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Playstation/Gaming Discussions => PS3 Discussion => Topic started by: RichG on June 30, 2001, 07:02:14 AM
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Hi,
I\'ve played this game for a full two days now and im at the end of the game. So I think I have enough merit to do a review.
About: Ok its Red Faction, its a FPS by Violation and THQ, which features "GEO MOD" technology. Unless your eyes have been closed you will know that Geo-Mod is this "technology" (hardly) which allows you to destroy your surrounds. Its a FPS which has gained quite a bit of hype on this feature alone.
Gameplay: You play Parker, a miner who wanted a change in direction in life so he joined Ultor minining corporation on Mars. Unlike the promises of adventures and wealth, the conditions are harsh, with bed sharing, miner beatings and long hours. Red Faction is born, a rebelion group led by the mystorious Eos.
Like in Half Life you start the game finishing the mining shift, a normal day for Parker, just like Gorden Freeman in Half Life. Soon things get crazy as you see a fellow miner caught up in a beating and its either fight or die. From then onwards your given onscreen instructions by a undercover security officier Hendrix.
The whole game takes the same sort of formular half life uses, completing individual small tasks which add to overall story, like destroying a power plant to cause hysteria amoung the miners. This is fine but the most part it makes you feel your just playing the game to complete the mini task and move onto the next task. This sort of gameplay seems to detract from a overal goal, which doesn\'t help the game run along smoothly.
The locations are a bit predictable after a while. You will notice that you go from mine area, to lab area, back to mine area and so on. This for the most part is fine, and I disagree with some reviers that say the mine areas are boring, I liked them.
The Geomod to me was never anything more than a fancy feature, infact I would go as far to say that I never used it. I had a quick go when I first got the game to see what the fuss was about, but after that I was playing the game as a FPS, not really paying particular attention to creating holes or searching for secrets. Instantly noticable is how little the Geomod is used, I would say most places (outside of the mines) aren\'t distructable, this becomes more apparent later on. Its like they programmed the game with Geomod after creating the levels, so the first mines and labs are geomodable, but later on it seems they got lazy.
At first you will find the game fairly easy, cruising through it but enjoying it all the same. Infact I was beginning to worry I was going to complete it. I kept thinking I must be about half way through the game already. The apparently jump in hardness, mentioned in many reviews does happen, but not as clear as the reviews make it out to be. The guards do become harder but not just going from one type to another.
There is one major snipe I have at the game and that is the rail driver weapon. A rail gun which can shoot through walls. Ok its a nice idea but its basically a pain in the backside when you say get shot and require reloading.
Loading times aren\'t too bad, at first I thought they were fine, then they started to bug me, they seemed to be loading times closer together, and towards the end of the game I didn\'t mind them once again.
The AI isn\'t as bad as magazines make out.
Overall the game is pretty decent in the gameplay deparent. Places are split up with vehicle and stealth sections which to my supprise worked well, I expected driving a vehicle in a FPS would be dreadful, but it works! Theres nothing really new in terms of gameplay as the Geomod although a nice idea doesn\'t play a big part in the game. The game took me two days to beat, I played it pretty much solid but two days for £45 is still questionable.
Graphics: The graphics are decent. Very PC FPS like. Textures are a bit blurry, but unlike a lot of magazines I found the character design to be decent. When its all placed together it works well.
The framerate isn\'t anything to shout about. You will instantly notice that the frame rate isn\'t too great, its obvious that 60fps is better than 30fps when you play this game. Worse still it slows slightly when turning in some sections, slighty when entering some of the detail caves and every single time the geomod kicks into action. This isn\'t what I call a "locked" frame rate. In short though you actually do get used to it, and the battles (with rocket launches using geomod) are playable, just a bit jerky from time to time. Im very picky when framerate is concerned and I was able to enjoy the game with slowdown, you will too.
Sound: The sound is great. The music tracks are pretty average but there not anonying. The SFX is where the sound excels. Everything is captured. You hear the footsteps, the fences rattle and the screams of miners. A lot of reviewers said the shout outs became anonying, I personally found them fine. Also the voice of Hendrix is very good, whilst Eos and Parkers are acceptable.
