Red Faction II

Red Faction II
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Volition Outrage Entertainment (PC)
Publisher(s)	THQ
Engine	Geo-Mod Engine
Platform(s)	PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows
Release	PlayStation 2 GameCube & Xbox Windows
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Red Faction II is a sequel to the game Red Faction and takes place on Earth as opposed to the Mars of the first. Red Faction II was developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ on October 16, 2002 for PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube. Red Faction II does not support network gaming, but provides some multiplayer-style games with 'bots'.

Lance Henriksen provides the voice of the squad leader, Molov, and Jason Statham voices the vehicle expert, Shrike.

Storyline

In the year 2080, five years after the events of Red Faction, on Mars, the nanotechnology developed by Capek has been claimed by the Earth Defense Force (EDF). With this technology, the EDF commences a reorganization of the Ultor Corporation with a particular focus on enhanced supersoldiers and suitable weaponry. However, the research that was done by Capek in his laboratories has been consequently stolen by other militant groups and assorted terrorist organizations. This has gone on for years; the research has changed hands in the criminal underworld many times. The player is introduced to the role of an explosives expert (codenamed "Alias"), as he embarks on a special operations mission to claim the research data for the Republic of the Commonwealth.

Eventually, the research was successfully claimed by the elite forces of Victor Sopot, Chancellor of the dystopic military state known as The Commonwealth. Sopot uses the nanotechnology to enhance his already formidable military forces, and successfully creates the first supersoldiers with the research data. Fearing the potential of his new supersoldiers, he orders them all to be hunted down and executed at once and replaced with far less intelligent, mutated horrors known as "The Processed".

The handful that escaped Sopot's order have banded together to form "the Squad". The Squad consists of:

• Molov, team leader and tactician
• Shrike, chief transportation expert
• Repta, heavy weapons specialist
• Quill, accomplished sniper
• Tangier, covert specialist
• Alias, explosives engineer

Collectively betrayed by their leader, the Squad flees underground and ally themselves with the Red Faction as mercenaries. The Red Faction, at this point in the story, is a more organized resistance movement that is strongly opposed to the rule of Sopot and the skewed political tenets of The Commonwealth. The Squad eventually pursue Sopot and neutralize all opposition in their way as the Red Faction takes the conflict to the streets in a joint uprising against the rule of The Commonwealth. During the course of the initial stages of the game, the Red Faction and the Squad mutually support each other as they overcome shared objectives which include sabotaging propaganda installations. The uprising culminates in successfully trapping Sopot in his missile silo and executing him with the exhaust flames of an ICBM he had planned to fire in another political move to undermine or annihilate the Red Faction.

Alias returns to the makeshift base of operations, only to discover that all of the Red Faction resistance members present have been brutally slaughtered. Molov remarks that with Sopot dead, and with the nanotech research in Molov's possession, the Commonwealth's military forces have voluntarily pledged allegiance to Molov. He declares Alias and Tangier to be enemies of the state for supporting the Red Faction. Also present is the leader of the Red Faction forces on Earth, a young commander codenamed Echo, who explains to the Squad's members that the Red Faction had no intention of misusing the Squad's participation in the uprising. Echo tries to explain that the Red Faction's ultimate goal is to bring about peace. Molov, enraged, retorts that a declaration of peace would defeat the purpose of their existence as soldiers. As Molov is about to fire his weapon he is held hostage by a cloaked Tangier, who buys the three characters enough time to make an escape with their lives. The three split up, and agree to meet in a more discreet location to plan a way to stop Molov and his army of supersoldiers. The remaining members of the Squad give chase.

Shortly after fleeing to safety, Alias (now working alone) lends aid to surviving Red Faction members who are defending themselves from the enemy. While Tangier embarks on a solo mission to uncover more of Molov's plot, Alias and Echo meet up in a secret location to discuss an alternate strategy to stop Molov. At that moment, Echo is gunned down by Quill, with her specialized railgun. Alias tracks down the trajectory of the lethal gunfire to an abandoned cathedral, where Quill and her detachment of troops and Processed do battle with Alias. Alias successfully out-guns the sniper, and Quill tumbles through the rosette window to fall to her demise. Alias claims her weapon as a trophy.

