|
|
 |
 |
|
Red Faction II Review |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Red Faction II
|
Buy Game: |
|
| Game Info |
|
Red Faction was one of the only decisive first person shooters to be unveiled on the Playstation2. Now the sequel to Red Faction has been released on the X-Box. Red Faction 2 is one of the best first person shooters I have seen on the X-Box console. This game has a unique feel that might take some players a small amount of time to grow accustomed to. With the initial weapons selection the game gives you the idea that only a few shots will kill an enemy, if you’ve played the first installment you’ll know this however is not the case. Eventually your player is equipped with stronger weapons enabling you to better fend off attacking troops. In any matter once you have a feel for how the game plays out; it begins to get very enjoyable.
The basic outline of the storyline is that you are a member of an elite task force of six super human soldiers who have joined forces with the “Red Faction” a group of civilians and soldiers who plan to overthrow the corrupt reigning government lead by Victor Sopot. You are given control of one of the members of the task force by the name of Alias; he’s a demolitions expert that is loyal to the Red Faction and eager to use his abilities to help remove chancellor Sopot from power.
A unique feature in this game is the fact that because you’re part of this team of six soldiers, your objectives are constantly changing based on what is happening in other sections of the level involving your squad mates. Each of the six is given special abilities, which will come in useful as you will meet up with them throughout several missions. Such abilities include a heavy weapons expert, sniper, stealth and electronics expert, and a transportation expert. Each of your team members however has a mind of their own, and you will never play as a different character, they’re just around to help through sections of levels that would otherwise be impossible to conquer.
What sets this first person shooter out from the rest is the exquisite selection of vehicles that you’ll be given a chance to either pilot or sit in the gunner seat for throughout the single player missions. The first vehicle you’ll encounter is the airborne fighter, while sitting in the gunner seat of this airship the pilot leads you through an amazingly detailed city infested with soldiers and other airship pilots loyal to Sopot trying to bring you down. Also, you’ll sit gunner in a heavy tank and ride through a complex set of city streets, fighting off incoming airships, soldiers, jeeps, and even enemy tanks.
While sitting in gunner seats is fun in its own regards, the two vehicles that are fully controllable really make the game interesting. In an underwater level you’re the pilot and gunner of a submarine, while I’ve always disliked any underwater or sewer type level, the ability to pilot this sub in conjunction with the stunning graphics make the experience great. The final vehicle and my personal favorite is the battle armor. The battle armor is the classic Mech with dual heavy chain guns and a rocket launcher. Walking through city streets in the battle armor attacking enemy soldiers in my opinion was the best part of this game. The designers of this game put a huge emphasis on implementing vehicles throughout the single player missions and in my opinion were extremely successful.
On to multiplayer, the producers of this game were conscious of one simple aspect that far too many games overlook, bots. Multiplayer offers a variety of bots on three difficulties that will allow you to play death match style games by yourself, or even add more players into a system link or split screen game. On top of that, once you’ve played through single player on all three difficulties, there is a larger selection of multiplayer levels then I care to even experiment with or play. These are two clench aspects that make multiplayer mode in this game stand out. Of course there are many types of game play as well including; Bagman, Death Match, Team Death Match, CTF, Arena, Team Arena, and several others that can be unlocked.
Let’s talk about graphics and sounds; this should be fairly quick because there is really nothing to complain about. The graphics are great; the level design makes the environment around you come to life. Many pieces of the levels are also interactive, for example weak walls can be blow away by explosives during fire fights, leaving what could have been a good hiding spot, an open target. This was one of my favorite features in the original Red Faction, and has yet again been mastered in the second. Usually there’s not much to say about sound in a first person shooter, if the guns make noise its good right? This game did something that many first person shooters wouldn’t dream of, and that was to hire a team of voice actors to play the roles of the six different characters, as well as other’s you’ll meet up with throughout the game. The addition of these voices throughout missions constantly exchanging dialog really helped create the storyline and added another dimension you won’t see in many games of its class.
There you have it, I deem this game excellent and believe it definitely out played many other games in it’s genre, in fact there are even times I’m playing multiplayer which is substantially faster paced than Halo and think I might even enjoy it a little bit more than I do Halo (gasp). Hopefully I won’t be tarred and feathered for saying that by the rest of the staff but it helps emphasize the point that this game is truly great.
Review By: Travis Parrott
Scores
|
|
|
|
