S-T-A-N-D B-A-C-K

GEO-Mod is one of the first things demoed in the game, giving you some detonation packs to blast holes in the cave with. Even more fun than the blasting of holes, though, is the glass engine. Unfortunately, the glass remains a bit too translucent before it gets caught in the cross-fire, but the shattering effect, especially from overhead glass, is unlike anything I've seen in a game before, with some exceptional physics modeling, and glass crunching sound effects.

Overall, though, I must state that I am less than impressed with the GEO-Mod engine. The way the engine itself works is superb, but the in-game maps didn't fully utilize its capability. Fortunately, RED (Remember FRED the FReespace Editor? Red Faction EDitor is its counterpart) will be providing a lot of home mod and map makers a convenient way to include the GEO-Mod features in far more maps than what has been previously supported. In addition, the easy usability of the RED editor will prove highly learnable for even inexperienced mappers, so we should expect to see a horde of mods and maps popping up any day.

In terms of the gameplay, Red Faction plays through much like Half-Life but without the overall feeling of horror. Except for one or two levels, the only monsters that are encountered are human soldiers and automated turrets. One of the game's strongest points is the weapons. There are numerous weapons found throughout the game (and in multiplayer) ranging from a 9mm handgun to a nuclear rocket launcher (it's like the Quake 2 BFG cranked up to "overkill") all of which have an excellent feeling absent from most other games that you're really firing the weapon. Really the exceptionally fun weapons are the only way to tell the difference between a Half-Life deathmatch game and a Red Faction deathmatch g

Another one of the additions to Red Faction that slightly blurrs the line between an FPS and Action game is the ability to control certain vehicles found throughout the game. The submarine, Aesir fighter, APC, and Jeep. I know the box lists five vehicles, but the driller is really only in there for a brief appearance and serves no real function (still, it may make for some interesting mods...) Anyway, the vehicles provide various strategic values as well, and play an increasingly important role in the game as time progresses. One thing of interesting mention is a rather obvious inclusion for fans of Freespace 2. In one mission you must take the Aesir fighter and navigate around shooting at other fighters. The music in this portion highly resembles the music of Freespace (yes, it's the same composer), and the sound that the guns on the fighter use are the same sounds of the forward beam cannons on cruisers in FS2. (There was also a subtle hint to Descent in one mission while firing at "police bots".)

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