A game that would have been greater appreciated back when it was released, but still a top notch FPS for any gamer.
The gameplay isn't bad at all. The Playstation 2 has had a bad run with first person shooters. The controls are usually awkward on the controller and the fact that the particular game may not be incredibly fun to begin with only makes it worse. But this game feels perfect. For some reason, it just seems more fluid and intuitive than other FPS's on the PS2. The premise is simple. You are a marine for the Red Faction and you're out to............ok, the story sucks (at least the little story there is) and I didn't pay attention, so sue me. This game is a very linear shoot-everything-in-sight game. Some first person shooters require stealth. This game doesn't. Some games require multiple objectives to finish the level. This game basically just has you get to the end of the area. It's not great in length, but it's fun factor is through the roof. My one and only complaint about the gameplay is the Geo-Mod aspect. For those of you that don't know, Geo-Mod basically meant that you could blow a whole through almost anything: a floor and drop through, a wall to proceed, a statue to crumble, but it just didn't happen. I haven't played the original game in I'd say 3 or 4 years now, but it seemed like it worked better in that game. You were on Mars and there were plenty of caves to run through. The great thing about it was you could blow a whole through pretty much any wall and take cover to shoot out at enemies and sometimes you'd even find a secret room full of goodies to stock up your arsenal. Red Faction 2 takes place on Earth mainly on the streets and it is meant for you to stick to the streets. You can't blow holes through buildings, walls, or anything else. Some are meant to and some aren't. Unless it's vital to the progression of the level, you can't do it and it sucked. I can't tell you how many grenades or satchels I lost trying to blow a hole through a wall to get through a locked door, but all it did was leave a big black spot. The Geo-Mod technology may have worked back when the game came out, but now it is a joke and it hardly ever comes into play.
The graphics obviously aren't very good. The game will have been out 4 years come this October and it definitely shows. The numerous cutscenes look like actual gameplay in games now, if not better. The characters looked blocky and had no expressions. The environments looked incredibly plain and, to put it simply, boring. The enemies were also recycled over and over. Later in the game, you will get to fight different modified enemies, but even with them there are only 3 or 4 different enemy types. I've seen worse, but after 4 years and playing amazing looking games like God of War and Resident Evil 4, this game doesn't cut it.
The sound also is nothing special. The voice acting is very unbelievable, even though it ultimately doesn't matter because the story is almost absent throughout anyway. The guns didn't make enough sound. I want power to my guns, but these guns sounded like a child's toy. Also, the explosions did nothing for me. Nothing actually really exploded in this game unless you were blasting a whole through the wall and since, like I said earlier, the Geo-Mod technology hardly ever comes into play, it wasn't as polished as it should have been.
The value of this game for me is very high. I loved the original and I've been waiting to get my greedy little hands on this game ever since I completed the first. For others, it may not have the same affect, but regardless, it is still a competent shooter.
Overall, it's a great game that should have been played years ago instead of now. It doesn't stand up to the test of time in the big scheme of things. The first person shooter elements are old and not incredibly interesting anymore, but I looked through those because I knew it was an old game. The Geo-Mod aspect just doesn't work. It did at least somewhat in the original, but in this game, it fails to achieve the goal it set for itself. The graphics are very outdated and look downright ugly in some spots. Like I said, I've been waiting for this game for a long, long time. For a game of this time period, the score should probably be lower than my generous score, but I loved the original and this game didn't disappoint and had me captivated throughout. It's not very long at all. It can be completed in about 6-8 hours, but it's great throughout. While other first person shooters now like Black have only one gimmick to sell the game, Red Faction 2 took every gimmick they had in the book back in the day and blended them together very satisfyingly to make a great game that any self respecting FPS shooter fan should pick up.