Red Faction

 

Red Faction (PC) a review by: Quikhax

It takes a certain FPS/FPP game for me to become immediately addicted to it. Fun gameplay combined with a decent futuristic story, level design which lets me suspend my disbelief and truly allow me to immerse myself in the world I am a hero in. The music, the atmosphere, secondary characters, they all must combine into this amazing package which lets me seperate myself from the real world for an hour or two. Deus Ex, F.E.A.R., Half Life, TRON 2.0, they all seem to find that perfect balance that gets me addicted to a FPP game. Some games however, although based on a cool license (like Aliens vs Predators, Doom3) just seemed to be lacking a bit and for that reason I guess I never became a fan of it like I did with the previously named good games. I think I can now add Red Faction to the epic and good FPS game list, and since I am almost done with my first adventure on Mars, I hope Red Faction 2 will be at least as decent as it's prequel.

The story is simple (I won't sell you the game here, there are detailed story summaries all over the intertubez) but the world and background really lets you suspend your disbelief and makes you feel like a desperate, fed up miner on Mars. Survival is essential, revenge on oppressors fun. Speaking of revenge and killing, the combat in this game is FUN! I mean really, really fun! The weapons arsenal is fairly average (yeah, it has it's own version of BFG =p ), still the hate for the security force on Mars, and a fairly big variety of enemies makes fighting never dull.

The musical score of this game is a bit lacking. It is perfect in a sense that the music doesn't dominate the audio experience of this game. However it is not a soundtrack I can honestly throw on my iPod and listen to going to work. I don't think the reason for this is that the soundtrack is dated. I can listen to my Donkey Kong Country soundtrack anywhere and that was made back in SNes days, same with many old soundtracks like Deus Ex or TRON 2.0 (amazing music score for it's time!). Red Faction soundtrack just never caught my attention for me to give this game extra points for music.

One thing that bugs me a little is the lack of non-linear puzzle solving in this game. Yes, there are "stealth" levels, but they completely throw you out of the pace of previously seen combat. Perhaps I am a bit (or a lot) spoiled by Deus Ex. I love it when I have many options of completing a single level, hacking, fighting, sneaking, etc you get the idea. I think (by playing the "sneaking" levels) the designers hoped to capture some of that magic into Red Faction. The potential is there, for whatever reason however, the "sneaking" levels seem like something they rushed to add to the game, they are simple, a little boring and all the time a thought kept going through my head: "Does this add anything to this game? Were these levels really necessary? Am I having fun doing this?" and the answer unfortunately

was always: No.

I am finishing this game right now and I can honestly higly recommend Red Faction. It is a game that went completely under my radar back in a day and I am happy it did. I can now play it for the first time and see how well this game holds up over the years. It truly reminds me of the magic that made epic FPS games back in the days of old.

Now, I am off to finish Red Faction, the sequel is already installed and waiting for me.

Gameplay: A-

Fun: A-

Music: B-

Replayability: C-

Graphics: B-

OVERALL: A-

 

Deus Ex

A review by: Fated

If William Gibson made a game instead of writing books this would be the pinnacle of his career. It is the perfect cyberpunk game on so many levels. It doesn't really try to fit a genre, be it rpg or shooter, it is more of a fantastic simulation of a near future world gone dirty by supercorporations and conspiracies. If someone re-did the graphics, this game would be a hit today just as it was 10 years ago as to me it is near perfect. You have to love the ideas in the game and in its story. Do I secretly hope for a world where our bodies are augmented and made better by machine parts? Yes. Do I hope for nanotechnology to accomplish miracolous advances and be a weapon more deadly than a nuclear bomb? Yes, and I dread the latter.

Do I think corporations can become more powerful than governments? Perhaps that's an inevitability, as technology constantly de-necessitates a need for central government and emphasizes economic prosperity as the measure of success.

And what can possibly be wrong with a game that ends with you either becoming a god, joining the illuminati, or completely destroying the internet. If you're gonna end go big.

