Red Faction Review

NoBuO810’s Review

Red Faction is the first First-Person Shooter available on the N-Gage. Unlike the system??s two most popular games (Tony Hawk??s Pro Skater & Tomb Raider) this game originally wasn??t available for the Playstation but for the Playstation 2! The game showcases the graphical power of the N-Gage and does it very well. However, this will be explained further on in the review. The game utilizes many of the N-Gage features including: wireless multiplayer via blue tooth, and pretty impressive 3D graphics.

Gameplay:
The game is an incredible recreation of the original game. The original game was an impressive first-person shooter game that utilized Geo-Mod technology, which allowed you to destroy various walls in order to clear a path for your victory. However, due to limitations the Geo-Mod feature is pretty much nonexistent in this game. So instead, you??re getting classic a FPS game more similar to Doom or Quake. You play as parker, a miner in Mars who??s fighting back against Ultor, shooting tons of guards in order to hopefully escape with your life. Surprisingly the controls of the game aren??t that bad. Because the N-Gage has no second control feature it??s impossible to get a perfect aim while moving. So the game has a ??lock on?? feature which automatically aims at various guards for you. This feature is HEAVILY important in making the game playable. However, if you??re looking for a harder game you can toggle the feature off. And if you actually need to aim in a particular direction pressing the seven button puts you in a shooting mode. Finally, in addition to the single player game, you can also play the game with another N-Gage user via a wireless blue tooth connection.

Graphics:
If you want to show off your shiny new handheld gaming device to all your friends Red Faction is a great game to get. Boasting near PC quality graphics, the game looks stunning on the game??s screen. The only main difference between this game and it??s PC counterpart would be the monotonous level designs, which all look the same. So you end up getting lost quite a bit. However, it doesn??t affect the game play too much, so you shouldn??t worry. Also, the guard models could have looked a bit better.

Sound:
The game features a decent soundtrack, and features actually voices with the guards taunts and death cries. However, the game??s story only uses scrolling text. So like most N-Gage games you won??t really get to know too much of the story because you??ll want to play the game! So good music, nice voices (however they do get repetitive after a while), and lack of FMV sequences give the sound score an average grade.

Playability:
If you??ve played this game before, then you may find yourself a bit bored. However newcomers (such as I) found the game quickly addictive. And this game is mainly meant for an on-the-go type gaming experience. So if you??ve played this game before you may find the game to be pretty fun. Especially considering the N-Gage version features multiplayer thanks to the N-Gage Arena and you can play head-to-head thanks to wireless blue tooth. Unfortunately the game doesn??t feature any N-Gage Arena support, but the wireless multiplayer is sufficient.

Packaging/Manual:
As with all N-Gage games, Red Faction features a DVD like game case which encases a trilingual instruction manual (English, Spanish, & French). The manual is also in full color which is pretty good. Also the game case features a plastic case which can hold up to 4 N-Gage games. The game case itself allows you to store two MMC cards in the case. Overall, the packaging is awesome.

Overall:
If you're a fan of First-Person Shooter type games, and are an 'on the go' kind of person, than you'll definitely find a spot for this game in your handheld collection. As a nice rendition of the original game you'll definitely have an awesome time playing this. And even if you aren't a big fan of this genre than you should be able to enjoy this game. So either way you win! This game also shows off the power of the N-Gage, overall this game is definitely RECOMMENDED.

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