Posts tagged red faction

This has now been sent back to Lovefilm, uncompleted and surprisingly unloved.

I’m not sure what the problem was. I loved the demo when I played it a few months ago and I expected that I’d love this game, but it didn’t come together. I could blame too many dull drives or the slightly awkward shooting. I think, though, that I might be to blame. I just don’t think I’ve got any patience at the moment. Every moment that wasn’t the Best Thing Ever, every death, every restart, they all put me off the game.

I’m just so used to iPhone gaming these days, which consists of five minutes of fun, a check of Twitter, a refresh of some forums, a peek at Google Reader, back to a game for a few minutes, etc.

That might not be it, either, though. I just might be one of those restless phases at the moment.

Though, that said, I played Arkham Asylum to death for a few days not so long ago, so maybe Red Faction simply isn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

We’re getting there, we really are.

It’s all coming together.

Last night I was more careful, I died less (though not infrequently) and I had a grand old time. I’m really growing to love the missions that involve other characters, though the “defend a certain area” missions seem to be incredibly tough, with the EDF coming and coming and coming, seemingly without end. I need more rocket launcher ammo, I think.

The only real problem with the game is that driving between missions is all a bit dull. I do my best to enliven it by doing jumps where I can, but that normally ends up just meaning I take longer to get anywhere. Unlike GTA IV, where the driving between missions is probably the best part of the game, Mars is just a bit dull so far.

Still, it’s worth it. Leading raids on chemical plants, bringing down wind farms, killing a courier and making an escape in the martian equivalent of a milk float, these are all great moments.

Lovefilm sent me this yesterday, which was nice of them. I loved the demo, so I was very much looking forward to the full game. It doesn’t disappoint. Took ages to install and update it, then there’s a load of cut scenes and tutorial stuff, but once into the game I was having a grand old time.

Basically, although you get to drive around and shoot people, destruction is the key element. (Just as in Crackdown, thinking about it, where jumping was the thing that brought the open-world shooting and driving gameplay to life.) Not that the shooting and driving isn’t fun. The run and gun approach to killing enemies feels a bit wooly, but if you use cover and aim your shots it’s a lot better. (And sneaking up on people and walloping them with a sledgehammer is unlikely to ever get old.) The driving is great fun, with trucks that just love to go flying through the air.

But, yeah, it’s watching buildings fly apart and collapse that’s the real draw here. The game knows this and populates the first area with impressively tall smokestacks that are amazing to bring down – and which you’re rewarded for destroying with the game’s currency. Excellent.

I think I’m going to enjoy this.

I’m only a silver member of Live these days, so I won’t be able to try out the multiplayer, but I’ll try to finish the single player before sending the game back.

Had another quick go as my 360 was on. Just as fun as it was the last time I played. I do hope the full game doesn’t spend hours buggering about with simple tutorial missions before giving you access to all the toys in the demo. If it’s fifteen hours before you get those sticky bomb things and you’re always constantly running out of them, it just won’t be as fun.

And to prove I was talking nonsense earlier, it’s a third-person game, not an FPS.

It’s really growing on me, by the way.