Playstation 2 Preview : Red Faction

[F1FansClub]

Game Name : Red Faction
Publisher : THQ
Developer : Volition
Format : PS2 (To be released on PC too)

(Preview taken from ps2.ign.com as I am too busy to write one myself but my views and marks will be awarded at the end)

Interesting, the nature of innovation in first-person shooters these days. Starsiege: Tribes established itself with cooperation and team play. Half-Life was a triumph of direction and scene-setting. Likewise Perfect Dark, with its tightly-woven conspiracy plot, and Medal of Honor, whose re-creation of WWII made it the game to beat as far as atmosphere is concerned.
There's nothing wrong with any of this, per se, but how odd is it that Doom was probably the last honest revolution in simple blowing stuff up? Since then, we have had refinements in the art of stuff destruction, improvements in precision stuff destruction (such as the Quake II railgun) and the presentation of stuff destruction (Soldier of Fortune's nastily detailed gunshot wounds, Unreal Tournament's wonderfully bouncy giblets), but not a revolution, not a reinvention of how we look at the folding, spindling, and mutilating of the world around us. Until, perhaps, now.

I have recently had the chance to play the PlayStation 2 version of Red Faction, and this is one of the few PlayStation 2 games that truly makes me cringe, grit my teeth, and actually ache for want of playing it. It'll certainly change the way gamers see and play first-person shooters in the near future. In case you weren't aware of Volition, the team has a small but hefty resume. Red Faction is one of the two PlayStation 2 projects being developed by Volition, the creators of Descent Freespace (its other PS2 game is the RPG Summoner).

While Descent is remembered for its six degrees of freedom, the ability to move and rotate about all three axes, Red Faction, if its execution lives up to its promise, should be remembered for Geo-Mod, short for Geometric Modification, an engine that enables realtime 3D environment deformation. In practical terms, you can blow up just about everything.

Or put holes in it, or knock it over, or shove it in one direction or another, or perhaps even carve your initials in it. Nearly every feature of the environment can register the effects of damage in realtime, and not just by swapping in little bullet-hole textures, but by realistically changing shape, often in drastic ways.

In Doom or Quake or what-have-you, a wall is usually absolute defense against attack, no matter what gets shot at it (exceptions exist in GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, naturally). In Red Faction, though, you can bust out your rocket launcher and make short work of buildings and other fortifications; riddle them with holes, or flat-out level them. You can also mess with natural features of the environment, which is handy for moving forward in some situations. For example, in one demonstration sequence, you have to change the path of a lava flow by blocking one channel and creating a new one.

Volition isn't stopping there, however. Sure, players can grab a hold of a rocket launcher and blow a hole in the wall, but as the game is being developed Volition's programming is matching its imagination. Of the 15 weapons that players can use, the rocket launcher has a built-in screen that indicates infrared images. Human images. So, if an enemy is standing behind a wall, the HUD will show it, and you can take him out without ever having to see his ugly mug. A skeletal animation system means they move properly, and location-based damage produces the appropriate visual results. The beauty of this kind of innovative play naturally frees your mind of conventional play.

And Volition wants to break some boundaries. It's thinking like an obsessed gamer, and because of its killer new geo-Mod engine and the advance in new technology (i.e. the PS2's power) it is working on ways to exploit this new engine's capabilities. For instance, say you wanted to blow a hole under the wall to progress through the level. The ground, just like most walls, is subject to destruction. You can blow a tunnel underground if you really want to. So, now that you're excited, check this out -- the six easy-to-control vehicles all have fire power capabilities, all with primary and secondary fire, but they too can blast through surfaces, too. When I saw the driller, I nearly flipped. The driller is pretty much straight out of Total Recall, with drastically massive grinding bits that chomp through the walls of, you guessed it, just about anything. Because of Red Faction, first-person shooting is never going to be the same again.

As far as vehicles go, you can take the pilot seat of six different craft, each of which control in the same way and each of which cover the spectrum of land, sea or air. The vehicles THQ has revealed include the Driller, a flying Fighter, a Minisub, and an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier). Players can therefore fly, drive around on the surface of the planet, or zip around underwater. It's easy to get in and out of each vehicle and each moves with surprising grace and the appropriate speed. In other words, the Driller and the sub move slower than the APC and the Fighter. Also, players can engage in combat with enemy craft and personnel; all flying vehicles can perform air-to-air combat and air-to-ground combat, while others can perform in ground-to-ground, and ground-to-air combat.

Along with the obvious technical innovations, Volition also wants to establish a new standard for story development in its own work. As such, while Red Faction should include a multiplayer game (the team is working on a possible two- or four-player mode), the focus is really on the single-player experience. Assisting in creating a mood and telling a compelling story, Volition's game unfolds without annoying load screens, continuously loading levels as cut-scenes immerse you further and further into it.

