Although inferior in a sense to the other versions, Red Faction II is a solid shooter for the Gamecube owning public.
Rather than the "intelligent" gameplay that many FPS games have dished out in years past, Red Faction II is a throwback to the days of shooting everything in sight. It's not quite as chaotic as something like Serious Sam, but it has more in common with that title than it does with Halo, or any of the Tom Clancy/CS clones.
This is further accented by your weapon selection, which I am not sure was a design choice, a design flaw, or a little of both; but more often than not, you're never going to be hurting for propelled explosives. Considering that these RPGs kill your enemies in one shot, while your run of the mill guns could take up to a full clip, you are much more likely to use the grenade launcher, especially when there is no shortage of them. Like I stated in the original review, I don't doubt for a second that taking everyone out with a grenade or rocket is fun, especially given the ability to blow chunks out of walls and floors with the geo-mod system, but a little more attention to ballistics would have been nice.
The Gamecube controller works decently enough for RF II, and though it's not my personal cup of tea for this genre, those who have grown accustomed to it should experience no problems getting around just fine, unlike in such titles like Jedi Knight II. Perhaps the area where Red Faction II truly shows off the fact that it is a port is in the graphics – while there are few to no "jaggies," the textures can often get grainy, muddy, and washed out.
Red Faction II has the most going for it as a multiplayer experience – with the exception of perhaps Timesplitters 2, RF II has the most game modes and customizable options this side of Goldeneye. And unlike Timesplitters, you'll actually want to play through the single player campaign to unlock them all. All in all, this is an FPS worth having, and its stock only increases if you're constantly entertaining guests.
-Scott
Create an Account
Member Login
