Red Faction

[Fiach]

I thimk someone mentioned this on the forum before.

Just a heads up, there is a demo on XBOXLIVE currently :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, that was me, the demo for the consoles is out, far as I know, but none for the PC yet, arrrgghhhh.

[spaceboy]

downloaded and played the demo tonight (twice).  The demo was short, but quite fun - I think it's got some good potential.  The graphics are definitely more arcade-like then realistic, but not bad.  The destructible environments are very nice.  I smashed up quite a bit of stuff and pretty much everything was falling apart. 

The gun play with what your given in the demo isn't great but mainly because I don't like the weapon switching - it's two buttons to push vs. 1 in FC2.  There's a neat little explosive device that is like an IED, but better because you can chuck it and it sticks to things (even the bad guys) so I was having some fun with that and with the destructible enviro - it made for some good fun.  You can even detonate while it's still in the air!  Also, lots of great exploding "propane tanks" around.

The best part of the demo was a typical "man the turret" on the back of a moving vehicle - but it was really good fun.  Basically like an RPG but it recharged quick and the physics looked great when hitting the chasing vehicles in 1s, 2s, and 3s.  The best part is when you hit the vehicles at an angle or just in front of them etc. to great visuals.  The subsequent damage and crashes were very satisfying.  A few reminiscent of JRD's "That's not going to...oh yes it is" moments.  But the trucks never did land on me (luck, or game, or demo???).

Driving the vehicles is also a lot of fun, big movie style crashes, flips etc.  I had this huge truck 50 feet in the air after hitting a incline.  The physics are great and more "fun" than "realistic".

It says its an open world game, 120 main missions, etc.  It definitely increased my interest in it after playing the demo.  It'll definitely be coming home with me at some point, but perhaps not right away with my other new games coming out.

It is 3rd person for you first person fanatics which doesn't bother me except when the guy jumps he looks like a hopping lunatic.

[PZ]

Thanks for the report spaceboy, very informative!  I just love reading these snippets from our membership - because we somewhat know one another's likes/dislikes it makes game purchasing decisions a bit easier.

[Fiach]

I played the first one on PC, It was pretty good, main gripe was that you would have to nearly load a full mag into an enemy to kill them, whats the shooting like now Spaceboy?

[spaceboy]

I'd say it's not quite a full mag, but it definitely took a few shots if your hitting the body.  The aiming though was pretty fluid and therefore head shots seemed relatively easy (or maybe the AI just didn't move much).  Also with the destructive enviro and throwable "IEDs" I was definitely using less plain shooting than you might expect.  Also the melee was pretty tight with the sledgehammer you carry, so just like my machete in FC2 I'd often abandon the shooting and just run up and smack 'em. 

I did think the AI was quite resilient to being run over though (as opposed to FC2 mercs that can die from getting hit by an ATV)!

Fiach, I think you've got X360 right?  The demo should be on XBL if it was on PSN.  It's not real large so it downloaded pretty fast in the background.

I'd love to see what others think about it.

[Fiach]

Cool mate, got it, will try to play tomorrow night, cheers :)

[Fiach]

I got this game yesterday and have to say, I didnt really take to it at all.

The game looks great, vehicle handling is also very good, the vehicles them selves kind of look like they are really big "model" vehicles.

The game play is like mercenaries or Saints Row, lots of little missions that you do, as you complete them, your control over an area increaces, until you "liberate" the area.

Destruction of buildings is the games main selling point, and also a source of finance, as the currency is "salvage", when you knock down a building, there will be bits of scrap laying around that you can collect and spend on upgrades. You also get paid "salvage" for completing missions.

The missions can be pretty varied, hostage rescue, demolition, convoy etc. This is where I had my main problem with the game.
The AI is really cheap, it just keeps respawing enemies on top of you, take a demolition mission near the beginning, you have to knock down 12 comms towers with your vehicle, as you start taking them down, enemy APC's start spawning into the area to prevent you completing your mission, it kind of turns into a demented Need For Speed mission, but without the fun, there is no skill involved in out driving the enemy, they just keep spawning on you, regardless of your driving skills.

Another mission where you rescue a pair of hostages played out like this. You see the mission on your map, go to that points (takes maybe 4 minutes to drive there), then get sent about another three minutes of a drive to a building. The building had maybe four guards outside and a "few" inside. Once you attack the outside guards, a bunch of APC's spawn in the area, so now you have to stop killing the perimiter guards, kill the APC guys then go back to the house, kill the guards and rescue the hostages, you exit with the hostages to another mad spawning of enemies, get into a vehicles with the rescued people and race to the safehouse, via some manned roadblocks.
Now this mission is what really killed it for me, on my second attempt, I reconned the place from a distance, scouting the perimiter and as I worked my way around, I saw about 15 enemies in a type of garage adjacent to the hostage house just standing there "waiting", so Im cool with that, I thought it was just cheap respawning, but no... I avoided "triggering" those guys and still the mad respawning happened and they just stayed in place, never moved even though the place was a raging battle. It killed any immersion for me, there seemed no reason to plan an assault at all, because as you progressed, the AI's only solution was to keep throwing respawns at you.

Fiach, playing games, so you dont have to.

[Art Blade]

Thank you Fiach for the detailed review (detailed enough to show me my unexplainable doubts I had just reading "red faction" were right). Sorry for you that you bought it expecting to get some fun out of it, and then that.

I don't understand game developers/publishers that, in times of FarCry2, FUEL, maybe inFamous, keep throwing "cheap" games at us. I think it very cheap to keep a player busy just by throwing hordes of dumb enemies at him. There were titles that did it with more style even, thinking of SeriousSam.

[Fiach]

Yeah Serious Sam was fun, the monsters were always creative/inventive.

RFG looks really good, has some really cool toys to play with, but it seems to do its best to negate strategic play.

For example, you could use a large truck on destruction missions .... but .... not everything is destructable, its like you just keep running into an invisible wall, ever play those games, where you are in a forest and see a path, but its only rendered, you cannot travers it, well in RFG, you can go into a base and dsetroy everything in it, your truck will bounce around like Zebedee on crack, as it manoevurs through the debris, but will get hung up on a small piace of structure, that will not allow it through .... YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!  :P

[spaceboy]

That respawning didn't happen on the demo, they must have reduced it (probably to limit replay value hahaha).

Thanks for the info, Fiach.  Although it didn't seem like a "top tier" game, the destruction was fun enough in the demo to put on my "wait list".  Let us know if things change if you play more.

Art is right about the quality of games, I'd much rather have fewer games released but with overall better quality.  Problem is great games like FC2 don't get the positive press they deserve.  Even FUEL isn't getting great reviews, but I am transfixed by it.  I suppose it could wear off (the excitement over the huge world), but I don't think so.  It is really more of a driving game first, racing second as opposed to all about racing - depends what your expecting from it.

[Art Blade]

I rather respect reviews from people I know (OWG members count as such) than reading ratings of someone I don't. Some of those are likely to either get paid to write good things only or to bear whoever/whatever involved a grudge.

Then again, when I buy a game, I always like doing stuff I'm not supposed to do or do something in the extremes... read any of my tests?  ;) Like that, good games get better, and not so good games may turn into something worthwhile. But I can't turn s#!t into gold  ;D

[Fiach]

Well I never played the demo in the end, so I cant comment, but it happened in quite a few of the missions I did .... probably all, but I didnt notice maybe in the beginning I guess, as I was just feeling my way. But after a bit, it was incredibly noticible.

I'm the same Art, I tend to take some "proffessional" reviews with a grain of salt, eg. XBOX360 WORLD gave this 93/100, now in no way shape or form does this game deserve that score, I would accept the 8/10 given by other magazines, it is an 8/10 game, just the respawns were so in your face, I could never respect the game enough to play it.

[PZ]

Great read Fiach,
I too appreciate the fact that you've tested the game and have reported your experiences here.  As Art mentioned, I'd much rather believe the reviews by our membership than the plethora of nonsense you find on the 'net these days.   :-X

[GPFontaine]

I picked this game up during the Steam sale for the 4th of July.  I can very easily say that it gets old very quickly.  There is a tremendous amount of potential that is destroyed by a few terrible quirks.

The save system is obnoxious.  Checkpoint and non-action saves are fine, but forcing players to always start back at the same location is frustrating.

Certain missions such as one where you must drive a vehicle into 12 towers and destroy them before you get blown up by hundreds of bad guys are a lot of fun, until you realize they are very hard and you can't progress through the game without completing them.

Lastly the guns feel a bit sloppy.

Building destruction is a lot of fun, and the weapons are interesting.  The game could be great if it weren't for just a few frustrating quirks.

[Art Blade]

thanks for that info, GP. Pity, really, if a few quirks have such a major impact on a game..

[tehsam016]

I bought this used quite a while ago and beat it. Overall it's a decent game. The only problem i found is that all the side-missions are very monotonous (even more so than JC2), this is simply because they are all in very similar locations/buildings. Which i guess coincides with another problem- there's not much variation in buildings/environments (only different colors pretty much). So it's hard to memorize certain areas as they are all pretty much alike. There's a sequel coming out that may address some of these issues but we shall see.

[Art Blade]

Thanks, sam :) You make it sound almost like a different game, compared with GP's comments :) Only shows how differently we experience certain things.

However, I can see how it is hum, boring? to face a monotonous mission design combined with look-alike locations. In JC2 there are a couple of buildings and structures that look the same, too, but the locations are arranged in a way that they look individual.

