Welcome to a new ranking. This time, I dive deep into the world (or rather Mars) of Red Faction. Just like my Assassin's Creed ranking, I am going from game-to-game and ranking them as I go. These blogs are sort of the explanation as to how I feel about the game and the rank will be here. The games I will be playing are Red Faction 1, 2, Guerrilla (probably the remastered version), and Armageddon. I will be focusing primarily on the solo aspects of the game, and I am playing all of them on PC. Without further ado, let's get into the ranking.

In this sci-fi fps, you play as a man named Parker who decides to go to Mars for a better life, only to find out the corporation running Mars is overworking the workers there. That mixed with a mysterious plague killing the miners and a moment where a security guard kills a miner leads Parker to join the rebellious group known as the Red Faction. With the help of the Red Faction leader Eos and a security technician named Hendrix, Parker fights the Ultor corporation in hopes of stopping the plague and getting the Earth Defense Force to aid them in their battle.

Well, let's start with the story. I actually didn't like it all that much. I think the combination of Mars and revolution was a good blend, but when it comes to all of the other aspects of the story I found it to be bland. The whole thing felt like a ripoff of Half Life's story, except you take a more active role in the revolution as the game goes on. At one point, the plot hinted at a predictable twist that the corporation was secretly heading the rebellion, but that never came to fruition. On top of that, all of the main antagonists felt suddenly introduced and the characters in general were bland. The story wasn't great, but what about the gameplay?

Whenever I play through a franchise, I find myself trying to get through the first few games to get to the last few. I went into this game with that mindset, but my thoughts on the game coming out were different. I thought the gameplay would be mediocre, but it was actually pretty solid. Environmental destruction surprised me and was fun to play around with. There was a surprisingly large amount of weapons, and all of them were a lot of fun to use. Whether it be a sniper that can see and shoot enemies through walls or a simple pistol with a silencer, the guns were simple but a lot of fun to use. Vehicle sections were scattered around and the controls didn't feel great with them, but I still found them to be a good way to break up the gameplay. But the biggest two aspects of the game I found that was good was the length and difficulty. I usually find my experience with older shooters to go on for too long and to have a difficulty that is hard to deal with. Fortunately, Red Faction didn't overstay its welcome and I thought the game had a good difficulty curve. Overall, I would say that the gameplay didn't feel revolutionary, but it did fit to my liking. But not all was well in the realm of gameplay.

Before I could even begin the game, I had to download a mod that would allow me to start. I don't mind putting in the work to fix any small issues in a game, but it was still worth mentioning. I had some other technical issues as well, such as NPCs running into poor environmental collision (not me though) and dialogue being off, but nothing too bad. The biggest issue I had with the gameplay was a lack of a sense of direction. This game is pretty linear, but there were just enough different directions you could go at certain points that would leave me lost. Still, nothing horrible in the gameplay overall.

One last thing to mention is multiplayer. Just like in the AC ranking and now, multiplayer doesn't really play much of a role at all in the ranking, but I am still glad it is there. Surprisingly enough, there is a lobby with bots and usually someone in there playing, so I actually got to play it. I would say it's nothing that special. It felt like a basic arena shooter, but I still had a good time with it.

In conclusion, I would say that Red Faction is a decent game. It doesn't feel all that unique, but I still had a good time with the game. The story and the glitches were a drag, but the setting, shooting, and difficulty felt solid. I predict that by the end of this list, this game will either be two or three. Thank you all for reading, and tune in for part two on Red Faction 2.