Red Faction Updated Preview
We've already played through the single-player campaign in earlier builds, but what can you expect out of Red Faction's multiplayer component?
Ever since Red Faction's announcement nearly two years ago, we've had numerous opportunities to play parts of this upcoming first-person shooter's single-player campaign. Whether it's at THQ's Southern California offices or at the company's annual press event in Las Vegas, we're no strangers to Parker, the Ultor Corporation, and the other famous names that you'll find in Red Faction when it is released this September for the PC. In fact, save for slightly lower resolution, the PlayStation 2 version of the game that was released a few months ago is identical to the PC version--with one small difference: the multiplayer component. The PlayStation 2 version of Red Faction had nine straightforward multiplayer-specific levels that could be played either with or against human- or AI-controlled opponents, and up until recently, it was unknown how the PC version would be different, if at all. We're happy to report that THQ and Volition went back to the drawing board when it came time to design the game's multiplayer component--we've been playing the latest build of the PC version of the game, and it's significantly improved over the console version.
The biggest such difference is the shear number of multiplayer maps. Red Faction will have 18 different death match maps and seven capture-the-flag levels. And these aren't just mundane levels created as afterthoughts. Each of the 25 multiplayer levels in the game is designed to take specific advantage of Red Faction's unique Geo-Mod engine, which, as most fans know by now, is the technology that lets certain explosive weapons blast permanent holes in the terrain. From a level-design point of view, this technological feature can be a nightmare. After all, level designers spend weeks and sometimes months making sure that a map is balanced and playable. Add a weapon that can deform parts of that level into the equation, and you threaten to destroy the delicate balance of that map. To address that concern, the designers at Volition made only certain parts of the multiplayer map "Geo-Modable," in effect limiting what you can and can't destroy. One of the maps that best demonstrates the limited amount of destructible terrain is called "ctf1." Fashioned after a simple Quake II CTF level, this map is composed of two bases that are facing each other about 100 yards apart--between them lie about a dozen odd-shaped walls for taking up defensive positions behind. The idea here is that you will fire off a few shots from behind the cover of these walls, advance to the next wall, and repeat the process until you reach the opposition's base. These walls are destructible, however, which will force you to keep moving from wall to wall. After an extended match, the 100-yard long courtyard will be completely devoid of any protection, thus gradually changing the map's pacing as time goes on.
Red Faction's Geo-Mod technology also adds another twist to the standard deathmatch and CTF gameplay. Destructible walls not only make camping behind an object or within a certain room a lot tougher, but they also make for some interesting defensive techniques--one of these is creating and jumping into a 4-foot crater at the end of a hallway, thus providing you with protection while still making it easy for you to pick off incoming enemies. Still, all it would take is a well-placed grenade or rocket to take out anyone in one of these craters.
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