine that you can both pilot and shoot in. Jump and crouch let you rise or dive and you have dual torpedo launchers for defense. In vehicle or on foot the AI is solid making good use of cover and working as a team both with and against you. Finally you have Geo-mod. The basic idea behind Geo-mod is simple make it so you can create or destroy cover and paths by blowing stuff up. This is somewhat limited so you can't for instance bypass a whole level by blowing through walls or prevent yourself from succeeding by making a hole in the wrong place but it can unlock good shortcuts or secrets and is sometimes necessary to continue.

Story:7
Well I don't want to spoil it but its decent especially for an FPS which have a habit of having a story of Group x attacks Group y and you as soldier dude must win single handedly. The game begins with you a nano-tech enhanced soldier capturing some special nano-tech stuff (actually I believe you may still be non-nanoised in the first level and you're stealing the stuff to ''proccess'' yourself and other soldiers) for Chancellor Sopot. Later after he's made a bunch of you super soldiers he decides if you revolt you'll be to much of a threat so all but 6 (including you) are killed. These 6 manage to escape and join Red Faction who is fighting against the oppressive Chancellor. Although you do not need to have played it there are about half a dozen minor references to RF1 that pop up here and there now and again. That's all I'll say for now since I don't want to spoil it.

Multi-player:8
MP is pretty much your standard FPS MP. You have CTF, Capture and Hold, and Deathmatch time games and a few more creative ones. My biggest gripe is that the maps are a little small and not quite as good as those for TS2 for example. Still if you're tired of TS2 or just want a good deathmatch you'll have loads of fun

So there you have it my review of Red Faction 2. This is definitely one of if not the best FPS ever and definitely better than anything available on GCN right now.

Buy/Rent/Avoid like Black Plague
I'd say buy unless you don't like FPSes much than you may want to rent.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/04