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.

I tried this game out again recently on PS4 (after not having played it since it originally came out on PS2), and I was surprised how well it seemed to hold up. The similarities to Half-Life are very noticeable but make for a solid enough foundation, and the terrain deformation was just as fun as I remembered it being.

Red Faction 1 is still my favorite Red Faction and I hope they make another Red Faction in the way they did the first game: a Half-Life inspired first-person shooter with destructible environments. Two was... okay, I guess. I couldn't find the motivation or interest to finish Guerilla, but there are some good aspects to it. I played Armageddon when it became free for Gold on the back compat. It felt like a very standard third-person shooter and like Guerilla, I couldn't find enough interest in it to finish it. Maybe I'd have to play it on hard because a part of the reason why I wasn't into it was because it was too easy. I personally liked that they went back to a more linear focused experience, but I'm not sure Armageddon is what it needed.

@cloudymusic: At first I didn't like the Half Life style approach to the story, but after playing the second game I find that it isn't all that bad.

While I recall the story being lacking, I remember enjoying this a bunch back in the day. Blowing up walls and shattering glass never got boring. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent longer playing around in that test area than I did playing the main story.

But the most mindblowing part was reading that someone is still playing the multiplayer. In fact, who do I need to talk to around here, so that I can get a blog or a GB series, that features people playing obscure/ancient multiplayer games that still have people playing them? I just find it so fascinating that someone potentially found a game +10 years ago, with a multiplayer that they enjoy so much that they haven’t felt like moving forward from it. Excluding incredibly popular games like Starcraft, DOTA, WoW and so.

I absolutely love Red Faction . It was my first FPS that used the modern 'left stick to move, right stick for camera' controls.

When I was about 11, me and my friend used to play the versus mode with bots for hours.

I still play it on PC every now and then, it holds up. I think it's better than Half Life, personally.

OG Red Faction was a great game. The campaign is solid, and the multiplayer was stellar. I totally get why someone is still playing it. My buddies and I put countless hours on it, and with the bots, it can be played and enjoyed as a single-player multiplayer experience as well, which I did far too much of. Using the railgun on Badlands and the shotgun in Lobby is still a good time.

(Also, I've got a review of Red Faction: Guerrilla Remarstered 95% written, but I'll defer to this series until I drop that one. I look forward to reading through all these!)

@glots: Yeah seeing people is sure surprising. By no means was it full server after full server, but there is a bot lobby and usually at least one person there. It would be pretty cool to have a GB series that goes around to old games and sees how active they are. I could imagine something like Far Cry, AC, and Bioshock 2.

@notnert427: I'll definitely be looking forward to that review of yours (though I might not read it until after I play because I like to go into games blind). Also, thanks for sticking with me through all of these! I am so surprised to see so many people come out of the woodwork to talk about how much they love this game.

I remember the multiplayer map with the two bunkers fondly. Wasted a couple of months digging tunnels with a rocket launcher. Great Split-screen multiplayer game.

And yeah i think the first one is still the best in the series.