Tangier radios Alias soon afterward, and the two agree to shut down Molov's commandeered nanotech laboratory, located within the colossal statue of Sopot. Upon arrival, the two split up. Repta makes his appearance, distracting Alias with gunfire and deploying Processed mutants, including Molov's newest creation: a more refined Processed mutant that is stronger and more resilient than the first Processed. Alias pursues Repta into the industrial processor, located within the base of Sopot's statue. The area is littered with a network of catwalks, where Repta lurks. Eventually, Alias triumphs and shoots Repta off one of the catwalks, sending Repta plummeting into the irradiated processing ground below. Alias claims Repta's abandoned weapon as he continues his climb up the base of Sopot's Statue and destroys the nanotech laboratory's power generators. Alias's explosives weaken the foundation, and renders the statue unstable.

Alias encounters Repta again. The nanotechnology within Repta has been further enhanced, destabilizing Repta while augmenting his capacity for combat; Repta has been processed into the ultimate killing machine, and summons Molov's nanotech elite as reinforcements. In addition, Repta is engulfed in an energy field that disrupts nearby nanotechnology, subjecting the player to reversed player controls at moments during the fight. As Alias triumphs once again, the energy field within Repta reaches critical mass and Repta explodes.

Alias and Tangier meet up and pursue Molov, who is scaling Sopot's statue. During the pursuit, Molov's most powerful subordinates launch a counterattack. Molov has taken the nanotech cell – the culmination of Capek's research – and await extraction from Shrike. Shrike betrays his commanding officer, declaring that a grievous error in judgment has been made. Tangier manages to reclaim the nanotech cell from Molov's possession and uses a grenade to cover her escape as she dives headfirst off the observation deck of Sopot's statue.

Molov, desperate to eliminate his enemies, climbs aboard a nearby battle armor and launches a frenzied assault against Alias. Shrike, in his own close air support craft, patrols the area around them. Using the destructible environment to his advantage, Alias manages to evade Molov's fire and launch a counterattack that not only kills Molov, but also destroys the statue. As the statue crumbles, Shrike swoops in to extract his teammate in the nick of time.

From this point, the story ends in one of four possible ways, depending on the player's Heroics score.

Multiplayer

Red Faction II features Deathmatch, Bagman, Arena (all available with either individual or team play), Capture the Flag, and "Regime" (an unlockable mode equivalent to Bagman), all played across a selection of roughly forty levels, each with destructible walls. Every game mode except Capture the Flag has the same stage set; Capture the Flag has another set of levels dedicated to it.

Players can also create their own bots. Bots, like the human players, are able to keep statistics pertaining to gameplay. Bots obtain more statistic points as they fight matches in multiplayer, which allows the player to upgrade their abilities as they are used. These statistics include Health, Damage, Agility, and Accuracy. There are also two other stats pertaining to their gameplay: Camping Tendency and Aggressiveness.

Online multiplayer was not supported on any platform, and the PC version only supports a "Bot Match" multiplayer feature.

Sequel

Main articles: Red Faction: Guerrilla, Red Faction: B.E.A.S.T., and Red Faction: Armageddon

A sequel, Red Faction: Guerrilla, was released in 2009. A version for Microsoft Windows was released on September 15, 2009.

Reception

Red Faction II's short campaign and lack of online multiplayer has diminished reviews by many critics. However, redeeming features include dual wielding, great multiplayer(split screen), and improved graphics. For these and other reasons, GameSpot awarded the game an 8.3/10.0, earning it the rank of "Great". IGN's positive side of their review called the game "a very solid, well-produced first-person shooter", but their complaints stated that: "Volition still shows some room for improvement when it comes to level design, spots of AI, and implementing the vast potential of the Geo-Mod concept". Despite their complaints, IGN gave Red Faction II a 9.2/10, an "Outstanding" ranking; however, they were more negative about the PC version, criticizing the port's average looking graphics and incredibly short (though enjoyable) single-player campaign.

External links

• Red Faction II at MobyGames