In the near future on the
planet Mars, the Ultor Corporation made promises of adventure and easy money in order to
attract workers for their Noachite mines. In reality, however, the mines are extremely
dangerous. The living quarters for the miners are disgusting, and miners are forced to
share beds and even environmental suits between different work shifts. As if the work and
living conditions werent dangerous enough, a plague is spreading through the mines.
The miners fear and discontentment grows and soon pamphlets and posters begin
appearing in the mines. The posters urge the miners to take action and fight for their
rights. Join the Red Faction, and its mysterious leader Eos, or risk being killed by
guards or the plague. It isnt a tough choice, and so Red Faction begins.Its
too bad the rest of the story isnt as interesting as the introduction. You control
Parker, a tough guy miner who seems to be the only member of the Red Faction thats
worth a damn. The story progresses as would be expected in any good sci-fi video game. The
hero runs through bases, finds the cure for the plague, defeats the evil corporation, and
saves the day. It is a typical sci-fi storyline, and its entirely forgettable.
But all is not lost. The storyline is really the worst part of Red Faction, and
seeing as how stories arent necessarily important in first person shooters, it is
only a minor gripe. The best part of Red Faction, however, is definitely the new Geo-Mod
technology designed for the game. Geo-Mod technology allows you to use explosives on the
walls, ceiling, and floor to make your own path. If there is a locked door and you
dont seem to have the right key, you can simply go around or even under it. If a
convoy heading your direction is crossing a bridge, take out the bridge. If guards on a
tower give you trouble, blow up the legs of the tower and cause it to collapse. The
Geo-Mod system is a welcome break from the typical first person shooter which requires you
to find switches and keys, but it was used with a surprising amount of restraint. Not all
walls can be destroyed; in fact, most of them cannot in the solo missions. There are only
a few occasions where you can blast out a bridge or a tower, and very few occasions where
you have to blast around a door. Of course, it is fun to just blast away at walls just to
see where they may lead you. Overall, the Geo-Mod technology is very well done and allows
for some innovation on how you get from point A to point B. I would have liked to of seen
it used more often, but for the first game using the technology, Red Faction is a great
look at what we can expect in first person shooters for the next few years.
The
graphics and sound, while not jaw dropping, are good. There are some very nice lighting
effects and the explosions are great. The textures are a bit repetitive, and after the
first few levels you will probably have seen every shade of red that exists. The character
designs are rather bland and you will find that you fight the same handful of enemy
designs all through the game. The game is silky smooth while running at 800x600
resolution, but it can be a bit choppy at 1024x768 even on high-end systems. The voice
acting is decent, but I got tired of hearing the guards yelling the same things at me all
the time. One rather odd thing that I noticed is that when you shoot the guards, they will
scream, "I dont deserve to die!" and run around the corner, only to shoot
at you the moment you give chase. Or they will say, "Dont shoot me, Im
unarmed" and then shoot at you right after they say it. The music sounds good when
you actually notice it. Most of the time I was so focused on blowing holes in the wall
that I didnt notice the music. This is a good thing, however, because it
doesnt distract you.
The solo missions in Red Faction are typical first person shooter fare. The
games first few levels are deep within mines of Mars and are a bit boring. But once
you get out of the mines and have to sneak around an Ultor office building with guards and
security cameras all around, or when you get to control one of five vehicles, the game is
much more interesting. The vehicles, which include a jeep, an APC, a drilling machine, a
submarine, and a fighter aircraft, are all well done and the levels that feature them are
very fun. The driller is perhaps the most fun because you can forge your own nice wide
path through the mines, but it is not used nearly enough. The variety in missions due to
the vehicles and the stealth missions makes the game less repetitive. The weaponry Parker
uses on his quest to stop Ultor are traditional first person shooter boom sticks that
include machine guns, pistols, and the all important rocket launcher. The weapons are very
nicely detailed and look, feel, and sound just right. The "buddah, buddah,
buddah" sound of the heavy machine gun firing and the beauty that is empty shells
spewing out from the side of the gun are perfect. The reload animations are excellent as
well, and they also add in the factor of reload time when choosing weapons. The solo
missions are fun, but a bit unsatisfying because of the weak storyline. It is also rather
short and can easily be passed in under 10 hours. There are multiple difficulty settings,
so the solo missions will keep you busy for a little while. There is a bonus level
included that is nothing but a closed room in a large house made of glass. Breaking the
glass is fun, but the real fun is in tunneling through the walls around the house and
seeing where you end up. I tunneled from the floor all the way up to the ceiling and then
jumped down to the roof of the house. I have spent a lot of time in this bonus level just
experimenting, and Im glad that they threw it in.
When
you get tired of the solo missions, you can always dive into the multiplayer game. There
are three different modes: deathmatch, capture the flag, and team deathmatch. These are
all standard modes for any good first person shooter, but combine them with the Geo-Mod
technology, and you have a brand new experience. All of the maps take advantage of the
Geo-Mod technology and, depending on what you blow up, there really can be some strategy
involved. On one map, there is a large bridge shaped like a "T" that connects
three different passageways. With enough time and enough rockets, it is possible to take
this bridge out entirely, resulting in a much, much different game than if the bridge had
remained intact. Another map resembles an office building. There are multiple floors and
dozens of offices on each floor. It is possible to blast a passage down through the
building or straight through the offices to make your own shortcuts. These are just two
examples, but multiplayer games are definitely much better when you can blow apart the
environments and make each experience unique. One of the best parts about Red
Factions multiplayer is that it is extremely competitive. By sheer luck you can join
a game and win easily even if its your first time. Of course, by playing a lot and
becoming proficient with the different weapons, you can change from merely being lucky to
being a lean, mean killing machine. The kills will come remarkable easy once you master
the heavy machine gun or rail driver. Multiplayer is a very enjoyable experience that
newbies and veterans alike can play and be competitive at.
Overall, Red Faction is a good game. It is the guinea pig game for Geo-Mod
technology and it shows. It is not the best looking or best sounding game, and it
doesnt have the best storyline, but Red Faction does show how great fully deformable
environments can be. If only for blowing the hell out of anything and everything you see,
Red Faction is a solid buy.
Eric
Qualls (11/01/2001)