Red Faction is a first person shooter released on the PlayStation 2 in May of 2001.
The game was well received and was quite possibly the best home console FPS upon release.
The opening cut scene explains how the main protagonist Parker left Earth to go work in
the Martian mines, hoping to clear his head and gain some life experience.
However, working in the Martian mines is not what it seems.
Working conditions at Ultor are awful, borderline slavery and worse yet, miners are dying of
a strange sickness dubbed “the plague.”
Red Faction begins at the start of a revolution.
As your work shift comes to an end, we see a miner stand up to a guard, rather than take
the abuse.
A scuffle ensues, a baton is dropped, and the adventure begins.
After beating a few guards and obtaining some new firepower, things start to feel like a
typical shooter.
Your right analog stick aims, while the left analog stick is used for player movement.
It feels modern enough, and FPS veterans should be right at home.
The aiming is a bit clumsy however.
At times, the auto-aim will grab your cursor if you are pointing in the right general direction,
and works as intended.
Other times it fails to lock-on to an enemy at all or worse yet, loses the target right
before your pull the trigger
It creates a rather inconsistent experience and even after a dozen hours, it never feels
quite right.
Things are mitigated with the close range weapons however.
The shotgun in particular is quite effective.
As it mows down most foes in a single shot, you can be a bit more patient with the auto-aim,
and deliver the death blow when it finally locks on.
Still, while not as smooth or forgiving as something like Halo, released just 6 months
later, Red Faction is totally serviceable.
The first section of the game focuses on escape, with the revolting miners calling themselves
the Red Faction.
They are led by a tough female, Eos, and a guy on the inside named Hendrix.
Each guides you through the mining complex via radio.
The radio is used to offer assistance, give you your objectives, as well as keep the plot
moving.
You won't see many of the key moments of the story, but instead hear about them via radio.
I actually find this to be a pretty cool way to tell a story.
While probably just a product of its age, rather than real intent, Red Faction almost
always plays out in the first person.
With few exceptions, you experience the story from beginning to end, on a linear path from
point A, to point B.
This means the moment your work shift ends, to your hopeful escape, is one continuous
journey.
Early on, you actually make it to the bay where a group of miners managed to hijack
a shuttle and begin their escape, only to watch it be taken down by some rockets.
This scene does a wonderful job giving you a feeling of hopelessness, as well as showing
off the brutality of the mining corporation.
It gives incentive to want to take down Ultor, and lets you know the journey is going to
be tough.
Another defining feature of Red Faction is the so called geo-mod technology.
Basically, you can use explosives to change the geometry of a level.
Instead of going through a door, you can blast your way around it.
While a cool concept, the game rarely takes advantage of it.
A few times I was able to take advantage of this, like blasting a hole in the ice so I
could safely land in some water.
But the entire gimmick feels entirely under-utilized.
Many surfaces can't be blasted through at all.
So while I wanted to create a hole in this wall to avoid entering an ambush, the game
wouldn't let me.
After making your way through the main mining operation, you start your journey through
entire mining facility, systematically taking down different sections of the base to aid
in your goal.
Taking out the geothermal plant is a 5 step process, requiring you to sabotage five different
items.
The occasionally mission-based gameplay is a nice diversion to the constant slaughtering
of guards up to this point.
Shortly after this, the game adds some stealth elements, where you put on a suit, holster
a pistol forgoing ALL other weapons, and attempt to make it through some administrative offices
without being detected.
Like the geo-mod gimmick, the stealth gameplay doesn't work all that well.
It is never clear what sets off a guard, or how to avoid them.
I found trial and error to be the only real way to make it through.
Unlike contemporary games, Red Faction has a manual save feature.
You can save at any given point, and load the checkpoint whenever you'd like.
However, if you forget to save, and find yourself dead, you are going to be repeating large
sections of the game over again.
This also means when you die, you have to sit through a lengthy load screen before getting
back into the action.
Towards the game's conclusion, things get ridiculously hard, and you'll often be staring
at a load screen more often than actually engaging in combat.
After sneaking your way through administration, an escort mission is presented where this
guy tags along and you have to make sure he doesn't die.
He has information about the mysterious plague that has been wiping out the miners.
If he dies, you lose, but of course can reload your last save.
Thankfully, when another stealth section presents itself, you can choose not to put on the disguise
and instead keep all of your weapons and play the game traditionally.
I appreciated the ability to choose, and promptly ignored the lab coat and continued to fight
for freedom the violent way.
After making your way through the pristine office complexes, you begin to make your way
through the different medical facilities.
Here, information on the mysterious plague is slowly revealed.
