Red Faction
Description official descriptions
The Ultor Corporation of Mars is successful because of the mineral wealth of that planet. It employs a number of miners and scientists to mine the Noachite ores far underground. The miners are constantly pressured by the guards to work harder and faster, while at the same time being forced to share their meager resources. While the mines itself are dangerous, so too is the mysterious plague that has broken out among the ranks of miners, killing many. Into this low morale situation, propaganda against Ultor has begun appearing, signed only by "Eos". These pamphlets and posters urge the miners to rise up against their oppressors and take a stand, also recruiting members into their secretive "Red Faction". As a result of Eos' efforts, tensions are rising high between the Ultor corporation and its workers, any little incident could ignite...
Red Faction is a first-person shooter. Players take the role of Parker, a miner working underground for the Ultor Corporation. Equipped in an environment suit, Parker is protected from various hazards and able to breathe deep in the mines and in airless locations. At times, Parker also needs to travel undercover in a less protective disguise. Parker defends himself with a variety of weapons, most of which feature a primary and secondary firing mode. The weapons are divided into: hand weapons such as riot shields and flamethrowers, light arms which include pistols and shotguns, heavy arms featuring rocket launchers and sub-machine guns and finally weapons that are thrown or placed such as grenades and explosives. The game features a variety of vehicles to drive in first-person; including jeeps, drillers, flying craft and submarines. In order to survive, Parker must link up and aid his fellow miners, receiving direction and objectives via com-link messages.
Red Faction features a game engine called Geo-Mod. It allows holes to be blasted into all manner of terrain including floors, walls and ceilings. While limited to certain surfaces, such as rock, ice and concrete, this nonetheless results in a more destructible environment where deviation from the level design is encouraged. Players are able to at multiple points, create their own paths, tunneling past obstacles and into new environments. Only heavy explosives; such as missiles, torpedoes, grenades and plastique will allow the terrain destruction of this sort.
Spellings
- Red Faction :สŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸Łŕ¸˛ŕ¸Ąŕšŕ¸ŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕ¸ˇŕ¸ŕ¸ - Thai spelling
- 红č˛ć´žçłť - Simplified Chinese spelling
Groups +
- BPjS / BPjM indexed games
- Console Generation Exclusives: PlayStation 2
- Gameplay feature: Body dragging
- Gameplay feature: Freely destructible terrain
- Games with Dopefish
- Middleware: Bink Video
- PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits releases
- PlayStation 2 Platinum Range releases
- Red Faction series
- Setting: Mars
- Setting: Space station / Spaceship
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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)
127 People (103 developers, 24 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 80% (based on 58 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 151 ratings with 17 reviews)
Geo-Mod and great multiplayer make up for all the single player dullness!
The Good
I bought Red Faction for the same reason as anybody else: because of the "Geo-Mod Engine". This piece of software allows you to alter the game's environment by shooting holes into walls and rock structures and letting glass break with the most detailed splinter-effects you've ever seen. The feature is just as amazing as it sounds and everyone ends up spending hours digging tunnels through the martian underground simply because it's so much fun.
You could now expect the game to only concentrate on the geo-modding without any attention to other aspects of gameplay but it's totally the other way round! In fact you badly miss the Geo-Mod in single player missions while you will find enough other features most of which you hardly ever see in other games. There are many drivable vehicles including a stylish sub-marine, a driller and an APC. Infra-red devices let you see people through walls. Bullets ricochet from metal surfaces and riot shields can be used to fend off enemy fire.
Unlike many others I even liked the enemy AI in single player. The guards will take cover, wait for you around a corner and and even try to shoot remote charges from a save distance instead of running into them blindly.
I didn't expect this game to have full Geo-Mod support in multiplayer but, well... I was wrong. Sooo wrong. In fact multiplayer makes much better use of Geo-Mod than single player. The 27 maps, including 7 CTF ones are all very well designed and deliver some of the best multiplayer-gameplay I know and I've played quite a few FPS games.
Last but not least Volition also was smart enough to put the RED level editor on the disk. RED is very easy to use and there is a huge mapping and modding community that is keeping RF fresh and alive.
The Bad
The single player of RF is simply not that good. There are some nice ideas including stealth-gameplay and underwater-fights but you never really feel like being involved in the crude "martian miner-revolt" story. I love secret-agent style gameplay (Goldeneye/PefectDark-veteran :D ) but there was a map in RF where I had to sneak through an office-complex without using a gun and at some point I felt like "what am I doing here? Give me a rocket launcher and I'll shoot my way right into Mr Gryphon's office..." For reasons I do not understand there are only very few places in single player were the Geo-Mod engine is actually used!
Also some rather edgy maps, repetitive fights and stiff animations didn't add anything to the atmosphere.
