Red Faction 2, like its predecessor, is a very satisfying, if not ground breaking, sci-fi FPS experience.
Essentially the premise is that the super soldiers are betrayed and led by squad leader Molov, break ranks, join the Red Faction and decide to overthrow Sopot. Molov's squad of rebels are elite fighters and the player's character, Alias, is the explosives expert. Molov and his team lead the charge in ridding Mars of Sopot and the Commonwealth, but inevitably there is a change in allegiances when Sopot is overthrown and Molov seizes power.
For a large part of the game, prior to Sopot's overthrow, Alias works as part of Molov's squad. Usually leaving the group to do missions on his own. This is very much a FPS and not a tactical shooter that the squad may imply. The rest of the team does support Alias in his missions by lending covering fire or making diversions, or alternately Alias has to get to different members of the squad, but the participation of the other team members is highly scripted, especially their demise.
Gameplay is similar to RF, except that the ability to destroy/modify the environment is severely restricted to some scripted segments within each mission. This is somewhat disappointing as the ability to use explosives to alter the environment, for example making holes in walls or floors or making tunnels was a key aspect of RF. Most of the positive elements of the original RF are however there including the ability to pilot/operate various vehicles, including as in RF a mini-sub. Within each mission there are a number of bonus or side missions, not so much in the open-world game sense, but extra activities to do while still progressing the main mission.
Alias scores "heroics points" by accomplishing missions, side/bonus missions and avoiding killing civilians and this determines which of the four alternate endings you will witness on completion of the game.
There are eleven missions, each typically with three to five levels and a cut-scene to progress the story. Most missions take place indoors, in various complexes, many underground, so at times RD2 feels like a corridor shooter. The missions are challenging enough at the Medium difficulty (the choices are Easy, Medium and Hard) especially the boss fights of which there are quite a few. Being no fan of boss fights, I found parts of RF2 frustrating and had to refer to walkthroughs to find which weapon, or combination, would dispatch the various bosses.
Game saves are checkpoint based and if you die you must replay from the last checkpoint and at times these can be quite far apart. That said, there are strategically place health and ammo power-ups so apart from the boss fights things should travel reasonably well. It is worth noting that enemies will readily respawn unless you advance so taking cover and sniping away, while fun will not progress the mission to completion.
Weapons are similar to those in RF, albeit the graphics overall are better, so weapons look less "clunky" in RF2. Alias, like most FPS heroes carry the entire armoury with him and it is recommended to use the number keys to quickly change weapons and scrolling through with the mouse wheel needs a bit of time. It is worth spending a bit of time reading the manual or one of the online weapons guides so that you become familiar with each weapon's capability as the alternate fire mode may be just what you need.
Graphics are quite good for the game's age. As always for older games I cranked up the anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and enhanced graphics and it looks really good on my rig (Nvidia 9800GT). Sure the facial features are still angular and certainly not cinematic but RF2 passes muster. Voice acting is very good ... pre-Transporter Jason Statham and Lance Henrikson add a touch of Hollywood. Soundtrack is passable, if not outstanding.
There is an interesting use of Stalinist (or Saddamist) sculpture, monumentalism and designs in the various settings which is reminiscent of those in the PS3 Killzone titles. Alas not much of the red planet, Mars, is to be seen as most action takes place within the city and usually indoors.
Finally there is the excellent and addictive Bot Match feature which replaces the MP feature that was in original RF. Actually I prefer bot matches and there are about forty (yes, 40) maps, many which are to a greater or lesser degree destructible, to run and gun around. Bots are fully customisable and you can lock out some of the more extreme weapons if you want longer, more "realistic" battles. Great fun while winding down from some boss fight angst.
OVERALL: Red Faction 2, like its predecessor is a fun sci-fi FPS. The storyline is somewhat disconnected from and more convoluted than the simple rebellion in the first game but the action and interesting environments are still present. Not a bad game and now readily available as a dual release with the original Red Faction. Have since bought Red Faction Guerrilla and Armageddon so hopefully will get to these soon.