Red Faction 2

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Red Faction II
"Playtime is over, Alias. Let's turn up the juice." - Repta
Protagonist(s): Alias Genre(s): First-Person Shooter Rating(s): Mature PEGI 16 Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Xbox Microsoft Windows Nintendo GameCube Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Playstation 4 PlayStation 5 Release Date: PlayStation 2 NA: October 16, 2002 EU: November 15, 2002 Nintendo GameCube & Xbox (Also available for Xbox 360) NA: April 1, 2003 EU: June 6, 2003 AU: June 13, 2003 (GCN) Microsoft Windows NA: April 7, 2003 EU: June 27, 2003 PlayStation 3 NA: May 15, 2012 PlayStation 4 (Also available for PlayStation 5) WW: August 29, 2017 Xbox One (Also available for Xbox Series X/S) WW: October 24, 2017 Developer(s): Volition Cranky Pants Games (Nintendo GameCube) Outrage Games (Xbox & PC) Publisher(s): THQ Country: United States Series: Red Faction Predecessor: Red Faction Successor: Red Faction: Gurreilla

Red Faction II is a first-person shooter video game developed by Volition and published by THQ for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to Red Faction and the second installment of the Red Faction series. The Original Xbox version is compatible with Xbox 360 so that means that the game can be played on that console. On May 15, 2012, the game was re-released on the PSN Store as a PS2 classic on PlayStation 3 and on August 29, 2017, and PlayStation 4 on August 29, 2017. The game became backward compatible with both Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 24, 2017.

Sypnosis

In 2080, 5 years after the events of Red Faction, the nanotechnology developed by Axel Capek, the head scientist of the Ultor Corporation prior to its fall, has been claimed by the Earth Defense Force (EDF). With this technology, the EDF commences a reorganization of the Ultor Corporation with a particular focus on enhanced supersoldiers and suitable weaponry. However, the research that was done by Capek in his laboratories has been consequently stolen by other militant groups and assorted terrorist organizations. This has gone on for years; the research has changed hands in the criminal underworld many times. The player is introduced to their role as an explosives expert (codenamed "Alias") as he embarks on a special operations mission to claim the research data for the Republic of the Commonwealth.

Good Qualities

1. The graphics are great for 2002 standards, it also manages to smoothen out the roughness of the first game, it still looks great to this day.
2. The game improves on the controls allowing the player to move more elegantly and the animations are much shorter when reloading or when pulling out a weapon.
3. Good voice acting especially from Lance Henriksson as Molov and Jason Statham as Strife.
4. The soundtrack is amazing, especially the main theme "Sopot's Speech" and an great remix of "Accused" from the first game.
5. As mentioned above, there are more weapons to use, and some are actually fun to use.
6. The gunplay is a slight improvement as you can throw a grenade faster by pressing a certain key and the weapons are fun to use, mostly notable for the Grenade Launcher.
   • You can also dual-wield pistols and machine pistols.
7. As always, the destruction engine is nice, just like the first game.
8. Compared to the first game, there are a ton of extras to unlock, including cheat codes, concept art, models, and more.
9. Despite all of it's flaws, the game can still be enjoyable.

Bad Qualities

1. For some reason, the multiplayer is exclusive to consoles and was never made available to PCs.
2. The game itself is separated from the first game and the only mention of the first game has to do with the nanotechnology research conducted by Axel Capek, the villain of the first game.
   • You also no longer play as Parker, the protagonist from the first game and instead now you play as an unknown red faction soldier named: Alias, who has like only two dialogues throughout the entire game.
3. The game is incredibly short, lasting only 3 hours.
4. The second part of the level "Underground" has these annoying exploding spider enemies that can kill you instantly, it's even worse when you have no health pack and all of them come out at the same time.
5. The plot is really weak.
   • You're introduced to a bunch of super soldiers that have all been injected with nanotechnology and, at first, the game makes it out that Red Faction and this squad is going to fight against the tyrannical government: The Commonwealth. This goal is completed in just a couple of levels with half of the squad suddenly turning their backs on the Red Faction after the Commonwealth pleaded their allegiance to the leader: Molov. The rest of the game is hunting down these traitorous people.
     • This could've been an interesting plot or even twist at the end, but the game just rushes through all of it without giving the player any rhyme or reason as to why they should care since you barely spend any time with the squad, and their goal seems to be only that they don't want peace because then they'd be out of a job.
6. The game has three different endings, but acquiring the best ending is done through a tedious mechanic: the Heroic meter. When the player completes a bonus objective, the meter will fill. When the player kills a civilian or a friend, the meter drops. Depending on how full the meter is and how many civilians you kill will determine the ending. The problem is that the bonus objectives are never told to the player, but instead are hinted at by what your teammates say. If your teammates mention a roadblock destroying the roadblock will give you points. The balancing for the meter is also bad as it's much easier for the meter to drop than it is to fill, adding to the tediousness.
   • Speaking of which, each of the endings has the same cutscenes with very little difference.
7. The motion capture is noticeably worse than the first game with the characters standing perfectly still, not blinking, and the only thing moving is their mouth. Compare this to the first game where characters moved and talked more naturally.
8. The boss fights are incredibly hard and lazily designed as each fight requires no strategy aside from just shooting the boss (preferably with grenades since the bosses have too many healthy points) until they die.
   • Quill's fight takes place in a church where Quill herself snipes you from a balcony while enemies fire upon you from the upper level and the Processed attack you on the ground. This may sound difficult, but as long as you move around a pillar close to the balcony and kill the enemies around you while spamming grenades toward Quill, you'll win pretty easily.
   • Reptta's fight is in a generator room where electricity is flying everywhere (which can hurt you), and he wields a quintuple grenade launcher. All while fighting on a series of railings that is mostly vertical. You can easily die if you stop moving at any point and as the boss fight progresses some of the railing will fall.
     • You also have to fight him again, but this time he has telekinesis and constantly jumps around. The area is also completely horizontal and mostly consists of the player standing around in a mech and shooting him.
   • Molov has easily the worst boss fight, it is one of the most unfair bosses out of all. He's in a mech suit and you have to fight him, all of the while while, using a wall as a shield, the wall will also be destroyed if it takes too long to kill him. The mech can easily be defeated as you get Reptta's grenade launcher from the previous fight and will drain the mech's health. However, once that's done, Molov gets out and fights you with a rail gun which can insta-kill you. The only way to counter this is by constantly strafing in one direction and jumping until he fires and then shifts to the opposite direction. If you don't, he will kill you everytime.
   • It's even worse that once you die, you restart from the checkpoint and you have to watch that stupid cutscene again because the in-game cutscenes are unskippable.
   • And we do mean stupid because that cutscene starts with Tangier using a small shield while trying to escape from Molov, which is stupid because Molov doesn't even bother to shoot, he just stands there, it must be seen in order to believe.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions received "favorable" reviews, while the Xbox and PC versions received "mixed or average reviews", according to Metacritic.

The game's short campaign and lack of online multiplayer were criticized by many. Redeeming features include dual wielding, great split-screen multiplayer, and improved graphics.

Fans were not pleased with the game and considered it to this day to be the black sheep of the franchise.

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