Red Faction 2 
In a desperate search for something new to entertain myself with(Raven Shield just did not do it for me; perhaps I burned out waiting for it all these months), I stumbled across a game that caught my interest at a local video game store. It was Red Faction 2. I knew that Vietcong was the one to get, but it's high price tag($69.99 CAD) made me opt against it. Red Faction 2 seemed like a worthy time spender. After spending a good hour with the game, I'm ready to comment on my experience with it.
First of all, I have to mention that I enjoyed first RF a lot and finished its single player campaign many times. GeoMod engine was something new back then and the game had good graphics for its time. In short, ever since RF2 came out on PlayStation2, I was waiting for it for be ported on PC. I was hoping for some good old fun.
The game got finally released on PC today and when I saw RF2 going for $20 USD at the store, I knew it was a buy. I also knew that there was something weird when I first looked at the pricetag. a NEW PC game, going for only $20 USD..? Xbox and GC counterparts retail $50, which is more strange. I found out the reasons shortly after I got home...
A game like this should NEVER grace your CD/DVD-Rom..! It's an ugly looking PS2 port(sorry, PS2 owners, but RF2 is exactly the case), flawed in every single way. No wonder why PC gamers get "this" for only $20. Why bother when you got outstanding Raven Shield and Unreal 2 visuals... I was presented with the worst main menu I saw in my life(from what I could remember at the moment), poor options that do not let you change anything, bland textures, slowdown, horrible voice acting and sound(bareable music though)... This list could go on and on, and while I realize that these impressions aren't the most objective ones, I also want to warn you not to purchase this product.
As said above Red Faction features some very poor textures and its character models are probably even worse. Co-called GeoMod is so flawed that you always know what could be destroyed and what will not even move no matter how hard you try. You could take down entire towers with a grenade launcher, yet you will spend 10 grenades trying to blow up a dinky box, which will not even catch on fire.
Crosshair is a pain in the arse to aim with. It is very big and if your enemy is futher away from you, it(the crosshair) will overlap whole enemies body not making it possible to see what you're aiming for. It also take a good half of a clip to take down enemies, no matter how close you are to them and even headshots do not always help. Just keep holding down the rigger and you're going to get it eventually.
I turned down the sounds/voice after first 15 minutes, because it was absolutely impossible to concentrate with some low quality male voice constantly yelling something in the background. Therefore I cannot comment on this aspect of Red Faction 2 much, apart from stating that it's horrid.
I could however make some comments on unexpected slowdown during explosins or heavy gun fights that takes place. Shhot me, but I cannot see why an owner of R300 should be getting 25-30fps when you could not tell the difference between wall and ground texturing.
Overall, you got a full PS2 bouquet here. Bodies disappear after 2 seconds, forget about bullet holes or somewhat realistic blood and body parts flying around. By no means was I looking for a realistic gameplay when picking up Red Faction 2, but constant re-spawning out of nowhere is getting very stale these days.
No, no and no..! Red Faction 2 is dead and uninstall wizard is already making its way through a whopping 1.3GB on my HD.
This game had so much potential, but I dare to say it was killed by making it available on consoles(especially with PS2 being first).
Posted by P1x44r on 27/07/2005 14:03 
Comments (0)
Leave a Comment
Copyright © 2005-2006 P1x44r.com, all rights reserved.