Red Faction (PS2 Review)

Mars. This red neighbor of our lush, green planet has been one of great speculation and drama since man first looked up into the dark curtain and realized that those pinpoints of light were something more than holes that the angels had poked into the shroud of night to keep watch upon humankind. This heavenly next-door neighbor has singly been the theme for more science fiction creations than any other body in the entire universe. Every author from Asimov to Zelazny has dabbled at some time or another in probing the depths of the strange red planet. Even the most infamous radio broadcast ever within the history of American radio concerned the planet Mars and of course I’m referring to Orson Wells’ radio drama of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds that was broadcast back in 1938. 

 

Science Fiction has blurred the lines of Science Fact to the point now where the public really isn’t sure where one part leaves off and the other begins. From way back in the age of humanity, the supposed Martian canals were proof that we were not alone in the solar system and even today space missions are probing the planet for evidence of a past civilization. Movies like Total Recall have explored the possibility that Mars was once the center of the solar system and humanity keep rolling right along hoping beyond hope that the proof that something more than ourselves populated our little corner of the universe.

Video games are no different from other forms of media. There have been games galore that tread on the red sands of the fourth planet from the sun and gamers have always come back begging for more. Well, THQ and Volition Inc. have heard the cries of the gaming public and decided to bring the Martian craze to the next-generation gaming platforms. Now take a deep breath of fresh air, as you are not going to taste anything but recycled junk for the next few days, and strap on your environmental suit’s helmet. We are about to trek to where many have dreamed, but no living man have ever ventured. We are off to Mars to explore the Red Faction.

Red Faction (RF) starts out innocently enough. You assume the personage of Parker, a more-than-a-little-naive kid in a man’s body. On a whim, he goes and joins the Ultor Mining Operation on Mars looking for a life of excitement and adventure and to also throw a monkey wrench into his parent’s plans for his future. Unfortunately, he actually finds it a bit more than the recruitment posters ever could have shown. Everything is not exactly as he expected to find it. Life off-planet is quite a bit different from what the advertisements announced. The barracks are filthy, the food is sparse and terrible, the beds and environmental suits are shared between different workers and tempers are beginning to reach a boiling point. In fact, the game begins just when the top blows off of the pot. You witness a guard attacking a fellow miner. The miner strikes back and both go down in a bloody heap. You grab up a control baton and revenge the death of a fellow worker. After the immediate smoke clears, you then realize that you have stepped into something moist and wet and it is more than hip deep. The Revolution of the workers has begun and now it is up to you to make it out of here in one piece.

Unlike most First-Person Shooters (FPS), Red Faction actually has an actual storyline that merits mentioning. The story progresses from the mundane average everyday kill-everything-that-moves to something of the more bizarre where alien lifeforms, or rather mutated miners affected by a mad scientist’s experiments, are streaking from the shadows to leap out and rip you limb from limb. There is also some extensive background information on the key characters of the Red Faction to be found in the instruction booklet that really brings the game to life beyond that of the average shooter. Volition Inc. really brought out the storytelling ability of their designers with Red Faction and it really would make a great big-screen movie with little to nothing else needed to make it to blockbuster status. 

Now, I’m sure that you would expect the environments to be bleak and overly exposed to the color red. Fortunately, that is nothing further from the truth. Believe it or not, the places that you will explore are full of color, both beneath and on top of the planet’s surface. Many of the levels take place within developed space station sections but there is a fair share of underground mines that need your attention. These places seem to suffer from an overly dark problem at first and can make it very challenging to find a way to progress to the next area. Nevertheless, Volition was nice enough to include a brightness control for the game that eliminates this possibly game-killing situation. After setting the meter a few notches to the right, you will have absolutely no problem in seeing everything that you need to see and progressing smoothly onward.

The in-game Heads-Up Display (HUD) keeps you completely in the game with little to no question about your status or whatever weapon you have equipped. Even though there is a ton of information shown, you never have to worry about it being cumbersome or blocking your view of the action. Moreover, when two-way communications come in from the other NPC’s (Non-Player Characters) during the story mode, you can still react to your surroundings and clearly see everything that is going on. The facial construction of the game’s characters look better than half decent, even in today’s age of digital enhancements, and the FMV (Full-Motion Video) segments only add to the allure of this space epic. Graphically, Red Faction has no real weak points to exploit.

When Parker is running around the red planet, he usually is garbed in a typical environmental suit. Not only does this give our hero added armor and protection from incoming fire, but it also enables him to traverse the multiple different environments with ease. This not only functions on land but also works just as well when swimming through the subterranean lakes that exist below the planet’s surface. However, this also plays an added difficulty for if his suit is shot to pieces while in a non-oxygen filled area he will not be able to survive for very long. There is not much to fear, however, as there usually are medical packs along with environmental suit repair pick-ups strategically placed in numerous storage areas on each of the levels. You can also acquire these, along with weapons and ammo, from recently deceased characters that you eliminate along your path to freedom. 

Character control, one of the most important things for any FPS, comes ready for the gamer in eight different controller presets. However, if none of these are to your liking, you do have the ability to customize the controller completely to your personal preference. Players also have the ability to tweak the look-around sensitivity, weapon sway sensitivity, invert the y-axis for those who have a problem telling up from down, change out different crosshair options and even turn on different vibration function for their weapons or happenings in the environment. Another helpful item for the FPS rookies is to enable the auto aiming lock-on for your character. While this will not always ensure a one shot kill, it does assist the player in getting the bead on an approaching enemy and keeps you in the game a lot longer when first starting out. If running through the game on the easy mode is too simple, gamers have the option of ramping up the challenge with more intensive difficulty levels that really put your talents to the test. The Dual Shock 2 worked exceptionally well for the entire game, although some of the vehicles were a bit difficult to get used to the first time that you drove them.