Multiplayer: Simply put is rubbish. Im sure good times could be had but playing with the bots is boring. Basically the key problem is level design. They are poor, seemed to have been made in someones lunch time to add the multiplayer feature to Red Faction.
Good Points
Very typical PC type FPS, if your a fan of Half Life, Kingpin and to some extent Quake you should like this.
Its fun to play.
Works well.
Bad Points
GeoMod - It has to be said, if you want this game for Geomod dont bother, also Geomod causes slowdown, I dont hate geomod, i like it, but in Red Faction personally it aint a good point.
Rail Driver - It doesn\'t ruin the game but expect to be reloading the game frequently when you get killed, slows the game down a lot towards the end.
Frame rate: Yep it could have been improved. It isn\'t perfect but its playable.
Story: You basically take orders and just go through the game completing one bit, going to the next etc, theres no feel of a overal goal.
Originality: Nothing new here.
Conclusion: Ok a lot of bad points listed, but I still like this game, it is good! The framerate is livable, what game is original on PS2 so far ? Rail driver i only towards the end of the game etc. Meaning your left with a pretty decent FPS.
- Its not wonderful, it isn\'t the amazing Red Faction everybody expected but its a fine example of PC type FPS on the PS2.
8/10.
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Excellent Review!! :D
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Thanks for the review,i was going to pick this game up when i got paid,but i am going to carry on with Onimusha and Dark cloud until GT3 comes out now,dont think it will be my type of game,but thanks agian for the review,it was really good.
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Yep, excellent review. A magazine couldn\'t write a better one!
I will pic up the game next wednesday! :)
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great review man tottaly takes the game 2 pieces !!!
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I agree with almost everything the review stated above, with something else thrown in.
I hated the fact that High-damage weapons had to practically hit dead-on to have a serious impact on guards, including the low end ones.
I remember shooting guards, either right beside them, or right in front of them, with a rocket or two, and see them shrug it off like it was a water gun.
What gives?
I did like it, but as you mentioned, I had a few gripes. Still, I give it a thumbs-up.
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nice review Rich...better than anything Ryu would do ;) *sends Ryu the link to this thread*
but seriously, very informative, and a nice read
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Thanks for the feedback everyone, im glad you all liked it.
Jerginsoft: Yeah I got the same thing from time to time. You would be shooting a guard at close range and nothing would happen. I just assumed they had armour or something.
I\'ve also heard about the game having a bug where if you shoot guards from close range sometimes nothing happens so it could have been that.
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Rich, have you got around to finishing the game yet? The reason that i ask is because i returned it as replay
value is quite poor, just like most 1st person shooters, then again i hadn\'t finished it. i got as far as getting to
the man that you chased through the caverns and he hovered inside a baloon thingie and he was quite hard.
This is where you finally see Eos (am i right). Anyway that\'s as far as i got. Was that near the end?
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Ok this post is for Stanzo and contains SPOILERS.
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Yeah its fairly far but there was still quite a bit too do in the game.
You would have killed that bloke and then EOS disappears as you leave the place as its going to blow up or something. Hmm I can\'t quite remember the order of events, I know you do some more mine stuff and you also go upto a space station to destroy the laser defenses. You get caught in a prison too, then theres the final part of the game. Also all the connecting bits and anything i\'ve missed off.
In terms of hours I would say 2 - 3.5 Hours. So about 1/3 of the game left.
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Thanks Rich, i thought that i\'d about finished it as some people said that once they had got to the final boss
they didn\'t feel as if they were on the final boss, if you know what i mean. Thanks man :D
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Yeah I know what you mean, I felt the same when I first seen that bloke, but he isnt the final boss. Its this women who is head of the mercs who you fight at the end. People feel it suddenly ends because towards the end of the game she is a releativly new introduced character, which until the end of the game didn\'t really play a part in the story.
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K Rich, Thanks again for the info.. Right i\'m off to look at them pictures of Kelly Brook that iv\'e just posted in the
off topic forum :P