Red Faction II

"I guess a good rent for the Thanksgiving holiday"

--------Introduction
Red Faction is probably the definition of FPS, with no deviations from the nature of an FPS. I'm not overly fond of first person shooters, but I was rather surprised when I picked this game up. I brought it home, popped it in, and proceeded to play a few missions. Then I got bored and went board surfing on GameFAQs. I went back to it later, played a little bit more, then got bored again. It may be because I have a low attention span, or something else, but I just thought I would include that possible turn of events if you decide to play this game.
--------Graphics 7/10
The graphics are all right, nothing phenomenal. Sometimes it gets kind of dark, but usually you can tell what you are doing. The environments were pretty, the characters nice, and every thing is pretty smooth. But none of the graphics seemed to push the power of the PS2. I kept waiting for maybe an extreme cut scene, or a new vehicle, or something to add some nice visual effects, but nothing really sets this apart from many other FPS games available lately. Bottom line, all right graphics, but nothing original.
--------Story 7/10
I guess this is the most surprising part of the game. It does stand out, story wise, from most other shooters.

You take the role of Alias, a Nano-tech soldier out for the blood of Sopot. Sopot is a dictator, who rules Earth with an iron fist, and has made for the death of Alias and friends. Sopot has apparently been making crimes against humanity, messing with DNA and such, to create enhanced soldiers. So Alias, joins more Nano enhanced soldiers out for Sopot, who form the rebel group Red Faction...on Earth...not Mars......right....
A few hours into the game there is a huge plot twist, which is why I gave the plot a higher score. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, you'll just have to find out for yourself if you are that interested.

--------Game play/ Controls 6/10
The controls can be extremely awkward at first, one of the analog sticks controls your movement while the other controls the view and cross hair. I suppose you will get used to it, but it could have been way better. You switch weapons with fair ease, you can simply cycle through you weapons inventory with square and circle. Jumps there, you get night vision, blah blah blah. Again here, same old FPS stuff. I also have to complain about how when you shoot an enemy they don't react aside from dyeing. Plug a few hole in them and the maybe grunt or scream, but don't show that they are hurt until they drop dead. The ability to run, and shoot and turn all at the same time was nice, though. The multi player doesn't add much, but maybe an inkling of fun to the game.

One kind of disappointment was the geo-mod system. In case you don't know, it is a feature which allows the player to blow apart the level, whether it be walls, cars, doors whatever makes up the level. It was supposed to be this great thing, but not every wall was geo-modable, not even half.

--------Sound/Audio 6/10
I don't even remember the music to tell you the truth. I do remember the voice overs. Those were fluid, and convincing, and they got some famous guy I had never heard of before to do a voice. In my opinion, music is a seller to me in a video game. The voice overs are the only thing keeping this score above a five, and I still don't know if it deserves a six.

--------Over all 6/10
Buying this game isn't necessary, just renting it. Good for a few days, maybe a multi player match with a bud, but other than that, I just don't see a reason to have this in my collection. Not even a 7 day rental is necessary, unless you are shooting for all endings. All in all, just give this game a chance, maybe you will enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/02, Updated 12/01/02