Red Faction

The game itself is decent fun considering how old it is. I can understand to a certain degree why people like it. One thing has to be said though. In its current state, the game can only be played with the Dash Faction patch, which is an unofficial patch. At some point you will meet at least one gamebreaking bug if you don't install it (exploding sub anyone?). To be honest it is a little sad that fan-made patches has to fix something like that. The game is still being sold after all.

Started out well, was able to blow holes in walls and create alternative paths. But that didn't last long. I don't really remember the destruction having much effect on the campaign. A few holes you could blow open but nothing that amounted to much. It was a mostly linear corridor shooter with old school enemies with precision aim. Save often. I got stuck a few time not knowing in what order I was supposed to do things to get events to trigger so I could proceed. Went downhill when the enemies with gauss rifles showed up. Instant head shots. I died a lot!! Used God Mode for the last two levels. Interesting to see how the story began but I doubt I'll ever play it again. I much preferred Red Faction Guerrilla and Armageddon to either of the first 2 games.

I bought Red Faction expecting it to be the sort of badly aged, nostalgia-only game that so many old FPS games are, but I was curious to see how the destruction system had evolved. It's actually playable though, the closest game to it in style is Half Life 1. Although it wisely sticks to a simple story well suited to the sparse storytelling style. It's no more than mildly enjoyable, but the pacing is generally well done with undemanding optional stealth sections and vehicle sections mixed in with the shooting-stuff-on-foot bits. I found the difficulty to be well judged too, although it's built around accurate semi-automatic weapons so anyone not used to games dependant on mouse accuracy may struggle. The save system is unforgiving so you'll want to use save slots and quicksaves frequently. Especially towards the end of the game where the rail-cannon wielding soldiers are difficult to identify before they fire. The destruction system in the single player campaign consists of corners being blown off walls when enemies throw or shoot explosives at you, and maybe the occasional obvious shortcut through a wall. There's no building destruction at all. It's not a game I'd recommend for someone just looking for something to play, but if you've got interest in this game or era then there's some enjoyment to be had.

I remember this game was awesome! It had destructible environments and decent MP. Now that I play this again I realize just how far we've come in game design. The levels are confusing and have multiple paths that don't need to be there. There are stealth levels that remove all your armor and collected weapons and force you to move around guards or get killed. The game is unfair in it's difficulty and often puts you in nearly impossible situations. There is no autosave or checkpoint save. Lord help you if you forget to save for an hour of play. But! It's still a fun game! I honestly enjoyed it. Maybe not as much as when it was released, but there is definitely still some fun to squeeze out of this title.

Red faction is like the majority of old fps games; you shoot guys in the face with the standard fps arsenal, getting shot at and collecting health and armour bonuses to replenish your own health from the fighting. However this game has the geomod engine, which means that certain surfaces can be destroyed to create new paths but most surfaces in single player are indestructible, making it a gimmick. Whilst blowing up the occasional wall and shooting dudes; you are being told by various characters about why the guys you are shooting are bad and where to go to next – there is not much to the story. There is also a multiplayer which makes better use of the geomod engine which has the standard multiplayer formats: deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag but very few are online to play with, which is a shame.