I was going to wait for the end of the game before I did this review, but I think I've seen enough at this point. Anything else I might learn would just be a spoiler at this point anyway. The verdict: Red Faction is a flawed masterpiece.
I'll eventually get to the major points, but first I'd like to talk about some of the little things. The fact that the colonists on Mars don't have a common language, and speak various languages including German, French, and Japanese. The way certain kinds of chemical explosions will emit different colored flames because of what's combusting. The news broadcasts and NPC conversations that are sensitive to whatever you've recently been doing. The way that enemy NPCs will switch up their combat banter depending on what you're shooting them with. It's little, but it adds a lot of flavor. But then there's the other little things. Like the way allies will crowd around your car, simultaneously making your whole group an easy target and cutting off your ability to maneuver without killing them. The fact that the enemies automatically forget you exist whenever you cross the line into your "secret" base, which the enemy never finds despite it being right out in the open half the time. The collectible easter eggs that are hidden on top of craggy mountains that are just all kinds of frustrating to get on top of. None of these things really ruin the game for me, but they are still annoying.
Now, onto the gameplay: Imagine GTA 4 had a fully destructible environment, employed the Gears of War aiming mechanic, then you'd have the basics idea. Then throw in a fundamentally different environment, as Mars is not a sprawling metropolis but rather a sparsely populated colonial world, with small settlements and buildings here and there, and add a very diverse set of weapons. There's your standard pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher, of course, but then there's a wide selection of much more interesting weapons made from improvised mining tools, all of which are upgradeable in some fashion. One of my favorites was a cannon that fires sawblades, which explode on contact after an upgrade. Another gun fires a sith-like burst of electricity, which can fry people even if they're inside cars. As a bonus, it leaves the vehicle untouched, which allows you to steal it- nothing turns the tables faster than using this trick on a tank.
The game's destruction engine falls just a bit short of perfect, but as the very first implementation of something on this level, I must say I'm impressed. It is quite functional in terms of both gameplay and visuals, and it's a LOT of fun. After playing the demo, I predicted before that I would eventually get tired of watching buildings fall down, but I also predicted it would take a long time before that happened. While I still imagine this is true, I haven't gotten tired of blowing things up yet.
Sledgehammer. Remote charges. Missile launchers. That metal-eating cloud from the GI Joe Trailer. Black freaking holes. There are just so many different ways to make these gigantic buildings fall down, I have yet to even come close to tiring of it. From time to time, the quirky physics engine will allow a three story building to keep standing with only one little pillar holding it up, but for the most part buildings crack, crumble, and topple in a surprisingly realistic fashion.
While pleasantly conducive to large-scale destruction, some of the physics of Red Faction are quite simply outlandish. Your default melee weapon claims to be a humble sledgehammer, but for the kind of damage it causes I must conclude that it is secretly the hammer of Thor. Concrete walls and heavy support beams crumple under its might, often in a single blow. I've also noticed, once in a while, some weird physics like my car being launched thirty feet in the air because I hit a stop sign at the wrong angle, but it only happens rarely and it's usually more entertaining than annoying. Another thing: your character can survive a ridiculous amount of fire, explosions, car crashes, and bullets before dying, and this amount will be doubled at least twice through armor upgrades; and a good thing, too, as approximately 75% of the Martian population consists of heavily armed military police who are staunchly opposed to the notion of you and Mjolnir breaking all their houses.
Seriously, though. It seems that for every one common man on Mars, there are at least three trained police officers oppressing them. I'm all for stomping an Orwellian regime in outer space, but I can't see how this could be cost effective. It may be a nit, but I'm picking it anyway.
Rather surprisingly, I am finding the story to be one of the most interesting aspects of the game. The opening scene seems like a GTA4 rewrite at first, but things quickly take a turn for the original and you find yourself basically working for a terrorist organization. No, really, you're a guerilla fighter. You tactics consist of bombing buildings, taking out convoys with roadside bombs, destroying large buildings or troop placements with car bombs, and occasionally making use of a suicide bomber. When fighting the police, a voice on a loudspeaker orders you to surrender, and reminds you that you are endangering civilians, which you usually are. Now the government you're rebelling against is clearly shown to be unequivocally evil, but around the time I was torturing and murdering prisoners of war, I began to question whether the Red Faction is any better.
The impression I get, however, is that this isn't all just for shock value. I think the writers were genuinely trying to beg some ethical questions. The game portrays a situation where terrorist tactics are the only realistic recourse. The only way to win is to fight ruthless violence with ruthless violence. I see the questionable acts that I'm performing, and I think "I shouldn't be doing this." But then I try to think of what I should be doing instead, and I'm not seeing a lot of options. It's like one group of people came up with a series of unconscionable actions, and then they said "now let's try and imagine a situation where this would be conscionable." It is up to the player to decide whether that really is conscionable or not, but I find the ethical quandary was interesting regardless. I have a BA in Philosophy, though, so maybe I'm just reading too much into things.
Personally, I'm glad I bought this game. It's definitely long enough to warrant a buy, and unless Valve surprises us with an early release of HL3 and then surprises us further by including destructible environments, I think it will be a long time before other companies catch up with this kind of mechanic. If you still like to hop into GTA and blow some things up, then you'll probably still be messing around with RF:G long after you get tired of whatever game you get next Christmas.
One afterthought: The demo that was released a month back showcased a good portion of the game's features. If you thought that was lame, you can skip this one. If you don't have an Xbox, you might borrow a friend's to see if you like it, since it will be out on PC in a couple months.
EDIT three final points, now that the game is over. You eventually get a jetpack, The level design was really good, and dear Christ, did I just murder a lot of people that were only doing their jobs.
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