Red Faction II

"A great follow-up to the original Red Faction....."

Gameplay- 8/10

One thing you may have heard about Red Faction 2, is the enhanced Geo-Mod.....this is simply an overstatment. The things that made Geo-Mod so great are absent, and are not integrated everywhere....ALMOST the only time you can use Geo-Mod, is when you are directed to. Take the Public Information Building's Admin Area for example; There is a deadly Stationary Turret at the end of the asile of Cubicles....if you rush it you die.....so one of your squad members, Tangier, suggests you take the indirect approach....so simply, you use your Nano Grenade Launcher to blast hole in the cubicle walls, until you get behind it and blow it up. One other thing you may have heard about is the Dual-Handed Weapons...this is a great thing to add, especially when you have Dual Nano Machine Pistols.....they simply kick ass. Speaking of Weapons, a lot of the Weapons from Red Faction 1 are back, including the ever-popular Precision Rifle......the Precision Rifle in Red Faction 2, also known as the NPSR-755 Precision Sniper Rifle, is a huge improvement over the Precision Rifle in RF1......also, for you Fusion Rocket Launcher fans out there, there is the W.A.S.P., which is short for Wide Area Saturation Projectile....the W.A.S.P. is Red Faction 2's equivalent of Red Faction 1's Fusion Rocket Launcher, but it doesn't have as much overkill to it as the Fusion Rocket Launcher did, but to make up for it, it has a 6 round clip and a Heat-Seeking Lock-On feature.

Story- 9/10

Enter Alias.....the Demolitions Expert in an Elite, Nano-Enhanced Squad of super-soldiers. Basically, the Chancellor of the Commonwealth, Victor Sopot , decides to create your squad to control groups like the Red Faction. Unfortunately, Sopot decides to destroy you to make way for a new, and better version of you, rendering you renegades who fight for your lives along with the Red Faction.

Audio/Video- 9/10

The first thing you will notice about the Graphics in RF2 is that they are much cleaner, and much more sharper than those of RF1. The framerate runs at a very smooth rate of 60 frames per second, which makes for the best framerate to get in an FPS. While the graphics may not be as clean and sharp as TimeSplitters 2, the graphics are still very nice, with little slowdown. Plus, they are even cleaner for those of you with an S-Video setup. The sound is good, sporting tense music at tense parts of the game, and calm music at calmer areas.

Replayability- 8/10

Even though it has been said that Red Faction 2 has a great Multiplayer, it just seems that the levels get boring and repetitive after a while....but some levels, such as 'Hangman' for CTF, and 'Throne Room' for any other mode, are very fun to play, and even if its just you and bots, they can be quite challenging on 'Hard'. Still, with such games as TimeSplitters 2 out there, its hard not to think about them while playing Multiplayer, but if you are looking for an entertaining game with a very solid Single Player mode, multiple endings, and enough weapons to start World War III, then you should definitely get this.

To Buy or to Rent?- BUY!

With such games as TimeSplitters 2 out there, its hard not to think about them while playing Multiplayer, but if you are looking for an entertaining game with a very solid Single Player mode, multiple endings, and enough weapons to start World War III, then you should definitely sign on for this revolution.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/02, Updated 12/01/02