Red Faction
Score: 85% ESRB: Mature Publisher: THQ Developer: Volition Media: CD/2 Players: 1 - 32 Genre: First Person Shooter
Graphics & Sound: While Red Faction really seemed to push the PS2 when it came out many months back, the PC version of the game doesn't quite get up there. Perhaps it's a result of the simulataneous development, but while I appreciated the ability to jack my resolution up, the graphics themselves never quite caught up. The textures feel under-detailed, and while the character animation is quite solid, it still looks a little off. Perhaps it's the more stringent requirements for this genre on the PC, but it didn't look as good as I had hoped. The sounds are, unsurprisingly, reminiscent of the PS2 version. The voice acting is solid, if not mind-blowing; the music is nonexistent most of the time but it jumps in when necessary, providing the appropriate thrill or sense of impending doom; the weapons are solid and enjoyable, and I can always use more explosion noises in my life. I mean, who can't?
Gameplay: The migration of Red Faction from PS2 to PC has its plusses and its minuses. The big plus comes from the control--a keyboard and mouse combo is eminently more enjoyable than my poor ol' Dual Shock, and it makes Red Faction a lot more playable. However, coming over to the PC means that it has to hold its own against the squillions of other FPSes available on the PC, and while it's a solid ride, it may not be different enough for every PC gamer to jump onto. The story behind Red Faction is very reminiscent of Total Recall, albeit bleaker. (Scary, huh?) You are an employee of the Ultor Corporation, sent to Mars for high-risk riches. Of course, the truth of the matters is that the miners are treated like cattle, and so the inevitable revolt occurs, led by the inimitable Eos. Of course, in traditional FPS style, the entire revolution rides on your shoulders, so be prepared to be led around on various quests and watching lots of your comrades getting blown to bits immediately after they proffer their help. For the most part, Red Faction plays like any other FPS. You'll run around, shooting up the enemies, dodging bullets, and collecting ammo. The story is integrated a good deal better than many games in the genre, although it's certainly no Half-Life. The main attraction of Red Faction is the Geo-Mod engine, which allows you to blow big smoking holes into the walls and floors of the game, oftentimes giving you a wholly different solution to the lock-and-key problem. While it's not used nearly to the extent I would have wished in the single-player campaign, it's a very cool feature nonetheless. The single-player experience is well-rounded, and while it may end a wee bit quicker than you'd like (this sort of game always goes quicker when you have a good control scheme), there's still quite a bit to do in it. There's even the obligatory stealthy levels, which is a neat feature. You get to pilot some vehicles, which are a nice addition, but it's nothing overmuch spectacular. Don't expect a submarine sim and you'll be okay. Once you tire of the single-player experience, you have just as big a treat waiting for you. Red Faction's multiplayer is expansive, detailed, and makes a lot more use of the spiff Geo-Mod engine than the solo game. With the CTF and deathmatch standbys to make die-hards happy, and support for metric tons of people running around on a map, chances are good that you'll have quite a good time running amok in the multiplayer missions.
Difficulty: The difficulty in the game is configurable, although it's not intuitively obvious where you can configure it (on the Options menu, under Game). Even on the default setting, however, Red Faction doesn't pull too many punches. The AI is surprisingly sharp; it'll duck around walls in an attempt to dodge your shots, popping out to fire a few and then ducking back. Of course, a steady hand will always defeat a computer-controlled opponent, so occasionally the game will throw oodles of guys at you at once. This is the time for turrets, which allow you to rip the bad guys new ones with autocannon fire and rockets. Yum. Nonetheless, any gamer should be able to find a difficulty level that suits them, as long as they restrain themselves from using creep-and-save tactics to get through the game.
Game Mechanics: As in every FPS released in recent years, Red Faction uses a mouse-and-keyboard combo by default that works quite well. I moved the action button from 'Enter' to 'F' so I didn't have to take my hand off of the mouse to use stuff, but other than that the default control scheme is surprisingly versatile. I didn't experience any major game glitches during my playtime; admittedly, however, the game patched itself to 1.10, so undoubtedly the out-of-box version had a few glitches. The load times are pretty minimal, although the loads come a little more often than I would have liked; the continuous nature of the gameworld is nice, though, so I don't mind occasional loads for that. Red Faction is a good game. It was excellent on the PS2, and it's even better on the PC. However, here on the PC it has to contend with other, more refined examples of the genre. Despite this, Red Faction holds its own very well, with a solid multiplayer experience and an enjoyable single-player campaign. Fans of the genre would be wise to check it out, and maybe check a number of hours into the wild CTF matches available. It may not be the best PC shooter out there, but it's a damn fine one nonetheless.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
Minimum System Requirements: Win9x/Me, P2/K6-2 400, 3D accelerator card w/ 8MB VRAM, 64MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 900MB HD space, sound card, mouse, keyboard   Test System: Athlon 1.1GHz running Win98 SE, 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 GTS w/ 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live!, 8x DVD-ROM
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