Half-Life without the structure, Halo without the spectacle. It’s got a bit of camp on its side, some impressive tech with the destructible environments, and not much else.
Honestly didn’t even feel like there was any purpose to said impressive tech. It was the definitive answer to a few situations, yet wasn’t applicable in others. Some of the bunkers blow up, and some don’t! Lost on me.
The story is fairly uninspired, carried by faint glimmers of funny character moments. Parker (the player character) shoots the main villain during his introduction sequence, but he’s protected by an invincible nanotech shield, so it’s pointless. Said villain then carefully explains how he’s protected by an invincible nanotech shield, only for Parker to just dump another mag into him anyway- because he’s just such an angry, die hard revolutionary, he doesn’t care.
Other things, like guards accidentally firing into crowds of unarmed workers they’re here to protect is an amusing bit of commentary. Your hacker companion, Hendrix, guiding you into a room during a stealth segment, only for him to say “This is where I work, hi :)” was the most endearing moment in an otherwise bland array of characters.
Also, stealth sections! There are a couple of them that break up the shooting sections as things start heating up, and I thought they were interesting- if a bit clunky. They’re not used to their fullest potential- giving you a more in-depth look at the atrocities committed by Ultor Corp, or even showing you another side to the conflict, and they are entirely optional, so nothing is stopping you from just shooting everyone up anyway. Given how frustratingly binary the stealth can be, you’ll probably want to.
Shooting’s alright, it’s there. Loads of guns, you’ll probably pick one or three favourites and won’t use anything else. Surprisingly very few play into the environmental destruction aspect, with two rocket launchers (yes, two) and some blast charges filling that role. I don’t know whose idea it was to make a one-shot-kill railgun that doesn’t just shoot through walls, it comes with a scope that allows you to see through them, I also don’t know whose idea it was to put that into the hands of mercenaries that strafe like Unreal Tournament bots and are crack shots to boot. I don’t know, but they should probably never have ideas ever again.
I think there’s a tightrope in game design between making a level a believable place that exists within its own world, and making it actually fun to go through. Black Mesa looks like a facility that could reasonably exist in our world, and so does the Ultor complex. But Black Mesa is also a series of levels in a video game, and functions perfectly as such, where Ultor complex has a load of oversized rooms and repetitive, looping hallways. Actually a lot like some of the stuff in the original Halo, but without the much more engaging art design.
There are seemingly huge swaths of totally missable, completely pointless areas- especially as the final levels pan out- as it usually costs you just as many resources exploring said areas as you might (read: MIGHT) stand to gain. The mercenaries do so much damage, it isn’t worth the risk. And then it can be just plain confusing. You can, many times, go into a side-route, only to realise you’re going backwards through a side-route whose entrance you missed earlier. It’s dizzying and keeps you from straying from the stated path after a while.
And then there’s the pacing, it’s absolutely frantic. Half-Life (and I know it is a little bit unfair to compare this game so unfavourably to Half-Life, sorry) has chapters, many of which have clear cut goals that can encompass the entire section. Red Faction just starts and stops the tension almost instantly. Imagine if you could beat the Gargantua in Power Up in thirty seconds, that pretty much happens in Red Faction- complete with having to kill it with an environmental trap. Red Faction skips set up and pay off, things just happen.
Oh, that invincible nanotech shield I mentioned earlier? Parker had it right. You do just shoot the thing and it eventually ceases to function. The main antagonist dies in one assault rifle mag, halfway through the game. It’s bonkers.
I checked out about halfway through it, and that isn’t particularly long. The game is (mercifully) quite short, that’s one of the best things about it. From what I understand, Red Faction only goes up from here, but I have no idea who would stick around for the ride.
Honestly didn’t even feel like there was any purpose to said impressive tech. It was the definitive answer to a few situations, yet wasn’t applicable in others. Some of the bunkers blow up, and some don’t! Lost on me.
The story is fairly uninspired, carried by faint glimmers of funny character moments. Parker (the player character) shoots the main villain during his introduction sequence, but he’s protected by an invincible nanotech shield, so it’s pointless. Said villain then carefully explains how he’s protected by an invincible nanotech shield, only for Parker to just dump another mag into him anyway- because he’s just such an angry, die hard revolutionary, he doesn’t care.
Other things, like guards accidentally firing into crowds of unarmed workers they’re here to protect is an amusing bit of commentary. Your hacker companion, Hendrix, guiding you into a room during a stealth segment, only for him to say “This is where I work, hi :)” was the most endearing moment in an otherwise bland array of characters.
Also, stealth sections! There are a couple of them that break up the shooting sections as things start heating up, and I thought they were interesting- if a bit clunky. They’re not used to their fullest potential- giving you a more in-depth look at the atrocities committed by Ultor Corp, or even showing you another side to the conflict, and they are entirely optional, so nothing is stopping you from just shooting everyone up anyway. Given how frustratingly binary the stealth can be, you’ll probably want to.