The Bottom Line
There is a great game hiding behind some ideas that simply didn't turn out that well. Honestly, the Geo-Mod engine alone is reason enough to get this game. I would also recommend to take a look at the RF section over at www.levels4you.com to get an overview of the RF mapping and modding community which is surprisingly big. This game has it's flaws but the RF-bashing like you hear it from some gamers that were disappointed with the single player (just like me) simply isn't fair.
This game shortened my waiting time for Half-Life 2 and if you give it a try I'm sure you will learn to like it as much as I do.
Windows · by Lumpi (189) · 2004
A great game with some downfalls.
The Good
Red Faction is a very unique game. It uses GeoMod technology, which allows you to blow apart most areas of the game. This really adds to the overall excitement of it.
Graphics: They are top notch. The characters look crisp, and the levels are sharp. The high resolution textures make the game look more beautiful.
Sound: The sound is good; not great, but good. Each weapon sounds good, and the environmental sounds are equally done. Rock crushers, tumbling rock, whirring machinery...all makes you feel like you are a miner on Mars, as far out as that sounds.
Story: Unlike a lot of FPS games lately, Red Faction has a story, and a good one at that. You are a miner on Mars, and a rebellion takes place. You're caught in the middle. Pick up a gun, and start killing the Ultor guards. Throughout the game, there are numerous dialogue with the main characters of the game, namely Eos and Hendrix.
Acting: Speaking of Eos and Hendrix, they both sound professional and real, and not some corny acting that plagues most games. There are the occasional dialogue foul ups, but otherwise, it's good.
Multiplayer: The multiplayer was awful on the PS2 version, and it's good to see Volition has done some improving. Connecting to and creating servers are easy, and the game is lag free most of the time. On the day Red Faction was released, there was about 60 some-odd servers online, which leads me to believe this game will be around forever.
Vehicles: It's nice to be able to drive the vehicles, including a Jeep and a Submarine. They add to the overall value of the game.
GeoMod: Blowing up stuff is just damn fun.
The Bad
The GeoMod also has it's downsides. For once, there is a limit to how much you can blow up. Once the amount of "debris" has been reached, the game will simply start showing rocks flying all over (little, pebble-like rocks) instead of actually creating holes or bringing down structures.
Multiplayer - Vehicles = Sad. Volition should've included the vehicles in multiplayer mode, or at least the Jeep, which supports a driver and a gunner.
The Bottom Line
If you are a fan of story driven FPS's, then by all means pick up Red Faction. It's single player will get you going, and it's multiplayer will finish you off.
Windows · by JPaterson (9502) · 2001
The Good
Volition circa 2001, despite their relatively small name in the business at the time, were by no means an unaccomplished development house, existing as one half of the now defunct Parallax Software, creators of the Descent games. Volition already had the fantastic Freespace titles under their belt, but Red Faction represented their first attempt at the first person shooter genre.
Interestingly, Red Faction began life as Descent 4, a game I would much rather see, and there is evidence of this in numerous places; the proprietary GeoMod âblow-up-anythingâ engine was originally slated for D4. When RF came out I was particularly ecstatic with it; the ability to arbitrarily blast the hell out of anything was (in the places the game allowed it) a ton of fun and something nobody had ever tried at the time, and the gameâs overall presentation was really quite impressive. Stylistically, Red Faction comprises of a thick mix of Half-Life gameplay, with a thick topping of Total Recall and some very light peppering of Deus Ex.
With all of these elements being taken from cult classics, surely Red Faction contained the makings of a truly classic game? Well, Iâd suppose the thing that makes a classic a classic in the first place, is typically the ability of a piece to try and succeed at something that has never been done before; a million dollar idea multiplied by a million dollar production and a ton of spit and polish. Red Faction, by comparison, doesnât really have an original polygon in its body, so the best you can hope for, really, is a solid first person shooter with some great technology to back it up.
To be fair, there are some good ideas here. I loved the idea of being able to go tunnelling with my rocket launcher and skewering people through walls with the rail gun â but not one to paint itself into a corner, Red Faction also features some extensive âundercoverâ sections where you travel through some high-security areas in disguise, watching out for security cameras and guards at every turn. Thereâs some interesting set pieces, such as the first time you see a shuttle get blown up through the window. The graphics are pretty good; on the PC, the visuals are much more polished and sharper to boot; the gameâs many explosions, slow shattering of glass and empty shell casings flying all over the place are fantastic to behold. Sound effects are pretty good as well, all the weapons provide some nice aural feedback with chunky firing sounds and a satisfying click-clack of swapping magazines. Throwing sticky bombs at enemies and watching them running around screaming like girls as they flailed their arms spastically above their heads was endlessly hilarious to boot (although retarded).
The gameâs central characters exhibited a great amount of potential. Eos was an enigma of a woman, with her strange appearance and unusual drive in the face of oppression; Parker, the playerâs character, was not quite a silent protagonist either and had plenty to say during the gameâs occasional cutscenes.