Oh yes, you don’t have to spend all of your time venturing on foot. There are five different vehicles that you get to play around in, and some of these add quite an interesting twist to the game. Not only will you operate the expected ATV’s (All-Terrain Vehicles) or mobile drillers but you also get to strap yourself into an aesir fighter jet and even a combat submarine. All the vehicles have a different strengths and weaknesses in terms of firepower and maneuverability and each one even has a unique HUD to utilize. Sometimes you will be behind the wheel while other times you will be literally riding shotgun manning some heavy mobile firepower while a NPC handles the driving duties. These sections help to break up the run-and-gun staleness that could occur after four or five hours of running around on foot but they just don’t have the same smooth control features that your normal character radiates while using the shoe-leather express. 

Red Faction also employs a completely new Geo-Mod game engine that lets you destroy the environment unlike anything ever experienced before. Although everything in the environments is not destructible, players do have the ability to destroy certain walls to open up new or hidden areas to explore and most of the secondary items in the many rooms can be blown apart into little tiny pieces. RF rewards players for thinking outside of the box, as usually you find something of value in these hidden rooms that will make your journey much easier in the long run. The Geo-Mod Technology puts a whole new twist on the game. Now instead of fighting a convoy of security forces, you can simply blow up the bridge that they are using to cross the canyon. You come up on a locked door, you simply blow out the supporting wall and make your own entranceway. This definitely adds to the replay value of the game as there are a plentiful ways to get through each of the levels. Even though shooting the cups or coffee makers does nothing but waste precious ammunition, it does play its part as a pleasant distraction from the plentiful killing of the many security forces that you will face and it adds a touch of realism not often seen in games of this genre.

The audio parts of Red Faction are just as impressive as those of the rest of the game. All of the conversations can be clearly understood and the characters actually sound as if they are having conversations rather than reading a script. You have separate selectors for the background music and the effects of the game, however there is just the normal mono and stereo choices with no option for surround sound in sight. I would blame this mostly for the release date of the game, as it did hit the streets early in the lifecycle of the PS2. However, there have been plenty of games that have come before that have utilized this option, so it’s more of an excuse rather than it being a reason for this deficiency. 

For those of you who are tired of combating the forces of evil with a bare bones arsenal, gamers will find enough variety to keep them pleasantly satisfied. Most of the fifteen different weapons have, not only, a primary but also a secondary form of firing to obliterate the tyrannical forces of Mars. No matter if you run with the rather wimpy 12 mm hand pistol or the terrain changing explosive power of the fusion rocket launcher, control and pinpoint precision should be employed to ensure the minimum expenditure of ammunition. In fact, you can even set the priorities of the weapons on how they will appear on your menu. This cuts down on the time searching for a particular weapon when you either run out of your favorite ammunition or when you want to switch out to something different. Enemy forces react accordingly to whichever firearm you decide to use, whereas persons will explode into tiny bits when high-explosive firearms are employed while their lifeless bodies will even do backwards somersaults when meeting the business end of the automatic shotgun at close range. Heck, gamers even have the choice of having their baddies cooked well-done with the flame thrower or diced via the attaching of remote mining charges. Even Rambo would have little difficulty cuddling up to this impressive arsenal that Red Faction provides.

Since Red Faction came out before the PS2 went into Online mode, players are restricted to just slugging it out against one other player. However, you can add an extra element of challenge by letting loose NPC (Non-Player Character) up to four additional bots in a player vs. player mode or six bots in the player vs. bots mode. Bots have four different difficulty levels and really add a special flavor to the recipe. Players can also select how they would like the matches to end by selecting the kill number or by having a time limit. You also get to choose from the cast of character of Red Faction to portray, however these are mostly for cosmetic satisfaction as there really is no difference in which person you choose to utilized in your multiplayer experience. Gamers also have nine different levels to select and each of these are large enough to get away from the competition without getting lost and not being able to hunt down the other player. 

RF also comes packed with an excellent tutorial for first-time players that is sure to get you up to fragging speed in no time flat. It goes over everything that you will need for your adventure on the red planet to keep you breathing the stale recycled air and among the living. Besides this, gamers are also able to take a look at two different trailers for other THQ games. Both the trailers for MX2002 and Summoner are rather long and give potential buyers a good look at what they can expect to experience.

Volition Inc. and THQ really brought everything but the kitchen sink when putting Red Faction out for the PlayStation 2. Besides the slightly difficult vehicle handling and the lack of Dolby Digital support, I could find no real fault for the entire game. It would have been nice to include a four-player split-screen multiplayer mode but this is a minor gripe not worthy of subtracting a single point from the overall score. The customization of the controls, along with the excellent story mode brings enough to the table to satisfy the most jaded of FPS fans. Gamers can expect to spend quite a few hours on the extensive story mode and the Geo-Mod technology really keeps the replay value of the game quite high as you can spend hours looking for alternate pathways by blowing the holy heck out of the environments. Even if you have never thought about trying out a game of this particular genre, Red Faction could possibly be the game to change your mind and make you a lover of games of this particular type. This definitely is a must-have for any FPS fan and should at least be worthy of a rental for every person who owns a PS2. 

Difficulty: 9

Control: 10

Audio: 8

Visuals: 9

Replayability:10

Overall: 9.4