This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Red Faction for PlayStation 2
Red Faction for PlayStation 2 is a first-person shooter about an uprising in the mines of Mars. You play Parker, an Ultor worker caught in the fighting when the miners rebel. You travel through tunnels, laboratories and guarded facilities. Messages from Hendrix provide guidance while you look for passages, ammunition and a safe position against the guards. The story follows your escape through the colony without a succession of separate mission briefings.
Geo-Mod technology lets you blast away sections of rock and walls in certain places. An explosive can create an opening or change cover, but not every surface is destructible. The route through the story remains bounded. You alternate between firearms, rockets and remote explosives, and also use vehicles. Sometimes you need to proceed unnoticed instead of immediately shooting. This breaks up the fighting with looking around, listening and carefully passing through a guarded area.
You play the campaign alone with a standard DualShock 2. The two analogue sticks handle movement and looking around, and you can customise the controls. Outside the story, two players can battle each other locally on a split screen. You need two controllers for this, not a Multitap. Computer-controlled opponents can fill out the arena. This PS2 version focuses on the solo campaign and matches on the same console; the PC edition's online features are not included.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Red Faction for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Red Faction
Volition developed Red Faction, and THQ released it for PlayStation 2 in 2001. The studio also worked on FreeSpace's space combat and the Summoner role-playing series, but here chose action through one character's eyes. The PS2 version appeared before the PC edition. It therefore belongs to the early years when developers were exploring the new console and increasingly designing first-person shooters around a controller.
Development centred on combining a continuous story with environments that could be altered. Producer Anoop Shekar described oppression and the subsequent uprising as the starting point. Propaganda-style imagery gave Ultor and the resistance a recognisable identity. At the same time, the designers had to limit destruction. Important passages and certain surfaces remained intact so that explosives could not make progress impossible. Geo-Mod therefore offered extra possibilities within designed levels, not unrestricted freedom to excavate Mars.
That balance explains Red Faction's particular place within the series. The first game links the miners of Mars to an escape through an industrial complex, with vehicles and stealthy passages between firefights. Red Faction II later shifted the focus to a group of enhanced soldiers on Earth. The original PS2 game preserves the idea's first form: a worker becomes involved in a revolution and gradually learns to use weapons and his surroundings against his employer.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Red Faction II also uses futuristic weapons and Geo-Mod, but follows Alias and his squad of soldiers on Earth. Its action is built more around successive battles and squadmates. The first game stays closer to Parker's escape through the mining colony and alternates shooting with sneaking. Local play differs too: this game supports up to two players, while three or four players in II require a PS2 Multitap and enough controllers.
Half-Life on PlayStation 2 also has you cross an increasingly dangerous complex through one character's eyes. Gordon Freeman tries to survive a disaster at Black Mesa; Parker becomes caught in a miners' uprising. Both stories unfold through the environment and encounters along the way. Red Faction adds deformable terrain in certain places. Half-Life places greater emphasis on scientific facilities, environmental puzzles and the consequences of an experiment gone wrong.
TimeSplitters 2 shares the first-person controls, varied weapons and enjoyment of local arenas. Its story missions, however, jump between periods and styles, from historical settings to science fiction. Red Faction stays within one uprising on Mars and takes you deeper through the same colony. Destructible sections of rock add a different detail to its battles; TimeSplitters 2 builds its variety more around objectives, challenges and very different characters.
Black on PlayStation 2 also puts considerable effort into explosions, flying debris and enemies behind cover. It uses modern weapons and places its battles within a story about covert operations. Red Faction chooses a science-fiction world of miners and Ultor. Geo-Mod also lets you alter certain sections of terrain yourself. Black focuses more strongly on the immediate effect of gunfire and explosions within its carefully constructed firefights.
Deus Ex: The Conspiracy on PlayStation 2 combines a future full of abuses of power with shooting and stealth. It gives conversations, skills and different solutions to objectives considerable space. Red Faction also tells of resistance against a powerful organisation, but follows a more direct action route. Your main decisions concern weapons, cover and Geo-Mod's limited possibilities. In Deus Ex, your character development and approach determine how a situation unfolds much more often.