Shooting’s alright, it’s there. Loads of guns, you’ll probably pick one or three favourites and won’t use anything else. Surprisingly very few play into the environmental destruction aspect, with two rocket launchers (yes, two) and some blast charges filling that role. I don’t know whose idea it was to make a one-shot-kill railgun that doesn’t just shoot through walls, it comes with a scope that allows you to see through them, I also don’t know whose idea it was to put that into the hands of mercenaries that strafe like Unreal Tournament bots and are crack shots to boot. I don’t know, but they should probably never have ideas ever again.
I think there’s a tightrope in game design between making a level a believable place that exists within its own world, and making it actually fun to go through. Black Mesa looks like a facility that could reasonably exist in our world, and so does the Ultor complex. But Black Mesa is also a series of levels in a video game, and functions perfectly as such, where Ultor complex has a load of oversized rooms and repetitive, looping hallways. Actually a lot like some of the stuff in the original Halo, but without the much more engaging art design.
There are seemingly huge swaths of totally missable, completely pointless areas- especially as the final levels pan out- as it usually costs you just as many resources exploring said areas as you might (read: MIGHT) stand to gain. The mercenaries do so much damage, it isn’t worth the risk. And then it can be just plain confusing. You can, many times, go into a side-route, only to realise you’re going backwards through a side-route whose entrance you missed earlier. It’s dizzying and keeps you from straying from the stated path after a while.
And then there’s the pacing, it’s absolutely frantic. Half-Life (and I know it is a little bit unfair to compare this game so unfavourably to Half-Life, sorry) has chapters, many of which have clear cut goals that can encompass the entire section. Red Faction just starts and stops the tension almost instantly. Imagine if you could beat the Gargantua in Power Up in thirty seconds, that pretty much happens in Red Faction- complete with having to kill it with an environmental trap. Red Faction skips set up and pay off, things just happen.
Oh, that invincible nanotech shield I mentioned earlier? Parker had it right. You do just shoot the thing and it eventually ceases to function. The main antagonist dies in one assault rifle mag, halfway through the game. It’s bonkers.
I checked out about halfway through it, and that isn’t particularly long. The game is (mercifully) quite short, that’s one of the best things about it. From what I understand, Red Faction only goes up from here, but I have no idea who would stick around for the ride.
The PS2 version is practically ruined by poor performance, quaint controls, long loading times and a weird save system. Honestly, one of the most frustrating experiences I've had with a game in recent memory. It was a mistake to play that version, but I'd had it in my backlog for years, so I figured what the hell.
The game by itself is not perfect, but it has some redeeming qualities. Namely, the atmosphere. The music is quite good and can be enjoyed on its own - it reminds me of KMFDM. The art style is very reminiscent of Total Recall (and other Verhoeven movies). They're are a few interesting weapons. And there's also the geo-mod tech, of course, which is underutilized, but still fun to mess around with. The game as a whole has always had a bit of a Half-Life vibe for me, but there're probably a lot of games from this period which tried to imitate Valve's work to some degree.
Unfortunately, Half-Life this is not. The gameplay is just not on that level. The AI is kinda funny for the first 15 minutes, until it gets annoying and every single human enemy behaves the exact same way throughout the game. Non-human enemies are even less enjoyable to engage with. There are nasty difficulty spikes during the last third of the game, including enemies who can one-shot kill you through walls. Yup.
Anyway, I understand that there's a community patch for the PC version which fixes up the game nicely for modern systems. I think if you play it that way, you can probably overlook a lot of it's fundamental flaws and enjoy the good parts. In the PS2 version the issues are just amplified tenfold. I'd stay clear of it, even if emulated on PS4/5.
The game by itself is not perfect, but it has some redeeming qualities. Namely, the atmosphere. The music is quite good and can be enjoyed on its own - it reminds me of KMFDM. The art style is very reminiscent of Total Recall (and other Verhoeven movies). They're are a few interesting weapons. And there's also the geo-mod tech, of course, which is underutilized, but still fun to mess around with. The game as a whole has always had a bit of a Half-Life vibe for me, but there're probably a lot of games from this period which tried to imitate Valve's work to some degree.
Unfortunately, Half-Life this is not. The gameplay is just not on that level. The AI is kinda funny for the first 15 minutes, until it gets annoying and every single human enemy behaves the exact same way throughout the game. Non-human enemies are even less enjoyable to engage with. There are nasty difficulty spikes during the last third of the game, including enemies who can one-shot kill you through walls. Yup.
Anyway, I understand that there's a community patch for the PC version which fixes up the game nicely for modern systems. I think if you play it that way, you can probably overlook a lot of it's fundamental flaws and enjoy the good parts. In the PS2 version the issues are just amplified tenfold. I'd stay clear of it, even if emulated on PS4/5.