Workers unite! Our martian manpower will no longer be abused and neglected for corporate greed!
That's right, we're taking some Irreverend Opinions into Red Faction!
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The Blurb
A first person shooter where you are the only one who can save the miners of Mars from oppression and effective slavery. The exploitative and heavy-handed mining operation on Mars advertises itself as something very different to their workbase, and the corporation in charge seems happy to live up to the 'bad guy' template. Spearhead the independence of the Red Planet!
The Good
Enjoyable gameplay, though as of today (2015), it's a bit dated. The AI is simple, but not unintelligent - giving yourself away means guards will track you down. The plot is simple, but gives a good pace and leaves little doubt to who is deserving of the 'hero' title.
The weapons have a decent variety to them, and let you choose your preferences for taking opponents out, with their own feel and method of play. You also get the feel of the main character being a miner, not a professional soldier, with the way that accuracy is handled - even with the reticle dead on, your shots may spread. It's easy to visualise that as being drift from an inexperienced shot.
The Bad
The sound quality was a bit average, even for the time, with some noticeably cheap voice acting and special effects more akin to an arcade game than a first person shooter. It's not bad enough to be cringeworthy, but it does break immersion pretty badly at times.
As said, the game's dated now, with graphics having been left well behind*. The AI is a little predictable, running to you, shooting/hitting at you, and then running away if they get hurt, before returning to repeat the cycle.
* The Pure Faction patch can fix many features for modern systems.
The Ugly
"Destroyable terrain", huh? For a game that made a big scene about this being so much of an important feature, they let the ball drop. A handful of walls and floors can be broken through, but this amounts to a bit of padding around the rooms, and certainly doesn't carry into anything akin to walls collapsing, rockfalls, or anything else that this might engender, and certainly doesn't allow you to bypass set checkpoints arbitrarily strewn about.
Suggestions
Honestly, use the "Pure Faction" patch (listed above) to quickly get a big improvement to your game. NB: The PureFaction patch will not display you as playing according to Steam's tracking.
The Summary
Was a good game in it's time, much worth the 8/10 I'd give it. Tried to break the mold for shooters and left an imprint on the industry. Today, I'd still give it that - but this is from someone who doesn't mind the graphics in Minecraft.
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This review is hosted for archival and backup purposes; the original can be found on Steam.