You take on the role of Parker, leader of a paramilitary union faction on Mars, where hundreds of workers are dying of accidents and disease in the Ultor corporation's mines. The time is right for a rebellion and the war against Ultor spreads from the underground mines up to the planet's surface and into the corporation's orbiting headquarters. Watch out that you don't deform the outer hulls of the satellite space stations. Other characters in the game include Gryphon, an Ultor corporate executive, Hendrix, a killer programmer who hasn't quite decided whose team he's on, and Masako, a hired assassin who appears to see the forest through the trees. You'll have a lot of time to get to know them all, since the game is 20 levels big, and just for the single-player experience, it provides 20-25 hours of play.

The hands-on demo Volition's Team Manager Allen Laurence also unveiled a couple of great, standard first-person shooter weapons and tactics with which most Goldeneye gamers should be familiar. Given that Red Faction's core game elements are story-driven, you eventually find, earn and discover different weapons as the chapters unfold. One such weapon is the remote charge, which much like Goldeneye's mines, is a tool that is certain to cause cries of hysteria and jubilation when used properly.

In one Mars-based room, used purely as an obvious demo, players come upon a giant level in a room with a huge fan. Hit the switch and watch the fan turn on. No biggy. But, with the fan on, players can take out the remote charge and throw it into the wind of the fan, causing the remote to change direction in mid-air.

Now imagine how that will work in terms of stealth and multiplayer play. Yeah, kick-@ss. You sneak into a room with an opponent on the far end of a fan and the fan is on. Unseen in the corner, you chuck your remote charge and it spins, end over end until it alters direction in mid-air and lands at the feet of your opponent. He still doesn't see you. You switch to ignite, and it's bye-bye birdie.

As for the other weapons, in the demo we saw and played, the user could handle a working sniper rifle, a remote charge, a handgun, the aforementioned rocket launcher, and an assault rifle. I also got the chance to blow some baddies to kingdom come with a high-powered assault turret. That was quite satisfying.

For those who absolutely love the sniper rifle handiwork found in StarSeige Tribes and Goldeneye, Red Faction has you in mind, too. The snipe rifle here works just like any great long-range weapon, but the effect is perhaps different. Enemies each have several collision points on their bodies, and they also contain 12 death animations to work the act accordingly. Hit an Ultor soldier with a shot in the shoulder, and he grabs it in pain. Peg him in the leg, and he hops around. Hit him at the very top of the head and you'll blow his helmet off. Nail him in the crotch and well, you get the idea.

However, if you decide to do as most sniper professionals so, then you will want to shoot him squarely in the forehead, right between the eyes. It's a natural thought, and in Red Faction, players can perform this assassin trick in at least two good ways. First, you can simply plug a hole in him. Simple enough. But if you find armor piercing bullets, you can do serious damage to him and whoever is foolishly standing behind him. Line the two guys up and watch the bullet fly through two heads and then affect the texture on the wall behind them both. It's a nice touch.

Other significant aspects to the game's fantastic 3D engine include realistic shattering glass, and interactive backgrounds. It seems like an innocent little thing, but once you see it, you simply won't want to go back to regular shattering glass. In the demo we saw a glass house, and each time I shot at it, the glass broke in the exact spot the shot hit, and then collapsed in circular form around the center point, bouncing off the ground as it landed. Volition is working on getting glass to actually damage characters that are hit by broken glass shards. Also, if you blow a hole in the proper pipe, steam will pore out of it like a kettle.

After lengthy consideration, the folks at Volition have officially decided that because their focus is on creating a great single-player game, much in the way that Half-Life engaged players so deeply, Red Faction will indeed have a multiplayer mode, with a two-player deathmatch, and other possible two-person games. The decision came at the Las Vegas THQ Gamers' Day in October.

Red Faction is still one of the most interesting titles in development for PS2. The system has a fine complement of first-person shooters in the pipeline, but Red Faction's original technology and single-player emphasis set it apart from most of the pack, and it looks good enough to hang with the best of them. A high 640X448 resolution, 32-bit color and 60fps are in the cards, which should go a long way toward doing something about that old devil anti-aliasing, and the environments all look remarkably detailed and lifelike.

Like Summoner, PC and PS2 development of Red Faction is progressing concurrently, and new details should arrive soon. But one thing is certain -- Red Faction will change the first-person shooter landscape; it's original, deep and innovative. And it makes me want to blow stuff up. There's nothing quite like that. We'll continue to bring you deep, detailed coverage on Red Faction, so keep your eye on IGNPS2 in the near future. We want this one bad, real bad.






MY THOUGHTS
Well Red Faction looks like a brilliant game and according to every review I have read it sounds brilliant. The best part of the game is the new geo-mod engine which means you can shoot, hit or even carve your initials into anything! The graphics look ace and even the weapons are varied. I am definately getting this game as I loved Syphon Filter 2 when I got it and also Metal Gear Solid so this is the type of game I like. I hope you enjoyed this preview and it has made you think about getting Red Faction when it is released in May.

GRAPHICS - 86/100 - Although they are not the best than could be taken from the PS2, they are certainly very good.

WEAPONS - 85/100 - Quite varied but maybe not enough but more may be included at release time.

GAMEPLAY - 96/100 - Due to the Geo-Mod engine and the thought of being able to shoot or hit anything it has to get a good mark.

OVERALL - 89/100

What about your own personal thoughts? Reply them here.

Ally Mitchell :beerface: