Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Review #221: Red Faction 2

 DESTROY EVERYTHIIIIIING... or just, y'know, a few select walls and floors.
 Red Faction was, as far as I remember, one of the early games announced for the then-new PS2. It boasted having fully destructible environments, and while I never played the first one, nor am I interested in doing so, I did play the sequel. Twice.

 The game has two modes: Single Player/Story and Multiplayer. First comes the Single Player Mode, and I'd like to delve into the Story a bit... but it's hard without spoiling it. Y'see, there are few story bits, but it's there, and it moves rather fast. To say the least, it has a plot twist halfway into the game, and I don't remember how I felt about it when I first played the game, but this time around, knowing that it would happen, I didn't notice any foreshadowing or what not, so I think it's safe to assume that it will take some people but surprise.  And hey, it's a twist befitting of an action movie... or well, game. There's also a pseudo-karma mechanic that affects which ending you get, just don't shoot civilians and you'll get the good one! All that said, it's rather short, clocking at about 4-5 hours.
 As far as Story Mode is concerned, I had a couple of issues with it, gameplay wise. Firstly, the feature that they boasted of the most: Destructible Environments. It's a lie. That is to say, there are breakable walls and floors, but they are specific walls and floors. Sometimes you are required to destroy structures in order to continue, but it's a feature that's very underused and the novelty wears off pretty darn fast. Then there's the enemy AI... it's spotty at best. I played the game on the medium difficulty, and most enemies refuse to try to avoid my grenades, and they rarely strafe or move, opting instead to stand in front of you, gunning you down. Later in the game a new enemy is introduced, the last enemy type as a matter of fact, and I like to call them 'The Cowards', these bastards are a real pain in the butt to defeat, as they love, love to round around, without even shooting, just running away from you. And most enemies in the game are immune to head shots and a bit of bullet sponges. There's also a few sections with enemies that spawn indefinitely, so your best bet would be to avoid them and run. And you know what? Despite all that, the game isn't particularly hard. I must've died 4-5 times throughout the entire game. The last thing I want to mention is the lack of subtitles. This is a First Person Shooter, a game that involves a lot of shooting. If NPCs decide to talk to you during a shoot out, believe me, you won't catch a single word they say.

 Then there's the Multiplayer Mode, and it's pretty neat. There's about 30 maps, and not only can you play against another player, you can also add bots to either solo or multiplayer bouts! Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, 'Bagman', Regime and Arena, most which can be played in teams. Bagman and Regime are basically the same, if you become the dictator/bagman, stay alive for as long as you can. Every weapon from the Story Mode makes it in, and some maps even house a few destructible walls! All in all, not a bad offering.
 Red Faction 2 is a First Person Shooter, but an oldschool one at that. For instance, you can carry a gazillion weapons on you, something I appreciate even if switching weapons with a Joystick can be a bit slow, and there's no 'Iron Sights' aiming mode, but at least each weapon gets a 'secondary fire'. Not gonna lie, it takes a little while getting used to. You are also lacking regenerative health... kinda. You can pick up Health Packs, but these act as extra life bars, up to three of them, and your life bar can regenerate if you stay outta combat for a while. A rather long while, so it's usually not a mechanic you can rely on. Still, what took the most getting used to where the controls. Thankfully you can customize them to your liking, so after some fumbling about I managed to get a more modern set-up, one I grew accustomed to in recent years. And hey, the back of the box claims that it supports the PS2 keyboard and mouse, so there's always that.

 The game looks fairly good. Character models are a bit... ugly. To be fair, their designs are at fault, as the models themselves are fine. The environments are a bit repetitive, and with a rather dull color palette, nothing memorable or worth writing home about. Luckily the weapons, what you'll get to see most of the time, look pretty impressive. They even manged to make the good, ol' boring gun look cool. The shooting feedback feels pretty good as well. The music took me by surprise, the soundtrack is pretty damn fine. There's a lot of heavy music, which fits nicely and sounds fantastic. Another thing that took me by surprise... voice acting. It's quite good, and it features a couple of known actors, like Jason Statham!
 I liked Red Faction 2. It's a game that certainly shows its age, but remains a fun little romp. It's probably not a good idea to expect as much destructibility as it claims, or rather claimed, but the weaponry is fun to wield and the core gameplay is pretty decent.
 7.0 out of 10. 

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