Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, PC

Genre: First-person Shooter

Number of Players: 1 - 4

Peripherals: Multi-tap Adaptor

Back in the day, first-person shooters were somewhat of a rare commodity. Of course Id’s Doom was more or less the thing that really broke the genre to the gaming public, despite the fact that we actually has Wolfenstien 3-D before that. The problem is that once the latest “big thing” hits, everyone attempts to get a ride on the coat tails and cash in. We all saw what happened with the fighting genre, and before you knew it, there were plenty of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat clones. The same thing happened with first-person shooters, and before long, everyone and their grandma were making them, with little to no originality.

That was then however, and things have changed over the past few years. Designers have taken a bit more time to make games more interesting, more entertaining, and more importantly, try and do something a little different so that it’s not “just another shooting game.” Of course, one of the biggest FPS titles of this year has been the latest installment into the Metal of Honor series, but there’s other titles beyond that series that play just as nicely, and are just as entertaining. Red Faction II happens to be just such a title.

Welcome to the future, where Nano Technology reigns supreme. It's been five years since the uprising on Mars, and in order to rule and control the Commonwealth, Chancellor Sopot has used this technology to the ultimate fighting machines. As is the case with tyrannical dictators however, a few soldiers that have been part of Sopot’s diabolic scheme have grown tired of their leader and a small resistance group has formed to eliminate the problem: The Red Faction. As one of the members of this renegade group, it is your duty, along with the help of a few close friends, to end the rule of Sopot and once again bring peace and prosperity to the Commonwealth.

By all accounts, it may very well seem like the typical plot of most first-person shooters, but plot aside, Red Faction II has a lot to offer. The first thing that any film or television buff may notice is a familiar voice that you may recall from the Millennium TV series, some of the Alien films, Near Dark, and a whole host of other films. Sure enough, that’s Lance Hendrickson doing the voice of Molov, and bringing in someone of that caliber in, and I’m hooked. The days of hiring in second rate voice actors seems to quickly be coming to a close, and it’s obvious that game design these days is taken very seriously.

The voice acting however isn’t the most important part of the game, it’s the game play itself obviously, and Red Faction II takes some of the best features from the best shooting games a brings them together in one nice package. Just about everything that’s in your way can be blown to pieces, which is a grand and glorious thing. Walls, doors, cars, and everything in between and nothing more than an excuse to waste ammo and get a bit destructive. Of course, there are problems with that as well though, namely civilians that tend to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I’ve got an itchy trigger finger. As you would suspect, you get penalized for killing them. It drops the level of your heroics, and that meter is essential to the game as the higher your level, the better the ending. But, you can raise it by dong a few bonus missions, so even if you frag some poor sap who happened to be “in the way” you can bring redeem yourself a bit later on.

The enemies are no slouches either; in fact, they tend to be damn smart at times. Not only do they have an annoying habit of ducking out of the way when you’re trying to make minced meat out of them, they occasionally will bring back a few friends to make your life a bit miserable for a time. However, there are times that they tend to be a bit stupid as well. I like using grenades just as much as the next solider, but I like them even better when some green-belly tosses an incendiary grenade right on top of his comrades, who quickly does his own rendition of The Human Torch. But, I can’t just sit and wait around for that all day, and what’s even more fun is taking a satchel of explosives and tossing it an enemy. Immediately, he’ll run about in mad dash to attempt to remove the package, but by then it’s too late and he detonates, taking a few friends with him. Ah, those are the days.

For the most part, the graphics tend to be extremely well done, although there the mouth movements don’t match up too well with the dialogue, but that’s forgivable, and it doesn’t look nearly as horrid as other games that suffer from the same fate (like Halo.) There’s definitely some good lighting and shading used as well, especially when it comes to the billowing smoke and steam, and later on with the lightning arcs. The cut scenes are well done also, and aren’t too long, and also don’t dominate the game in any way, shape, or form, Game play is the focus here, not the pretty computer animation.

With many of the FPS that are on the market, you tend to spend a lot of your time trying to find just the right strategy to dodge tracer fire coming from aircraft, tanks, and anything else that is making your life a living hell. But, why should the enemies have all the fun. This game lets you, on occasion, take control of some o those vehicles and use them to your advantage. Gunships, mini-subs, tanks, and even battle armor are at your disposal to give the bad guys at taste of what they’ve dished out to your for so long. Personally, I found the battle armor the most rewarding and fun, but that’s mainly due to its mecha design and high tech looking interior. Also, having been on the receiving end of what these little beauties could do, it was time to return the favor.

The level designs are fairly large, and there tends to be a lot of stuff to take advantage of destroying. However, there are a few levels that are unfortunately downright confusing, and you can spend a great deal of time wandering around, wondering where to go to next. The beginning of the underground stages is just such a level, and even knowing what your objective is, it’s easy to get lost right from the start. However, once you figure it out, you’ll be slapping yourself silly now that you’ve realized just how easy it is to make it out of there. Also, some of the levels tend to be a bit dark, but that’s nothing that some good old infrared vision can’t put a stop to. Lastly, some levels have a very distinct Metal of Honor design, especially those that take advantage of urban warfare complete with smoking ruins, rubble, and chaos in the street. There’s also plenty of friendly fire though to make things a little easier.

Most of us have played a FPS or two, and we’ve played them on the PS2 as well. The control set up is pretty standard, and if you’ve played anything like Unreal, you’ll have no trouble at all adapting to the game play. No auto targeting unfortunately, but there’s so much to destroy that it doesn’t really matter. There are also plenty of weapons, including a couple variations of (my favorite) the sniper rifle. Expect some two fisted John Woo inspired gun blazing as well. Also, I definitely like the fact that the enemies have to take time out to reload just like the player does, and yes, it does take time on either side, so watch your back.

If you get tired of playing the game in single player mode, you can always invite a few friends over and take some time to blow them away. Up to four people can take part in the carnage through the use of a multi-tap (sorry, no online play.) The modes include:

Death Match: He with the most kills wins. Play it head to head, or divide up into teams.

Capture the Flag: You’ve seen this before. Find the enemies flag and bring it back to your base. Again, team mode is included.

Bagman: A bit like capture the flag, but instead you must find a bag hidden in the level and try and hang onto it the longest.

Arena: The ever popular “he who wins the most rounds wins.”

Regime: Ah, a hidden feature. Of course, you have to complete specific objectives in multi=player to unlock this feature.

If you’d thought that first-person shooters had hit a dead end, then I highly suggest checking this one out. Red Faction II definitely offers up everything that made the genre so great to begin with, and then some. With plenty of weapons and challenging game play (the game is even somewhat hard on the Easy setting) this is one of those titles that breaths new life into the genre, and of offers multi-player action that’s just as fun as Golden Eye ever was. Don’t listen to what I have to say though, as Chancellor Sopot commands you to buy this game!

(And remember what the door mouse said)

- mike -