Red Faction II Review (Ω Yukich)
Halo Faction - Generic Sequel without a soul
So, 2 years after players rebelled against greedy employers back in the previous game - they've got another Red Faction game. Expectations were high, we continue our rebellion on the Earth, more stuff to destroy, more guns, more vehicles, better graphics, cooler fights.
Aaaand its all gone to shet.
Modern experience is basically the same as back in the day - but now you need to fix Widescreen first, deal with horrible audio on PC version and then, only then, you could play the game properly.
The sequel is basically just as bad as Deus Ex 2 but at least - its playable.
The problem is - just like with DE2 - Halo1 happened in 2001. And it sold great
So everyone thought - if they use the same approach in their games - it will work
Spoilers - NO, YOU CANT JUST TAKE EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT THE ORIGINAL - AND REPLACE IT WITH XBOX LIMITATIONS AND OTHER GAME'S STORY PROGRESSION FOR FRAK SAKE.
Long story short, you are not a rebellious miner anymore. You some generic mercenary dood John Red Miner so to speak with even more generic name - ALIAS. ALIAS, MIND YOU. NOW THAT IS A NICK NAME. HOLY SHET, WHAT ELSE COULD YOU THINK OF?! Mister Anonym?!
You start with zero explanation doing god knows what and then suddenly after spontaneous action, you are introduced to your fellow squad members who want revenge aganist...who are we fighting again? Are we not supposed to fight EDF or EarthGov or something else like that? No? Am I just being picky? Anyway, you kill the guy and OH BOY, SPOILERS, your totally not strangely rude and mean squad leader - is an arsehole and now wants to rule the world. You kill half of your evil squad, other half is good, then a very rage inducing fight versus very cheap Mech Boss - with two phases. (played that on Hard)
As for the gameplay
Short and very linear segmented levels with tons of RESPAWNING ENEMIES.
Game helps you to shoot things, since its a disgusting port of a console shooter.
But it doesn't matter since almost every gun sucks because it either sounds bad or does no damage.
Except for rocket launcher. Those sucked bad in RF1 but here - its a weapons of total annihilation.
There are some vehicles, subs are back. But you cannot fly in Fighters, only be a gunner. Same for Tanks. But at least they let you drive a BattleMech a couple of times which is...refreshing.
The enemies are dumber than before, but hit harder since there are lots of them, they respawn and also you have only 3 lives, with very slow HP REGEN and if you die - its back to the start of the level.
Thats right
There are NO MANUAL SAVES OR SKIPPABLE CUTSCENES.
Oh and btw, remember destroyable environment? Its still here - but VERY limited
There are also secret bonus objectives that unlock more art in the gallery - but I could care less about that.
At least there are more zombies to shoot. But they are armed too.
The sound can be fixed but it still forgettable
Music is mostly reused from the first game
And level design - its just brown corridors all the way.
As for the characters...the only memorable was Sopod - fake antagonist.
As for the visuals - slight upgrade of the RF1 engine - with more animations, more blood aaaand thats basically it. Outdated even for its release date.
Needless to say, I forgot everything about the game since I played it some years ago but I also remember that I disliked this game.
Now I gave it a 2-nd try - and it sucks even more.
Simply Disgusting