Xbox

Red Faction II

Even with the minor quirks, Red Faction II remains a great FPS games for everyone to enjoy. If you loved the first one, this one is much better.

That aside, Red Faction II remains true to the form of it's predecessor. It's a very solid game, and definately right up there in the league of TimeSplitters 2, Hitman, and the like. Great job THQ.

While most single player games, depending on the person, are not to high on replay value, the multiplayer section of Red Faction 2 will keep you going for days with plenty of maps, a great variety of weaponry, and even bot friends for you lonesome folk.

Who would have thought that staging a revolt could be so fun? Red Faction II is a first-person shooter with plenty of action and a great story, but the heart of this game is its multiplayer fun that’s fit for a group of friends or just yourself. While the single-player story mode is relatively short and most of the levels are rather hastily put together, half the joy is completely trashing your surrounding. Fans of first-person shooters should pick this one up.

Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie wären Supersoldat, verdammt stolz darauf, Ihrem Diktator zu dienen und auf dem besten Wege, nanotechnisch verbessertes Volks-Idol des 22. Jahrhunderts zu werden. Plötzlich entscheidet sich der oberste Befehlshaber dafür, Sie und 2.000 ähnliche Schergen auszuschalten, aus Angst, seine eigenen Kreationen könnten sich gegen ihn richten. Nur ein Ausweg bleibt Ihnen: Nach Ihrer Flucht verbünden Sie sich mit den Rebellen der Red Faction, die zuvor Ihre ärgsten Feinde waren.

Red Faction II is fun, certainly, but the single-player is a bit too linear for my tastes and the game ends well before my bedtime. This really isn't a game to buy if you are only planning on playing it alone as you can easily finish the single-player mode in one weekend. However, if multiplayer is your thing, then RF II can be a lot of fun. But I would rather have had this bad boy come out a year late if it meant Xbox Live support or at least System Link. If neither of those matter to you, then this is about as top notch a multiplayer mode as you can found outside of Halo. But in the end, I found RF II a bit of a letdown because of the lack of Xbox enhancements.

Other than a slight increase in texture resolution, the only new additions to the Xbox version are exclusive multiplayer maps and character models. If you’ve never played this game before, the thrills it delivers are of the highest level, and the unique Geo-Mod technology creates a number of interesting gameplay strategies. Alas, the excitement this game generates comes and goes in a flash as the single-player experience is fairly short. The multiplayer offering is quite significant, but the game as a whole – while enjoyable – lags behind Halo and Medal of Honor.

The Xbox build looks great and suffers from none of the frame rate dips of the PS2 version. The futuristic environments feature awesome textures and details; the character animations look great; and the lighting and explosion effects are impressive. Lance Henriksen's gravelly voice acting is disappointingly stale, but at least the rocking music matches the gameplay's intensity. The controls are solid, and thanks to the design and sensitivity of the Xbox controller, getting a bead on foes is a snap, despite the lack of the auto-aim feature used in the first game. FPS fans can't go wrong with this one.

Red Faction II's audio holds up better than the graphics in translation. Though the cries of enemy soldiers repeat a bit too often, and some of their lines are pointlessly profane, the sounds of all your various weapons and explosions are loud, clear, and effective. A high-tempo electronic music score pumps in the background beneath the near-constant roar of your firearms and helps maintain the game's high intensity level.

Sur Xbox, Red Faction 2 déçoit d'autant plus que le développeur n'a pas jugé bon d'intégrer une compatibilité Xbox Live, ce qui limitera les adeptes du multijoueur à des parties à 4 en écran splitté. Et inutile d'espérer trouver quoi que soit d'inédit dans cette nouvelle mouture. C'est d'autant plus dommage qu'au début du jeu, on s'amuse plutôt bien, mais à force de se la jouer gros bourrin, le titre finit par perdre tout intérêt. On enchaîne les niveaux sans trop faire attention à ce qui se passe, on est de moins en moins « dedans » et au final, on dégomme tout ce qui veut bien nous passer sous le canon.