Eos

   STORY

You play as Parker, a miner for the Ultor corporation on Mars. Brutal and inhumane treatment is common. Miners are dying left and right from an awful plague. One group of miners has had enough. The Red Faction (as they call themselves) quickly takes up arms and revolts against Ultor. Parker joins them after watching the brutal killing of one of his friends. The story now unfolds.

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   ENEMY AI.

To tell you the truth, the AI isn’t too hot. It doesn’t show us anything new. Your enemies are relatively weak and stupid. They normally act alone instead of working with each other. Nothing new here.

   MUSIC AND VOICE ACTING.

That is one disgusting sound track. I’ll say it just once: if you get your games for the music, don’t finish this review, just forget about Red Faction. The voices aren’t too good either.

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   RED FACTION GAMEPLAY.

The fact that you can alter the environment really kicks ass. If a door is locked, blow your way around it. Sometimes you have to blow a hole in the wall to find a secret room or move a rock pile in your way. There are a few vehicles to hijack, but they aren’t as impressive as Halo’s vehicles.

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   RED FACTION WEAPONS.

Red Faction contains many powerful and good-looking weapons, each one with different abilities.

• Riot Shield: This can withstand small arms fire only and all you can do with it is smack people with it.
• Control Baton: Quite strong at short range. This can be used as a club or a cattle prod… Zzaaapp!!!
• 12mm Pistol: This can be useful in taking out enemies silently. This is only good against unarmored targets.
• Sub Machinegun: Gee pa, that there’s one fast gun. This gun can level a foe with regular or armor piercing rounds.
• Auto Shotgun: Firing automatic or pump action, either way will silence enemies fast.
• Assault Rifle: Strong, but just won’t cut it at long range. Use three round burst if you’re going for accuracy, or go ahead and use auto fire.
• Sniper Rifle: Slow firing and has a small clip. Despite this, it’ll do the trick.
• Remote Charge: This shouldn’t be used in combat. Use it for traps and blasting stuff around.
• Grenade: This explosive can detonate upon impact or run on a timer. Good for blasting groups of enemies.
• Flamethrower: It kills quickly, but a burning enemy is still dangerous. You are allowed to detach a canister and use it as a flame grenade.
• Rocket Launcher: Old faithful won’t let you down. Fire a rocket and you will lose your troubles. Secondary fire is heat seeking.
• Rail Gun: With an X-ray scope and shots that penetrate walls, it is the sniper’s dream come true. However, you can fire only one shot at a time.
• Precision Rifle: This semi auto gun fires explosive rounds with perfect accuracy. Equipped with a scope, it can mow down foes.
• Heavy Machinegun: Very inaccurate. The huge magazine compensates for this, however.
• Fusion Rocket: Don’t get near the blast! This weapon delivers a huge payload of damage.

Parker

   CONCLUSION.

Red Faction is the second first person shooter for the Playstation 2. Although it is better than TimeSplitters, it nowhere near approaches the excellence of XBox's debut FPS Halo: Combat Evolved. So, either rent Red Faction or buy a used copy.