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Not great, but not bad either

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This isn't a really groundbreaking FPS, but it did have some nice touches.

The detail level on the characters is quite well done. You can even read the unique name tags that the miners wear.

Geo-mod technology is nice, but doesn't make up a big part of the game, which is too bad, because it had a lot of potential. I remember at one point I saw a column of troops and an armored personnel carrier crossing a bridge, and I used some rockets to collapse the bridge, causing the APC and Ultor soldiers to fall into the chasm below. That was cool, and I really wish that there had been more such implementation of the geo-mod technology.

I thought the voice acting and music was very well done. Some of the guards said interesting things, and their AI is pretty sharp, except when it comes to explosives.

The storyline wasn't great, but I don't think many people buy first person shooters for the storyline (with the notable exception of Deux Ex).

The vehicles were my favorite part of the game. Too bad you don't get to use them more.

The levels are pretty linear. Some people will say this is a bad thing but in truth it keeps you from getting lost, and is implemented in such a way that it doesn't feel forced.

My two main problems with this game deal with difficulty and scenery.

This game takes place entirely on Mars, probably the most boring, drab planet in the solar system. Thus, don't expect to be dazzled by impressive scenery like in Unreal.

As far as difficulty level is concerned, the game is EXTREMELY lopsided, and this is mostly due to the presence of mercenaries. The first two thirds of the game are, for the most part, pretty easy as you beat up on weak Ultor guards and a few robots. But the mercenaries in the later levels have tons of health, are excellent shots, carry the best weapons in the game (including the rail gun which kills instantly and can shoot through walls), and come at you in massive numbers. I must've reloaded all of 5 times before I reached my first mercenary, but after that I was reloading about every 30 seconds! Mercenaries are the coolest looking enemies in the game, but they were made way too powerful.

Overall, this is a game that had the potential to be a great, but was held back by unambitious design flaws.

Get more bang for your buck -- buy the movieTotal Recall!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I suppose that if you're an absolute die-hard who must, for bizarre yet compelling personal reasons, own every single first-person shooter game ever made, this is a de facto must-have. Anyone actually looking for an engaging game experience should look elsewhere. The ability to use your plastique charges and rocket launchers to deform the terrain is a nice touch, though illogically the ever-impervious doors that are one of the most ridiculous stereotypes in this genre are just as indestructible as ever -- even as the wall they're set in gets blown up from around them.

Red Faction follows a storyline and game play style that are both generic and stayed -- the evil corporation is oppressing the noble miners and it's up to you, a lone rebel, horribly outmatched and outgunned, to singlehandedly put an end to their tyrannical regime. You'll run through the standard corridors, pick up the standard weapons, fire the standard shots at the standard guards, and solve the standard find-the-button-that-opens-the-door puzzles. The ability to pick up and movie bodies offers one brief gasp of fresh air, but the utility in this novelty is questionable as the bodies shortly sink into oblivion. There's also a sequence where you pilot a rock-boring machine (this is a mine, after all.) Boring is a good word to describe it.

The graphics are nothing special, plumbing the murky, subterranean browns and greys that have been an almost required staple since first popularized in the original Quake all those years ago. Red Faction doesn't even offer animated textures on many of the supposed computer or instrument consoles; even so, due to the high polygon count (especially after a few rockets fly and create jagged edges all over the place) you'll need pretty beefy hardware to render it satisfactorily. There's a potentially neat idea represented in the ability to use security monitors to check out other parts of a level before you enter them, but they're sadly used exactly as you'd expect them to be used, sapping any originality of the idea and rendering it a nifty but largely useless extra.

This ain't Wolfenstein, that's for sure. This ain't even Unreal. This certainly ain't Deus Ex. This is more like what Quake II would have been with more explosions and coherent voice acting. Fans of first person shooters will be on comfortable territory; it's a thoroughly acceptable entry in the genre, if a little short, and there's certainly no reason to buy it until it hits the bargain rack even then. Those who demand a little more from their games (say a storyline worth speaking of, or at least one original idea) should look elsewhere.

"To Mars and Beyond"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Interesting game, perhaps one of the best this year. The characters artifitial inteligence is the best I' ve ever seen. Graphics are very impressive, and overall the game is packed with adventure, as well as some strategy. Great buy!

Not too shabby, yet not impressive.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Recently, I purchased this game for my mac, looking for an exciting FPS. I had heard praises on the violition geo-mod engine, which caught my attention. For those who do not know what that is, geo-mod is an engine which allows you to completely annihilate your surroundings, which adds a nice touch. The storyline of this title is relatively boring, lacking any elements that draw one in. Also, the graphics and physics are not so good. Even if i crank up the settings to maximum potentcial, it still lacks. The characters are sort of square and lack polygons. When you kill someone they only fly back, or forward, which is not athat accurate.
The only saving aspect of red faction is its multiplayer play. It is fast paced, and pretty smooth, although multiplayer lags sometimes, expecially with modem, and in death matches.
Also I wouldnt reccomend running this game on a processer of less than 300 MHZ. One of my Macs is 300 MHZ and IT runs it pretty flawlessly. Although once I brought it to a friends who has a old bondie blue imac with a pityful 233mhz processor.
My last complaint is this games OSX compatibility, I always run OSX, but this game usually quits in midgame, Even with my dual processer 1.45 mhz g4 it even quits. The developers, obviously just didnt spend enough time working on the bugs.
Overall REd faction is a fairlly decent title with several bugsin osx and lacking in the graphics department. i liked the multiplayer and geo mod, but it should have more story. Here is a rating of **** out of ***** stars.

if youre looking for halflife, look elsewhere

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game looking for a Half-Life. Many reviews praised this game as being absolutely amazing and revolutionary. This game was everything but. The only reason this game was amazing is because of Geo-mod, the new engine that allows you to bust through walls, but besides that, the game falls short. The plot is extremely dry, and seems to end as quickly as it had begun. Yeah blowing holes through walls is cool, but not cool enough to spend 50 bucks on it. I give this game a 1.

So so game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Red Faction is a first person shooter that contains the only geo-mod engine found in a FPS. With it comes frame-rate problems. Yes, it's fun to blow a hole in the roof and plug the trigger happy guards full of lead but it's missing a certian spark Half-Life had. What it all boils down to is a game that lacks qualities of a top seller. Why do we MAC users get dumped with all the [stuff] from the PC's?

Cool game but ...(bad) graphics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this game is ok and is pretty fun but it lacks in the graphics departement. first of all, i think that it is mostly software rendered which makes it run slower on computers with a slower processor no matter how fast you graphics card is. I have a TI 4600 Geforce 4 and it runs at 25 fps in 800x600 mode. the models are relatively low polyon count and the dynamic lighing is {bad}

And i am really 14 but the age thing doent go that high. i have to use the ... kids review thing.

one of the best games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't see why people are calling this game a bad game just because the graphics aren't what you expected. This game came out during the early years of the PS2 which at the time, some the games for PS2 still had kind of squarish graphics. I have also found no problem with the storyline. Red Faction is pretty much a SciFi Action game and probably the reason you found it boring because your not much of a SciFi person. I don't have the Mac version yet, but I have played Red Faction and beaten it and I have not found anything really bad about it.

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