Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 A fast favourite of mine November 17, 2009
VideoGordo (Canada)
The thing that hooked me about this game initially was the basic premise of the storyline. I need to have my arm twisted to play games usually, generally because they are so profoundly stupid most of the time, especially the most hyped ones (Halo anyone?). Unlike most gamers, my first priority is always story and writing. Gameplay is essential, but I can't tolerate the exceedingly juvenile writing prevalent among most contemporary games, nor the mindlessly violent fixation they tend to have (by juvenile I don't mean retro, like platformers and so forth, I love Mario 3 as much as the next 20 something). This tendency is very strong is games due mostly to production factors, and perhaps slightly more so than in TV and Film, though it's a very close race. The "gameplay" methods can be the best ever conceived and designed, but it will be wasted on me if the story and storytelling are asinine. My most recent favourite game is 'Mass Effect', and my all time favourite is the original 'Deus Ex'. So unless I am pounding quarters into it in an arcade, I have no patience for "coin-op" level storytelling in a game. I am only explaining this for the sake of the small percentage of likeminded people who love good games and therefore play very few lately, and have been turned onto this one from a potentially dubious source, so are looking for some verification.
I really enjoyed this game.
However, this is not exactly HG Wells or Phillip K Dick manifested in sandbox gaming form. Those dystopian ideas are mostly surface dressing for this one. If you are looking for literate, stand alone science fiction storytelling where your choices in the matter have moral implications and dictate your options in subsequent stages of the game, you are looking for the aforementioned games 'Mass Effect' and 'Deus Ex', those games were designed for us. But here, it's good surface dressing, and fairly low percentage for a 2009 game, but it's mostly shallow allusion nonetheless. It doesn't have any semblance of storyline complexity or sophistication, nor does it have any kind of subtlety. This is not a literate experience, it has more in common with GTA as far as the finer points of the writing, than it does with 'Mass Effect'. It's far less rote than the GTA series, though, insofar as the broader themes and premise, and it suggests at least a minimum of thoughtful inspiration on somebody's part. Actually in many ways the story is gloriously nostalgic, and I will get to this later on.
The worst aspect of the banal writing has to be the character development. I would have preferred no character development at all to this devastatingly lazy character development. It's awful to the point of ironic amusement, which actually isn't so abhorrent, so it doesn't ruin it for me. Campy genre fiction can be fun, but this game should have been more than that. The way in which it is hackneyed is probably the least offensive of all hackneyed modes. But there are only five or six cutscenes in the entire game, and considering there's that many map sectors, and therefore mission bundles, that's pretty thin indeed. You can easily play the game for five hours without a single cinematic interlude. But when you consider how badly written those interludes are in this case, you are ultimately not left wanting. The cutscenes are the only aspect of this title that strike me as uninspired or possibly rushed. The voice acting is quite good, better than it needs to be really.
On the other hand, the writing succeeds in other ways. It's not the heady political science fiction I had hoped for, steeped in Kropotkinesque Anarchist theory, or streaked with Spanish and Russian revolutionary history. But the thing is, the fact that I am even compelled to draw the comparison in the context of a game, is refreshing and encouraging. It isn't entirely brainless, either. The best written pieces of it tend to be peripheral touches, and those really make a difference here. If you try hard enough, you are rewarded with some clever and interesting moments.
The nature of the pro-authoritarian, ruling class controlled media, as seen on the television columns littered among all the civilian areas and in every save house, is really well observed and relevant. Every time you finish a mission or Guerrilla Action, the media reports it with a pro EDF (which is the puppet army of the fascist regime you're fighting) bias, labeling your Red Faction as a terrorist group bent on murdering civilians and undermining the good intentions of the peace loving EDF forces! This sometimes amounts to hilariously satirical bulletins reminiscent of something you might see on Fox News or in a Nazi pamphlet, and ends up being one of my favourite parts of the game.
This game does not resort to baseness or senselessness, either. If you kill civilians, you demoralize the sector, and that makes your missions both harder and less fun, because you wont have anybody popping out of trucks on the way by during a battle, to back you up against the regime, man! You fight for equity and the common good, you are a warrior for the oppressed working class. This is where the game sets itself apart, as you are not some trite goon or thug trying to gain status and wealth, and you are not a generic soldier in a war without any context or political awareness. Your agenda is liberation, and instead of 'jacking' cars like you do in GTA, people offer them to you in the interest of solidarity, because they know you will be using them to smash the state, comrade! I mean this literally, you can smash bloody everything! The gameplay really encourages you not to betray the positive workers' uprising theme, and I admire that.
