Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason for the drastic difference in review scores (both critic and user) between the PS2 and PC versions?

I understand that a poor quality port can hurt one's enjoyment, but these reviews seem to suggest that the underlying design is lacking, which should apply to both iterations....

Maybe because FPS games weren't as common on consoles back then, and as such a sub par game would still be a welcome change? I have yet to play Red Faction 2, i only had the first one back in the day. Currently i'm replaying RF1, after that i will see for myself how bad or not the sequel really is.

One thing worth noting is that Red Faction II has NO multiplayer. None whatsoever. While the original has online and LAN multiplayer (I'm surprised to see a small playerbase still, I had the CD copy about 10 years ago before the second disc broke).

On consoles, PS2, GC, Xbox, the game has split screen mutliplayer. No online, but split screen. I have the GameCube version myself, this is the same exact game (the HUD did use a different font, still same content as this PC version)

That said, PC only has bot-matches (consoles do in addition to split screen). Removing multiplayer is something that will hurt the score, especially since it's a norm in PC games.

Though reviews never matter to me. If anything, I found myself playing bot matches more due to a lack of people for split screen. That said, I still enjoy bot matches. If anything, I forgot how much fun naming and customizing bots can be. :D I usually don't play much online multiplayer nowadays anyway, maybe the occasional online Duke 3D Deathmatch with my IRL friend, that's about it really. I can only play online games when no one is home due to the amount of bandwidth others use in the house (I'm looking at you Netflix).

The PS2 was never a huge FPS console, so there probably wasn't as much experience with the genre among sony-only sites and magazines. You'll notice the metacritic for the Xbox version of the game are much closer, simply because the Xbox had the defining console FPS experience (Halo) to compare to.

Also, the PS2 version has 30 professional reviews, meaning a lot more of the... shall we say "back of the box" reviewers are there to contaminate the user sample versus the PC, which only has 10 pro reviews.

Still, I remember RFII being poorly received (part of why I didn't get it when it came out on Xbox, IIRC). Basically, metacritic continues to prove how ultimately useless it is, and how much better it is to seek out trustworthy reviewers whose interests line up with your own.

I finished Red Faction again earlier, and have been playing Red Faction 2. Honestly, for all of Red Faction 2's railway shooter flaws, it wouldn't be as "bad" as it is if the save system wasn't so garbage. No saves, no checkpoints, you just start at the beginning of the level. It's far more unforgiving than the genre of mindless blowing stuff up has any right to be.

Other than that it has been a great way to take my mind off of how awful the renal section is.

Better how? I don't have a problem in shooters being better on console - I play most modern shooters with a gamepad since they're designed for it anyway - but I've played RF2 a little as I have the Steam version and didn't notice anything particularly bad or consolish.

The save system would be a lot more aggravating to me if the levels weren't as short as they are. If they really didn't want to let the player manually save, however, I think they'd have been MUCH better off with a checkpoint system along the lines of Halo. This is just an odd implementation of check-pointing.

Yeah, it actually got better towards the end. They seemed to find their muse so to speak and really open up the mindless can of blowing things up.

The beginning was a tad rough though. I can't count the number of times I died in the tv station before figuring out it was that stupid catwalk that kept falling on me.

Haha, never had that happen to me, mainly becuase my stupid ass was walking around blowing shit up trying to see where I could go until the catwalk fell.

--SPOILERS--

Anyway, I will say one thing - the battles against Quill and Molov are some of the worst I've ever played in the whole of the FPS genre. Quill because of the infinite respawning of zombies and snipers around her, and Molov because both the heavy armor and dude with railgun versions pretty required exploiting the AI.

--END SPOILERS--

Needless to say, it's pretty easy to see why it took until 2009 to get the next Red Faction game (RFII originally came out in PS2 in 2002). After this one, I imagine the franchise was a bit toxic.

Better textures especially with the glass shatter, It was the same as the first Red Faction for starters

there was also rain/storm effects on the rooftop of the tv station, None of that in the PC version unless there was something needed to be done with the settings.....not sure.

Having played the first Red Faction on PS2 before the PC, and having not played RF II quite yet, here is my theory.

Console shooters resembled (especially just into the sixth gen) Goldeneye in many ways, like in aiming weapons. Time Splitters is truly fantastic, but were it not on consoles it would have been average at best with graphics that wouldn't hold up well compared to other games. With the technical limitations on consoles, and that they were released first there as well, Red Faction are quintessential as console shooters and play and are designed like them.

On PC we had games like Quake II, Shogo, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Delta Force, Vietcong, and Call of Duty (At least by when RF II was released on PC. And not just any COD, the good one.) which compared to console games from those eras were much more advanced, intricately designed, and generally of significantly greater quality. RF II was not supposed to be as good as RF in the first place and take into effect the quality in design and presentation which was expected on PC and RF II would only hope to be pretty good anyway.

However, I have not played RF II, so I have no verdict on it as of yet. Red Faction, however, is one of my favorite PS2 games and, except for the multiplayer, I find the PC version even better and much easier to access than my PS2 version. I suggest giving it BOTD until proven otherwise, but expectations will play into your enjoyment, so beware.