It seems in addition to mining, Ultor has invested a huge amount of resources into medical
experiments, led by a man named Capek.
While the first act of Red Faction focused on the actual mines, this second act takes
a real science fiction twist.
Enemies change from simple guards, to full on science experiments.
There are mutant fish, strange cat lizards, and of course, victims of the plague.
Even cooler are these giant worms.
The entire second act is easily the highlight of the game.
The difficulty curve throughout the entire adventure is just right, and I feel the few
hours tracking down Capek and learning about all of the strange medical experiments are
the best parts of the story and the action.
It offers a great challenge, but never feels unfair.
If you take your time, and learn from your mistakes, you should make it through.
The other highlights of Red Faction are the vehicles.
There are four in all, and each functions very similar.
There is a flying vehicle, a submarine, a jeep, and a tank.
Each offers varying degrees of fire power and does a nice job breaking up the action.
While the Jeep has no offensive power, it is satisfying to run over guards and listen
to them scream.
After taking down Capek, we move into the final act of the game.
With the mining operation effectively being shut down, along with the medical research
division, it is finally time to make our escape.
In this final act, Red Faction takes a fairly brutal turn in the difficulty department.
The simple guards we've fought up to this point have been replaced with mercenaries.
These guys are not only packing superior fire-power, like rail guns that will smoke you in a single
shot, but they also wear body armor, and can take a ridiculous amount of time to kill.
For me, this is where Red Faction starts to stumble.
While the controls work decent, they are not precise enough for what the game asks of you
in the final hour.
Sections of the game feel like they are designed for the pin point accuracy of a mouse and
keyboard, and the dual analog controls simply aren't up to the challenge.
Even with the heavy duty weapons you obtain in the final areas, I often found myself overmatched,
repeating small sections of the game over and over again, making progress very slow.
Perhaps those with a higher skill won't have such an issue, but even on the medium difficulty,
I find these final areas of Red Faction to be more frustrating than fun.
I don't want to be too hard on the game, as there are bright spots.
The audio presentation is top notch, with a great soundtrack setting the mood of certain
areas.
It has a very 90’s synth sound to it, and only plays during key moments of the game.
The weapon sounds are especially good, really making you feel like a badass.
The stereo separation is terrific, with voices and gunshots floating from left to right as
you move around.
More important, the dialog and voice acting are both great.
Hendrix and Eos both sound terrific, which is a good thing since they talk quite frequently.
It sells the idea there really are two people helping you on your journey.
The level design also has some bright moments.
Often times there are alternate paths encouraging you to explore areas completely to see how
everything is linked together.
There are interesting set pieces as well, from the desolate canyons of Mars, to the
squeaky clean medical facility, to the dirty mines, and some high grade military facilities,
Red Faction does an awesome job mixing things up, while at the same time making the adventure
cohesive.
While I know there are folks that still really love Red Faction, and I can honestly see why,
I just don't have the same appreciation.
The game feels like a PC title, running in low-detail mode to fit the limitations of
a home console.
There are very few lighting effects, and everything has a very flat appearance because of it.
The outdoor areas are even worse, with the same small texture repeating forever.
The controls still feel like they were made for a keyboard and mouse, and the dual analog
controls don't match the fluidity of something like Halo, which was fine-tuned for a controller.
Even worse are the technical issues.
A couple of times, events would not trigger for me.
After wiping out all of the enemies in this area while in a flying vehicle, nothing happened.
After reloading a save and trying again, the next event immediately triggered after taking
down the final foe.
In another area, you are supposed to lure this giant robot into an incinerator.
Using the same exact save file, sometimes the robot would follow me to his doom, and
other times he would stay back in a tunnel, refusing to let the game progress.
I also got stuck more often than I'd like.
Here, my submarine is stuck between a fish and the cave wall.
In another area, I'm glitched in the water and can't get out.
Stuff like this really bugs me, and sucks me out of the entire experience.
There are gameplay issues as well.
Often times, my bullets simply wouldn't register damage.
8 shotgun shells should take down any human enemy in the game, yet sometimes they don't
seem to take damage at all.
Again, a very frustrating experience.
Overall, Red Faction is a good game; I just feel it hasn't aged the best.
The graphics look dated, the gameplay is occasionally glitchy, and the controls user a modern scheme,
but doesn’t feel fluid.
Thankfully, the story is interesting and roaming around Mars can be a lot of fun.
Even better, the music and voice-acting is still really solid.
If you're into early 2000 first person shooters, you'll probably enjoy Red Faction.
If not, this isn't going to change your mind.
Three, out of five.