There is also a primtivist group called the Marauders lurking about in most sectors. They have the most interesting backstory perhaps of all the characters. Your character, Alex Mason, is a fairly trod archetype, a reluctant hero who has to be disillusioned from the authoritarian propaganda that paints the Red Faction as terrorists. I've mostly filled this character arc in myself here, so don't expect that to materialize in any meaningful way throughout the actual game. You get one or two lines of dialog that suggest he is conflicted, and they are both soaked with cliche. The Marauders on the other hand are seriously well motivated and not the least bit reticent, you have to admire their conviction! I found myself sympathizing with them the most, as they appear to be fairly egalitarian in their primal way, and also end up being pretty principle driven. They are better realized as unique characters than any others in the game, which is demonstrated by the fact that they actually have a couple of good story reveals that I have to make a point of not spoiling here. But of course they are not without their derivative qualities. I also really enjoyed their design and mannerisms. Since they seem to have adopted their own tribal language, most of their personality comes through in their posture and gestures.
Another nice touch is the tag recovery objective. It's a small detail but adds a really atmospheric layer to the game. When you recover a data tag from one of the dead bodies laying around the mountains and rocky pits, you are brought to your handbook where an ID card is shown, and a short message is read by that missing person, apparently read just prior to their demise. They sort of take a snapshot of the circumstances of their death, and usually involve some self reflection on their part which amounts to actually the most human and realistic characterization in the whole game. It is rather unfortunate that any of 150 or so 10 second monologues salvaged from a generic looking skeleton, registers more profoundly than that of the main character throughout his entire storyline. Some of them as you recover them over the process of the game, can be quite haunting.
The weapons are all fun. There are just enough weapons and upgrades for it to actually be interesting when you get new ones, and not too many so as to come off as ridiculous or tedious. The different devices with which you can blow things up are well inspired. What else can I say? They all have some loose basis in scientific gibberish, and some of the concepts for them are actually quite entertaining, like the "Singularity Bomb" for example, which is a device the size of a deflated basketball capable of generating an explosive black hole. Alright, I did giggle when I used it. The best overall weapon, with the most versatility and agility, is the satisfyingly overpowered HAMMER. The hammer already starts out capable of demolishing entire concrete walls with one or two swipes, but then you can upgrade it. Some have said the hammer is too overpowered. It also serves as the primary symbolic image of the game, and forms the main part of the Red Faction logo. It represents strength, unity, and the heart of the labour class. So, I think it's perfectly and appropriately overpowered. It is after all, wielded by Alex Mason (a stone MASON, get it?), the champion of the labour class, who fights fascism one Thor-like smash at a time!
The game also sounds good. Sometimes it gets a bit noisy when you are plowing a rocket launcher equipped walking robot through a hoard of EDF transports, but I guess that was intentional. There are several different walking robots by the way, one that looks identical to the one in 'Aliens' also. There is a good variety of music tracks that play like a score depending on what type of action is transpiring, and they are all done in a competent, mid 90s style synthetic composition style. One or two tracks really stood out, one sounded like it came right from Terminator, and one of the "peace time" tracks is quite beautiful.
The map system is great, and the handbook is very well laid out. I like the satellite navigation system that allows you to mark a path on the road to the location you want to get to. After a couple of missions you are also able to buy an upgrade that allows you to warp to any save house from any place on the planet so long as your EDF alert level is safely in the green. I found myself using that feature a lot.
The overview put the game in a context of 'Total Recall' with GTA style gameplay. That isn't too far off, but I have never bothered finishing any of the GTA games, while I finished this one over a couple of weeks. There's an outside chance that I finished Vice City, but the fact that I can't even remember is fairly telling as to my impressions of it. Of course 'Total Recall' is a brilliant science fiction film based on a Philip K Dick story, and deals with themes of existentialism, reality paradoxes, guerrilla uprising, and authoritarian corruption and greed. Well, this game has two out of four, and it was a wholly satisfying experience, but I would love to see a game give an honest attempt at the other two, because the medium has way more potential than it is normally allowed to explore.
Make sure your PC is adequately speced, and take it to the man! The fate of Mars is in your hands, if you can carry it along with your hammer and rocket launcher and remote bombs, and so forth.