[tehsam016]

Yeah forgot to mention the structures you destroy don't respawn either (like JC2), but it's even more noticeable in Red Faction as the map is considerably smaller than JC2's. I will say however the demolition aspect has a little more depth than JC2 as you have many options on how to take out a building. For instance you can destroy almost any building with just a sledgehammer. Along with that there's definitely fun to be had, you just have to always switch up the kinda stuff you do so it doesn't get boring fast.

[Art Blade]

are there many vehicles and weapons to use?

[tehsam016]

Yeah actually there's quite a few weapons, and they are all upgradable. There is however no flying vehicles, just all cars and walking mechs (which are awesome but not very abundant).


Red Faction Guerrilla Weapons

    Arc Welder
        Primary Attack: Fire continuous electric arc(s).
        Secondary Attack: Upward bash.
        Pros: Will attack a driver inside of a vehicle, making for easy extraction.
        Cons: Short range, no destruction from arc(s).
    Assault Rifle
        Primary Attack: Automatic Fire
        Melee Attack: Sideways Bash
        Pros: Large clip size, fast reloads
        Cons: Low level vehicle damage
    Enforcer
        Primary Attack: Automatic Fire
        Melee Attack: Sideways Bash
        Pros: Heat-seeking projectile that maneuvers in air towards a target.
        Cons: Damage dealt is less than the standard Assault Rifle.
    Gauss Rifle
        Primary Attack: Fire projectile.
        Special Function: Sideways bash.
        Pros: Very effective at long range, automatic fire.
        Cons: Destruction ability is limited.
    Grinder
        Primary Attack: Hold to rev up a razor disc.
        Melee Attack: Upward Bash.
        Pros: One-shot kills to the head, great at short to medium range.
        Cons: Slow fire rate, due to the required time to rev the blades up to speed.
    Nano Rifle
        Primary Attack: Fire projectile.
        Melee Attack: Sideways bash.
        Pros: Vaporization of a target.
        Cons: Small clip size
    Peacekeeper
        Primary Attack: Fire shell (Hold for auto-fire).
        Melee Attack: Sideways bash.
        Pros: High amount of close-range damage, automatic fire.
        Cons: Ineffective at long range.
    Pistol
        Primary Attack: Fire single round.
        Melee Attack: Pistol Whip.
        Pros: Fast refire.
        Cons: One of the weakest weapons in terms of firepower.
    Proximity Mine
        Primary Attack: Place charge
        Secondary Attack: Mine swing
        Pros: Large blast radius
        Cons: Must be placed precisely and well hidden - if the enemy spots them, they can be blown up with a few bullets.
    Rail Driver
        Primary Attack: Single shot.
        Special Function: Zoom with thermal vision.
        Pros: Projectile can pass through multiple walls and people.
        Cons: Slow re-fire rate.
    Reconstructor
        Primary Attack: Fire reconstructive beam.
        Melee Attack: Upward bash.
        Pros: Can reconstruct any man-made structure.
        Cons: Short range, low attack power.
    Remote Charge
        Primary Attack: Throw charge
        Secondary Attack: Detonate charge
        Pros: Large amount of destruction for a handheld device.
        Cons: Charges must be attached to an object before they can be detonated.
    Rocket Launcher
        Primary Attack: Fire rocket
        Melee Attack: Upward bash
        Pros: Large amount of destruction for a quick reloading weapon
        Cons: Slow moving projectile
    Singularity Bomb
        Primary Attack: Place bomb on ground.
        Melee Attack: Two-handed bash.
        Pros: Heavy destruction ability to structures.
        Cons: Slow placement, can be sucked into the vacuum created.
    Sledgehammer
        Primary Attack: Sideways swing
        Secondary Attack: Overhead swing
        Pros: You have a sledgehammer, they have guns...
        Cons: You have a sledgehammer, they have guns...
    Sniper Rifle
        Primary Attack: Single shot.
        Special Function: Optical zoom.
        Pros: Long range, high physical damage.
        Cons: Slow re-fire rate, small clip size.
    Thermobaric Rocket
        Primary Attack: Fire rocket
        Special Attack: Detonate in mid-air
        Pros: Huge amount of destruction
        Cons: Very slow reloads

[Art Blade]

That  was excellent info, sam! Thanks heaps, mate  :-X

[Binnatics]

Oops, had to move on to another topic again... GlaDOS' testicles are moving in on us....

Spoiler

Well, you see the Portal device there above? The shiny, gun-like thing?
[smg id=3236 width=500]
Grab it!!!

Good that Art started this reminder of games allready existing on the site. So I found this forum.

Little late to say maybe but this game is still my favourite shooter. Espacially for the online play. I really enjoyed playing team-bagman a thousand times. It's such a great way of playing using these backpacks in online demolition.

I.m.h.o. this online deathmatch-kinda game is much better then these 'real-war-simulating' shooters.
Anyone still playing overhere let me know, we can hook up sometime to enjoy some more  :-D

[Art Blade]

 ;) :-X