Red Faction II

"Many advantages over the original, but many shortcomings as well."

Many people remember the first Red Faction, the innovative FPS that seemed to shatter the trend of many modern FPS, wherein there's almost no story and little to the game-play. Now, the sequel has come along, and as is usual with sequels, it was greatly hyped and anticipated. But, how does it truly hold up to the original? And how does it stand as a FPS on its own?

GRAPHICS: 9/10

Simply put, the graphics in this game are amazing. They are leaps and bounds beyond most other games on the market today. The environments are stunning, realistic, and beautiful to behold. From military compounds, to urban warzones, and bridges spanning large rivers, the environments all look absolutely incredible. A lot of attention was paid in the detail of this game, and it shows. The environments of the future look just like one would expect them to, and help to set the perfect mood for the game. And the character design and look is absolutely incredible. Seeing the Nano-Elite Soldier for the very first time is almost awe-inspiring. My only complaint with the visuals is that sometimes things can get a bit slow as far as framerate goes. It never gets choppy or pixelated, but it's noticeably slow at times. A minor interference though, you probably won't even notice. It hardly takes away from the otherwise perfect visuals.

SOUNDS: 9/10

The audio in RF2 is also amazing. Every gunshot and explosion sounds real, almost as if it was happening in your living room. But the sound effects, as great as all of them are, are nothing compared to the music and the voice acting. I was VERY impressed with the voice acting in this game. It's not perfect or great, but compared to every other videogame that I've played with V.A. (Resident Evil's, FFX, SoF) it's nice. Chancellor Sopot's voice sounds pretty incredible, and it's actually almost SCARY! The rest of the characters are voiced pretty nice too, especially Shrike and Molov, being voiced by Hollywood actors whose names I forget. The only voices I didn't really like all that much are Repta's and Alias', but they're about average as far as videogames go. The music in RF2 fits perfectly...quiet and ambient when you're sneaking, and fast paced and heavy when you're in the heat of battle. But it's never overly noticeable and doesn't get in the way of the game, which is the way music should be. You'll like it, but you won't know you're hearing it until you actually try and focus on it. It adds perfectly to the game though, along with the rest of the impressive sounds.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10

Here's where some of the problems come in. Don't get me wrong, this game is great, and it's a lot of fun to play. But just when you start getting used to it and enjoying it to the fullest, it's over. Took me about 4-5 hours. I was upset, because I was *really* getting into it by then and BOOM! it's done. Replay Value is pretty high though, since you'll probably want to unlock the concept art and all of the movies and galleries (as well as the multiple endings) But there's a few things I didn't like about the gameplay. It's less of a FPS, and more of an arcade shooter at times, where you're facing wave after wave of infinite (yes, infinite) enemies with guns a blazing. Ammo is never a problem though, which kind of takes away the difficulty of trying to conserve it. There are some boss battles, but they're very anti-climactic and unrealistic (15 rail gun shots through the chest on a human opponent? Sorry, but no.) Although there are three difficulty levels, they aren't that different at all, and really don't seem much different from each other. The difference between easy and hard is how long you have to keep your weapons on full-auto to take someone down. Still though, it's a lot of fun to play, and most will enjoy it. But what about geo-mod, the system unique to the first RF? It's back, but barely. You hardly ever have to actually use it to progress, and when you do, you're straight out told that you need it. Rarely can you just goof around and blast through random walls like you could in the first. It's still fun, but it just isn't there as much. Vehicles are back, but 2 of them are basically ride alongs where you man the gun, and the other 2 are underused. More use of them would have been nice, since they're fun, and they break up the game-play nicely.

STORY: 5/10

Don't let the low score set you back. The story isn't horrible by any means, just boring and average. Hey, it IS a FPS, so what do you expect? The main idea is: You are Alias, a nano-enhanced warrior out to overthrow the evil regime of Chancellor Sopot for his crimes against humanity. Very reminiscent of Stalin in WW2 actually. However, there IS a little twist thrown in about halfway through the game, which adds something to the game (although it doesn't really affect the gameplay or means of progress at all) Sometimes the missions and story seem rushed, as you hurriedly rush from one objective to the next with loose ends left dangling and not too much dialogue to explain what's going on. The story is more of a backseat element to the game...nothing great, just there to justify the action. What do you expect from a FPS though?

MULTI-PLAYER: 5/10

In comparison to some of the other FPS out there, the multi-player in RF2 is very lacking. The # of bots and human players is restricted to six total, which kind of stinks. Since most of the weapons are fairly similar, you really don't have much diversity to use here (about 5 or 6 of the machine guns and SMG's are just re-designed concepts of the same weak, rapid fire SMG) You can create your own bot to go against, which is pretty cool, but not all that exciting. I thought that the multi-player was very lacking and could have been much better. It gets VERY slow at times too, which is NOT cool. If you're looking for a FPS solely for multi-player, then steer away! Go buy Halo or Timesplitters 2 if you want multi-player, because this just isn't worth it.

OVERALL: 6/10

The very short length of the game, tedious game play, and shallow multi-player really take a lot away from what could have been the best FPS on the markets. I would have loved another 2 hours of story even. I recommend that you RENT this game before buying it, because hey, $50.00 is a lot to shell out for a game. Keep in mind that the story mode is VERY short and the multi-player isn't all that great. It's a great game and a lot of fun to play, but not really worth buying.

TRY INSTEAD:
- Timesplitters 2
- Medal of Honor: Frontline
- Deus Ex
- Halo

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/02, Updated 11/07/02