In all honesty thatâs about the most praise I can offer for the game. Now for the sweet, sweet catharsisâŚ
The Bad
Good ideas are multipliers. A fresh, original concept coupled with a great production will make for an instant classic, whether it gets the recognition it deserves or not â Red Faction is a great example of lots and lots of ideas that have been done before, and throwing them all together into a half-arsed mishmash that tries everything but succeeds at nothing. My most significant criticisms of the game come from three pillars:
Firstly, though itâs strong on a visual front, the game engine strangely feels very much like it was made to be⌠well, a Descent game. Player physics feel very floaty when youâre jumping and running feels like youâre gliding on air. Bullet impacts come out as puffy little explosions, as if they were from lasers. Character animations are stiff and wooden and the AI is similarly robotic. Many sections of the game involve you running down very long tunnels with very little else to do, and feedback from shooting your enemies feels very clean and subdued. The length stealth section in the middle of the game drives home how deliberate and clumsy some sections have been implemented; all the time youâre running away from the telepathic guards that spotted you from across the room and behind that pillar, youâre just thinking about how easily youâd have smashed the meagre resistance here if youâd just kept all the weapons and armour that you supposedly gave away to make your job easier.
Secondly, the level design underscores the developerâs failure to construct a game world that plays the strengths of the design of the game and its underlying technology. When I heard of Red Factionâs revolutionary GeoMod technology, I envisioned epic firefights with destruction on a huge scale, with towers collapsing, blasting away peoplesâ cover, glass windows getting blasted out left and right, vehicles mowing down foes all and sundry, shooting out false walls to plunder secret areas for goodies⌠and while at one or two points the game does almost achieve this, for the rest of this longer-than-average journey youâre running down empty corridors, creaming faceless guards shouting âmine scum!â, tasering civilians out of sheer boredom and shooting screechy mutant creatures with pistols.
Itâs absurd that after giving you this wondrous new technology of arbitrary destruction, the game almost immediately takes it away again by putting you in cramped corridors of indestructible scenery. For a supposed full-scale planetary revolt, once you see your miner buddies trying to help you out, you begin to piece together how everyone got so oppressed in the first place; your friends in Red Faction are utterly incompetent every step of the way, prancing gleefully into every gun battle with heavily armed guards, who then ice them with a single shot. Every time a miner supposedly tries to help you, they either flee for their lives or are immediately killed after performing their intended function. This becomes even more hilariously frustrating towards the end once the mercs roll in â tough as nails and armed to the teeth, your Red Faction buddies boldly run up against them with their pop guns at the ready, half the time getting turned to vapour before they even enter the room.
Even if the gameplay wasnât all that gripping however, the game could still coast on its setting and characters alone. Which brings me to my most scathing criticism â Red Faction is a game with no soul. Every element is ripped off of something else; the Martian rebellion comes straight from Total Recall, the set pieces are ripped straight from Half-Life, the âmysterious plague!â was already done much better in Deus Ex, etc etc⌠truly, Red Faction cleans out the clichĂŠ closet and then comes back for more. Character development is pretty much non-existent; while the manual features some extensive character bios, none of what it mentions actually impacts or is even mentioned in the game proper and basically all youâre left with is some very cardboard cut-out people. Perhaps the worst offender of all is Parker himself, who apparently is supposed to take on the nonchalant, sarcastic anti-hero type of vibe but just ends up coming off as a total wanker. Even during cutscenes other characters seem to be aware of this, frequently brushing the player off or leaving him alone as soon as they are able.
The Bottom Line
In the end, Red Faction is simply not a game that even came close to living up to its fantastic potential and will certainly not be remembered fondly in the same way as some classics of its time will be. Iâd quite highly recommend avoiding it, and especially its god-awful sequel.
Windows · by Ian McLean (10) · 2010
Trivia
Game engine
Although hailed as its main feature, the GEOMOD engine is really the SECOND 3-D engine to allow deformable realtime terrain. The first engine was part of an independent game, Tread Marks
German PC version
On March 29, 2003, Red Faction (PS2) was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games. The German PC version of Red Faction is heavily cut. The flame thrower is missing and there is no blood at all. The game still got an "Age 18+" rating.
Hidden movie
There's a hidden movie in the game's data\movies\ folder. It's a executable file named technochunk.exe,and running it gives you a short movie of various game characters dancing to techno music.
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Related Sites +
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Red Faction Section at Levels 4 You
The biggest map and mod database for Red Faction containing thousands of files some of which are real gems. -
redtechnologies
Everything you need to know about the RED level editor for Red Faction. This site also has a forum for RF mappers and mod-makers.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Kartanym.
PlayStation 4 added by Charly2.0. PlayStation 3 added by Sciere. Macintosh added by Kabushi. Windows added by MAT.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, phlux, Alaka, Lumpi, Abhisit Chanmana.
Game added May 29, 2001. Last modified March 30, 2024.