Mars Wars - The Miners Strike Back (Red Faction (PS2))

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Red Faction (PS2)
Date:	21/10/08 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good size single player mission, some fun to be had in multiplayer

Disadvantages: Some lacklustre weaponry, load times, Geo - Mod limited

You play as Parker who, along with thousands of other people, had come to work for the mining company Ultor Cooporation on Mars in the hope that it would lead to a better life. But conditions are poor, and the Ultor guards treat the miners like dirt. Looks like it's time to strike back, and join the revolution. Oh, and do something about the deadly plague that is spreading.

Weapons-wise, I would have thought a pistol weapon be dependable in an FPS but the 12MM Pistol was inaccurate. As for the Remote Charge, Grenades and Rocket Launcher, their explosions hardly packed a punch. Saying that, there are bigger, and better weapons to pick up later, though with the Rail Driver it's one-hit kills, and in the hands of the enemy means many a player death. This can be a pain since to load from a previous save takes a while. Also, the game is broken down into smaller sections for some laborious loading, and it's more-or-less one objective after the other. The game does well to memorise dropped goods in previous parts, but when dealing with enemies, should the player trigger another section for loading then the enemies might disappear - so it can be disruptive to the action.

Since the game is not divided into distinct stages, players can't pick a part to play again with level achievements as an aim, thus single-player replay value is not too hot. As well as that, players do have to be careful with being able to save anywhere. I'm sure this game has its share of glitches (I encountered one dodgy one during my play-through) as well as dramatic 'time is running out' sections. Thankfully, multiple save files are allowed.

With Geo-Mod Technology, environments can be destroyed and altered in real-time, so this paves the way for new passageways, and lets bridges be blown-up, but actual opportunities for this are few and far between - if it wasn't because the game had a need to stick to a fairly linear level design then it was down to a lack of ammunition. However, the disappointing aspect is the inconsistency of damage to objects, particularly when in-doors.

I played this game on the Medium difficulty setting and it was not easy, for sure. The enemies were not exactly bad shots, and against the merceneries at least, however little I was exposed I seemed an easy target to them by the shots they were getting in. Also, it's rare to get the initiative in battle - it's as if they had been waiting for me. As for the stealth section (count two), expect to have to load up a couple of times.

The controls for the vehicles in this game are handled well; controls-wise ladder-climbing was neatly done, but a problem I had was weapon selection in haste, with the slightly transparent display not helping much either.

Had I not known this to be by Volition, I would have guessed from the cut scenes that this was a game by the makers of the PS2 RPG Summoner, as the characters have a similar dodgy quality to them, but I liked these sequences. The environments in this game were rather bland though, but there were nice glass shatter effects. The NPCs can be such a nuisance - if they weren't ducking down in the doorway then their cries were annoying. The use of the music was effective in this game however.

The game does have a multiplayer mode which, though not as comprehensive as those of some of the competition, allows two players and a handful of bots to battle it out amongst each other. Red Faction is a rather average FPS, but I found it to be about worth finishing for the finale.

Summary: Red Faction for PS2