Red Faction II

"Well done Volition, better than the original"

I bought this game after preordering Grand Theft Auto: Vice City from Electronics Boutique and finding that the Australian release had parts that were going to be cut out (seeing as I live here).So I cancelled my preorder and bought this game instead having played the first game, which I found to, be awesome for a console FPS. I liked part one because of the ''Geo-mod'' engine in the game and it was also fun shooting bridges with men on them fall to their deaths. Part 2 however, out does part 1 by a mile.

GAME PLAY: 10
Red Faction 2 is more fast pace like ''Quake 3'', the action is consistant throughout, your always on the move shooting and blowing people up and considering everything that happens. There are no slowdowns. I've read that some people are complaining that they can no longer tunnel with the revamped ''Geo-mod'' engine I however don’t see a problem with this when you can shoot object like electricity poles to land on enemies(its so much fun). Well point is that the game is faster, more challenging (a good thing) and the difficulty can be adjusted anyway. And the environment can be altered to bring down enemies. The other thing about this game is the multi player you are given the option of customizing bots to your liking such as their accuracy and aggressiveness. Multi player games are also customizable, never have I seen so many tweaks in a game (besides from armored core2) and there are 40 maps to frag your friends in and power ups like slow motion to add to the fun. Volition has done well in both the single player campaign and multi player.

GRAPHICS: 8.5
Much better than the first and one of the best looking FPS around on a console and in some ways better than ''medal of honor:frontline''.The models are well detailed and the backgrounds are really cool the stage when your in the city assisting the reed faction is full of life, with people running around killing each other walls being blown off buildings and a good job has been done with the lighting, the textures are done well the sky is cool as if polluted from all the fighting going around in the game's universe as if it was almost real, Red Faction 2, truly out outdoes the first game in the graphical aspect.

SOUND: 7
I haven’t really paid much attention to this because of the fast paced action that goes on. But it’s been done quite well it’s not the best. The voice acting is quite good. The music is fairly decent but they could have put something that better suits the game. Just don’t expect too much. (It could have been done better)

RE PLAYABILITY: 10
This game rocks, though the single player is short you could play it again at least two more times, or go up against your friends in multiplayer. So about a month or more

TO BUY/RENT:
If you liked ''Quake3'' or games with really fast paced “serious” action and loads of bad guys to blow away then you should definitely BUY this game. If however you are looking for something less serious and more comical/funny then you could try ''Time Splitters 2''.I haven’t played that yet but I hear its really good, but RF2 is definitely a keeper in anyone’s PS2 collection. You might not be able to tunnel anymore but that doesn’t matter as I believe the geo-mod engine has been implemented for the better, given the different environments and pace of the game. Some elements could have definitely been done better such as the sound but you won’t notice it unless you’re paranoid and everything needs to be perfect. None the less a really good title.
OVERALL RATING: 10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/02, Updated 11/24/02