I always appreciate a game that is flexible enough for its problems to be tackled in a variety of ways. You can sneak by, steal, incapacitate, assassinate, blow up or hack your way through many of the games problems. There is something to that variety being possible that adds so much to a game. You will immediately feel the difference when you play a game where there is only one solution to a level's problem, and it breaks your suspension of disbelief, as rather than using logic, you are stuck conforming to an arbitrary script.

Mind you, the game isn't perfect, nothing is, but if you consider the state of the art in level design and gameplay 10 years ago, Deus Ex did things that are in many ways not done as well today. It's as good as it gets, and the only shame is that the 10 year old graphics and 10 year old AI may make you enjoy the game far less than when those two factors were "Excellent" in their own day.

Going back to an old game can be traumatic. I reminisced about Diablo 2 when the 3rd was announced. So I booted up my old copy and what do you think my first honest thought was? "Did I just install Diablo 1 by mistake?" The graphics? That bad by today's standard. In fact, the lack of visual quality was so distracting that I had a hard time enjoying the game like I used to.

But back to Deus Ex, the only gripe I have with the game is that you can never do everything on a mission, its always choices. You can't open every lock, hack every terminal, or reach every ledge and room. If you go wild with guns, often, you find yourself lacking in ammo. The game is funny that way, I understand it from the perspective of a designer, I understand that it makes the way I develop my character more meaningful, but I'll be damned if it doesn't get annoying sometimes!

Now let's hear from Quikhax, who is replaying the game now, rather than my 10 year old (fond) memories of a classic.

 

A review by: Quikhax

I am having so much fun right now. The music, the atmosphere, the graphic design (for it's time)... what more can be said of Deus Ex then: "A conspiracy, cyber-punk, roller-coaster thrill ride". In my opinion Deus Ex was to video games, what Blade Runner was to movies. I simply can't imagine Bioshock or Mass Effect or Knight of the Old Republic being the games they became without the influence of Deus Ex. Fated's review is pretty much spot on. I hope we will not agree on games this much with our every review (as I read Fated's I just kept nodding to myself agreeing with almost everything). One thing I shall strongly disagree on with you sir is the fact that you cannot do everything in each level being a weakness. I think it is a strength of the game, the best proof being that I am finishing this game for a fifth or even sixth time. Let me give you a quick idea of how I role-played JC Denton this time.

In the beginning JC was just a cold, unemotional agent, very similiar to agents Navara and Gunther. Shoot first, ask questions later. Until the very last second he was very sceptical to join Paul and turn against UNATCO. I am still very trigger happy and usually don't take prisoners unless it's specifically required by the game to continue the story. This time JC is an expert marksman (Master in rifles skill) and he's out to taste blood. Normally, I role-play a very pacifistic character, who will find the sneakiest of ways to achieve his objective, using computer hacking, quiet prod and gas grenade take downs as progression skills, this time I just went with an all out carnage. Funny thing is, it's as fun as when I did all the sneaking around and talking my way out of situations before. Five or seven ways to complete each level simply permit the gamer to replay a game over and over, and with the atmosphere, ambience, dialogs, characters, music, really make a fanboy like myself happy to oblige.

I would say that the part of Deus Ex that aged the most over time, is the A.I. of the NPCs. When you see an enemy running against a wall for the first time, it's kind of funny. When it happens for the 30th time cause you shot your gun by accident (and you haven't saved for about 4 hours), AND it's an NPC you must talk to to continue the game, it becomes frustrating... really, really frustrating. Did it happen back when the game came out? Of course, except back then you just didn't care. After all, you were playing a perfect game (for it's time).

Am I looking forward to part 3? Yes. Do I think it will be as ground breaking as the first original Deus Ex? I doubt it. Invisible War already was an example of a sequel not as good as the original. Did I still love it? Of course! 1) I am a fanboy. 2) It was Deus Ex ;-)