Thankfully the pretty graphics did well to take my mind off of the building frustration. Visually, this game dazzles and shines. There are some neat technical tricks thrown in amongst the excellent texture and design work. Every time you fire a shot you can expect to be greeted by some sort of technical marvel. Shoot an electronic device? You’ll see a shower of sparks. Walk outside? You’ll witness an amazing rain effect. Level architecture is some of the best seen in a console FPS and their destruction truly is amazing. Blowing a hole into the wall doesn’t just remove a predetermined portion of it but instead removes a unique area based on the location of your blast. You’ll see that area crumble amidst a pile of smoke and rubble. The overall effect is beautiful to watch and never really does quite get old.
Player models are adequate although a bit crudely animated. Sometimes death animations are just excellent and feature some nice skeletal work on the part of the animators. Other times you’ll just see your opponents drop dead right in front of you as if death had been chasing them around with a scythe. Sometimes you’ll see nice features -like hats that can be shot off of enemies- and sometimes you’ll see your enemies suddenly just drop dead. It’s not the fault of the skeletal system though, because you’ll see some nice interaction and postures during the game’s many cutscenes. It’s just that at times the deaths feel rushed and uninspired.
An awful lot of time was put into the audio portions and it is immediately noticeable from the start. The weapon samples come through cleanly and clearly and the explosions come with enough bass to rattle your neighbor’s windows. All of the weapons sound powerful enough to give someone the impression that they are in fact lethal and deadly. Throughout the course of battle you’ll hear enemies communicate with each other as they bark out orders to each other. There are even some nice audio touches like PA announcers in subways and of course, political propaganda that blares through the speakers on a consistent basis. Voice acting in particular is well done for a game of this genre. The first person shooter genre has come a long way in terms of production values and
Red Faction 2 is a direct beneficiary of this revelation.
In order to add a bit of replay value to the game, Volition added an entertaining multiplayer mode that is capable of up to six total players, whether it be bots or human players. If you’re like Dan and you have no friends you can go solo and battle against 5 other bots in an all-out war. The multiplayer modes are excellent and addicting due to the game’s varied weapon selection. You’ll have your usual assortment of modes including, Arena, deathmatch and of course, capture the flag.
The Playstation 2 has become a viable platform for the first person shooter genre and games like
Red Faction 2 are indicative of this statement. Is it better than
Time Splitters 2? It’s purely a judgment call, if you crave an awesome single-player experience then you should definitely pick up
RF2. If you’re in it for the multiplayer, however, maybe you should pick up the latter. There are no multiplayer co-op modes and the only modes of play come in your usual assortment of deathmatch-like variants. Either way, this is a great time for console FPS fans and if you’re like me, you’ll want to have both of these titles in your collection.
When THQ told me that the sequel to one of last year’s best first person shooters would be a PS2 exclusive I was a bit disappointed. I loved playing the game on the PC and I feared that the Dual Shock 2 just wouldn’t be capable of providing the precise input that comes with the mouse and keyboard combination. After having played
Red Faction 2 on the PS2 and while it still can’t compete with the best of what the PC has to offer, it does quite well in providing an entertaining console FPS experience. There is enough variation and mayhem here to keep you confined to your living room couch for a long long time.
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The sequel to one of last year’s best first person shooters delivers on nearly all fronts. A great game that is technically sound and fun to play. Best of all? There’s tons of stuff to blow up!
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