Red Faction 2

The Commonwealth is a cesspool of corruption. The Chancellor is a stinking abscess of vice and cruelty. It?s time once again to blow up the world.

The Ruin Manifesto
In the FPS realm, destructible environments are to Red Faction what destructible human bodies are to Solider of Fortune. One of the few complaints about the original Red Faction was that while the innovative ?blow-holes-in-anything-in-the-environment? Geo-Mod engine was great in theory, the game?s definition of ?anything? seemed a bit selective, and its use was a mite contrived. In RF2, however, the Geo-Mod will be used to grander effect (you?ll play as a demolitions expert and will immediately be armed with a grenade launcher), and the random destructible object quotient in the demo was already sky high; gunfights brought on a virtual typhoon of shrapnel, marble paneling, and chunks of laptop computers. The demo included one especially excellent little sequence where you blew through a maze of cubicle walls to dodge getting shot by a stationary gun placement; hopefully moments like these won?t be few and far between.

Red Dead Revolver(s)
Superior Geo-Moddin? won?t be the only thing that separates RF2 from the rest of the FPS pack. Another great ?why-didn?t-anyone-else-think-of-this-before?? feature will be the ability to arm yourself with two separate guns and fire them independently?L1 for one, R1 for the other (if you?re not using the USB keyboard and mouse). The scheme felt ridiculously right in practice?shooting with your left hand while your right hand reloaded was actually even cooler than it sounds; time things correctly, and the stream of bullets need never stop.

RF2 will also brings squad A.I. to the Faction?s asset list, and each of your five nanotech-enhanced team members will have his or her own unique combat personality. Your enemies? A.I. will be squad-based, too, trained to react to the loss of a group member and designed to think a level of evolution beyond simply ducking behind pillars and crates for cover. While going online isn?t going to be an option, RF2 will feature four-player split-screen deathmatches (the original only let two people play).

Another strength of the first Red Faction that?s getting even stronger this time is the story. Five years have passed since the Mars rebellion; the game begins on Earth as you (a fella named Alias) and your team set out to assassinate the leader of the oppressive Commonwealth, Stalin-like Chancellor Victor Sopot, and free society from his fascist grip. Multiple endings exist; which one you?ll get will depend on the actions you take as you play.

The Faction?s Role in the Halo Age
While the graphics in an early build were really clean and a step up above the original (there were lots of creative lighting effects during the demo?s violent rooftop rainstorm), it will be hard to play RF2 without thinking about Halo or Doom III?stacked next to these, RF2 proves that the PS2 isn?t exactly the graphical power player that it used to be. It?s likely that Volition?s second revolution will make more of an impact with its function than with its flash.

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