 Not a Red faction November 7, 2009
Ann Vitasek (Corsicana Texas)
As for most reviews, most of the reviewers love this game, but this game was a big dissapointment for me for a pc of course, the graphics are a dissappointment, doesnt feel like a true red faction mostly bc of the 3rd view, the background sounds are way too noisy, your mostly fighting over the terrible sound effects more than the game, the AI isnt all that great i say i hated red faction two compared to one, but i enjoyed part two more then this crap, this game is terrible first you cant blow up everything, only buildings and cars and brindges, not the barebone ground itself on red faction pc, not trying to compare it to the first even though all first games are always better in some cases, though the multiplayer is alright, beats the 360 version of course, for a pc id say it could of been a hellalot better then what it is, mirrors edge beats this game by far. if you havent bought this game yet dont, switch over to Street fighter 4 you will get your moneys worth, and dont pay for retail on this money sucker game, buy it at a lower price, not worth the retail, more of a 15 to 20 dollar game. and this game wasnt a very strong graphical game at all. sucks lol
 Red Faction Guerilla November 5, 2009
E. Rangel (Fort Worth, TX)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My desk top has two one terabyte systems on it one XP and the other Vista. I tried to load the game on the XP system but it would not load, so I tried to load it on Vista and again it would not load.. I contacted THQ and they asked if I had Steam installed, which I didn't. I installed Steam on both systems and the game still would not load on either system. I sent THQ another email about a week ago asking what to try next and have not had a response from them. This is one heck of a way to sell games.
Wow...this is what the first game was supposed to be like... November 4, 2009
Grieger (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Maybe it's because the tech finally caught up to where it needed to be or maybe the developers (same guys, Volition) managed to work out a better system (after 8 years) to make it work. What ever the reason, it's great to finally see this game deliver.
If you're not familiar with Red Faction, the original came out in 2001 and was the first (and in some respects the only game since then...if you don't count Company of Heroes which is an RTS, not an FPS) to give you the ability to destroy the world. Most games fake it by converting the thing you hit (building, wall, whatever) into a new object and make it look like you destroyed a wall...until you try to hit a different wall and nothing happens.
The main problem with the original was that you could destroy up to a point. For instance, you could carve a chunk out of a cliff face but after X hits, it would just stop destroying it. Chalk it up to the limits of the game at the time. This time around, they got it almost perfect.
The premise is a bit akin to the standard issue Martian colonist plot you've probably heard/seen somewhere. Mars gets colonized, Earth rules with an iron fist, colonists rebel, cue drama.
But, you're not here for the plot, necessarily. You're here because you can trash every structure you can see (the only thing that's a bit disappointing is that you can't actually affect the rock beneath your feet).
You're Mason, a demolitions tech that gets caught up with the Red Faction to help them in their fight against the evil that is Earth (EDF). Blah blah blah. You start off in an area called Parker. There are several other (progressively larger) areas but the formula is roughly the same. Each region has one or more safehouses where you can hide out, gear up and upgrade. From there, you can venture out into the world, a world filled with destroyable structures (buildings, bridges, bases, etc.).
Throughout the region there are essentially two types of destinations you can head for: a mission markers that start one of several mission types or priority targets which are Earth facilities that you can destroy at will.
Mission types include rescues (drive in, shoot first, grab friendlies later, drive off with the authorities on your tail), raids (miners attacking an EDF facility), defense (miners protecting a facility from EDF attack), destruction (you riding shotgun with something powerful to destroy things), time trials (grab a car and head to a safehouse), demolitions (you + certain tools = bring a structure down), and plot missions.
Now, it sounds like you're just driving around or destroying things but it's a bit better, in most cases. Each type is different enough to be interesting and when you're geared up right, can be pretty satisfying. For instance, demolitions are really challenges where you get a specific set of tools to use (a single explosive, or a bunch of exploding barrels and a detonator) and you need to use them right so you can bring down a structure in the time allotted. Meanwhile, time trials are just road races (albeit against yourself) though some include the added complication of EDF on your tail). And, for each of these you can try for the "pro" time or just attempt to get it done.
