The Post-Game: Red Faction II

Red Faction II is the sequel that fans of the Red Faction franchise would rather forget. Decent graphics for the time, trouble free gameplay (no crashes & full 1080p), multiple environments (some levels are completed on foot, others in planes, others in tanks, others in power armor), and great voice acting (Lance Henriksen and Jason Statham).

So what are the drawbacks?

Red Faction II contains little or nothing that made the first Red Faction game a classic. The game is linear as hell. So was the first game, you might say; but even within the levels, there often were multiple ways to progress. Not so in Red Faction II. What about Geomod and destructible terrain? Well, that's still here, kind of. There's plenty of stuff that is destructible. But instead of unlocking different routes, Geomod's role is reduced to the only path. One level begins with Alias in an alley with both ends blocked off. There's no way to progress forward. Oh, wait, shoot those barrels. Boom! The wall explodes and (realistically) crumbles, opening a hole to walk through. There's your Geomod.

Also missing is the Everyman character. Parker (Red Faction), Alec Mason (Red Faction Guerrilla), and Darius Mason (Red Faction Armageddon) were all ordinary joes called upon to be heroes. In Red Faction II, we play as a Nano-agumented super soldier who is already special. The plot might look fine on paper – super soldiers attempt to overthrow a despot – but the execution isn't even up B-movie standards (maybe C-movie standards). And while the voice acting is good, there's no emotional attachment with Alias (your character), even when he is betrayed and has to fight an entirely new enemy about half-way through the game.

Red Faction II is also short for a fps. A complete run-through clocked in around 5 hours. The enemies are generic and repetitive (even the “zombies” of later levels present little challenge). If you're good at getting head-shots, you'll be able to coast through this one. The boss battles do present a decent challenge; the final boss is insanely hard / old school at first. Then I realized his pattern (from which he never deviates), and beat him in 90 seconds. There was one boss that had a charged electrical field for protection; if he got too close, and you became electrocuted, all of your controls become inverted (left is right, down is up). That was fun and a great challenge.

But one unique and fun boss isn't enough to save a game, and unfortunately Red Faction II has little else of interest. Skip it unless you can get it REALLY cheap.

Of note: If battling bots is something you like, you might be interested in Red Faction II's highly customizeable Bot-Match mode. There are quite a few maps and a great variety of weapons. Though why wouldn't you just play Quake 3 or Classic Nexuiz if that's what you're after?