Depending on the mission type, you'll get one of two things: morale or salvage. Salvage is the coin of the game. You trade in salvage at the safehouses to get access to weapons and upgrades for those weapons as well as you (armor, jetpack). Morale is all about lowering the influence of EDF over the region and upping the rep of Red Faction amongst the miners. Each has a different effect. Your goal is to lower EDF influence to zero. That unlocks the plot mission that opens the next region up and advances the plot. The Red Faction rep determines how likely passersby or guerrillas will mount up and join you in your fight.
All together, it's actually pretty damned fun. There's nothing more satisfying that being able to just rampage through a base, knocking down towers and buildings. Even better is the effect a large vehicle (like a dirt hauler) has on the physics. Often, I'd grab a truck or steal one of the larger EDF APCs and just plow that sucker into a building. It takes a lot of damage but it doles it out too. That combined with your trusty sledgehammer, remote detonator explosives, rocket launchers and some more exotic weapons leads to a lot of carnage.
I played it on the Hard difficulty so there were definite moments of frustration as a plot mission was far along (and almost done) but a massive swarm of enemies shows up just as I'm running out of ammo. And because they take a beating before going down (again, likely the difficulty, so it's the point I guess), you'll be out of ammo and swinging your hammer in no time. Don't get me wrong, that hammer's nice (and satisfying too) but depending on how far along you are in the game it can become a major problem. The badlands for instance has a safehouse...in fact a single safehouse...that's friggin miles from the action. So, it's always the same damned trip across the bleak Martian landscape to try again because the AI miners drove over you or something dumb.
Which leads me to the AI. The enemy AI's not too bad. They go for cover and will advance though I did run into a couple occasions where they just sat behind cover, not advancing until I ran up to them and whacked them with the hammer. The problem is your side. The miners are really only good as distractions for the enemy. They'll come in and engage some of the soldiers so you can not worry about the AI enemies surrounding you with five or six baddies all of sudden.
Other aspects of the game are pretty good as well. They've got a simple GTA-like alert system where the amount of carnage and specifically actions against EDF will increase an indicator from green to yellow, orange and eventually red. You can wait out yellow and orange if you can find a good hiding spot but red requires you to head back to the safehouse to clear it. You can set waypoints on missions or some random spot and get arrows on the road that take you there (even keeping up with your wanderings if you go off-road). Vehicles can be fun, especially when you get one of those solid vehicles (or one of the walkers that you'll pick up in the plot missions). Massive destruction.
Outside of the main plot, there's multiplayer and a Wrecking Crew feature where you can try to do as much damage as you can with a single weapon, unlimited ammo and a time limit. Your times get posted to a leaderboard (if you're logged in via Games For Windows) to compare yourself against everyone else.
Put together, it's a great game with a lot of fun. The console influence is there but it doesn't hinder you much (fortunately you can save pretty much anywhere unless you're at the red alert level or in the middle of a mission). There are times when I just get a kick out of hopping in a vehicle and looking for some build that needs to be taken down.
I can't say I had any of the issues other people had with the game. I'm running WinXP on three year old tech that wasn't top of the line back then but was up there (say a 7 or 8 out of 10). I've got a 8800GT. It ran just fine. My only technical quibble is the Games for Windows implementation won't keep me logged in between sessions. In other words, I have to log in every time I run the game or it won't do it for me.
The price is low for a PC (and especially for a console) game and it's a lot of destructive fun. Definitely worth grabbing if you can.
 Not for the weak system October 28, 2009
H. Bass (Chicago, IL)
I got this game a few weeks ago an totally enjoy it. I wouldn't recommend having a slow system or a video card with little ram. I have a dual core system running XP and a 8800 GT video card with 512 megs of ram. I had problems in areas where there was a lot of action with the system slowing down to a crawl and really killing the processor. The worst was when my video card fried the screens just went black. Went out and picked up a card with 1 gig of ram and have had no problems since. The game plays great even in areas of tons of action.
I enjoy the game alot, being able to bust up just about anything is really cool. As your alert level goes up more EDF come until you are pretty much surrounded by enemy this can get really intense trying to get out of the line of fire. Not found of a few of the weapons they give you, they're more a waste of time then help.
Overall the scenarios they give are pretty good and as you get better they become harder. The best part is that you don't have to follow any given path; you can go off on your own one day and follow their orders the next. It is a good idea to do as many of the actions they supply as the more you finish the more upgrades you receive.
I've completely finished about 3 times now and have started on a fourth. It is enjoyable and will keep your interest until something better comes along.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
|
