A Thorough Look at Red Faction
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- Опубліковано 27 січ 2015
- This is a video retrospective and review of the four games in the Red Faction franchise. Red Faction's an unusual series, with two ambitious and likable games as well as two real clunkers. Explore this fascinating action series in detail, it'll only take you half an hour.
____TABLE OF CONTENTS____
Red Faction 1-- 0:40
Red Faction 2-- 8:37
Red Faction Guerrilla-- 15:50
RFG, Demons of the Badlands-- 22:20
Red Faction Armageddon-- 23:51
RFA, Path to War-- 31:16
Special Thanks-- 33:53
To help make content like this more frequent, consider donating at / noahcaldwellgervais . - Ігри
"No shits given, no shits taken. It is a zero sum shit parade."
-A modern day poet.
What really impressed me in Guerilla was how it remembers all the damage you have caused across the whole map. The destruction physics has never gotten old, nor will it ever in my opinion.
That's...not true. it has on/off switches for major structures, but basically anything else will regenerate after a while.
I fucking loved parker, He was so TERRIBLE, He was so poorly wirtten and cheesy it was glorious.
Tha fuck?
@Max William Lauf During the boss fight against Capek, I was looking for some power generator for his nano-shield to destroy but it turns out Parker was right all along, he just had to use higher-caliber bullets.
i played through all of the first game and when he said something at the end of the game i was legit like "is this the first time that he spoke or did i forget all of what happended?" xD
I love Parker so much. The narrative of games such as half life are about men incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time, so the developers went "well, then I guess the protagonist can just be a complete moron". Such a wonderful subversion.
Parker is closer to a character from a comedy than an action film. He couldn't care less about the revolt, he is always motivated by self interest,cowardice,anger, revenge, and trying to get into Eos' pants by the end of the game, but the game is never too overt about it. I need more protagonists like this.
I doubt Jason Statham would even remember that he was in Red Faction 2. Michael Biehn didn't even remember that he was in Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun.
I'm sure he'll never forget Colonial Marines.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 he somehow made up for it in Blood Dragon.
I absolutely love Red Faction: Guerrilla. Your analysis of everything is really impressive here.
I really love in depth looks at why our favorite games ARE our favorite games to begin with. The expertly crafted experiences that begin with the simple pressing of a button, to the final credits, signaling the completation of work of art. How execution is just as important, if not more so, than concept alone.
Thanks, man! That's one of the reasons I started doing it. For a while, I was thinking "Why aren't there more videos like that?", so I started doing them. It's a wide-open niche. There's a lot of great people working the niche, but long-form criticism is really underpopulated compared to other youtube formats. It takes an outrageous amount of time to do the videos, though, so that's probably one reason. Why put out one video every couple of months in a condensed format when you can just put up dozens of videos of your whole playthrough so you have content every day? It's a slower process to make these videos, and yields a less impressive result than Let's Plays, from the standpoint of youtube analytics.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais It's really worth the wait man! I'm always jazzed to see a new video from you! I think I've watched your Half Life video about 10 times now just because it's so interesting.
Noah is such a likeable person and his eloquent speech about ganes is nearly so good, like Joseph Anderson and mathewmatossis. I'm almost impressed. Big thumbs up for Noah
I loved the unscripted set pieces in RF Gurrilla.
One of my favorites was shortly after you steal the nanoforge when the truck with the explosive turret shows up while your in a rickety old building 100 feet above the ground.
I remember reading on a forum a while ago about some reasons why Armageddon didn't live up to it's predecessor. I don't know how credible it is, but a former developer said that Armageddon went into development before Guerrilla was released. There were also a lot of idea scrapped or changed during development and had to be rush it toward the end of development. A significant reason why Guerrilla turned out good was due to one developer, at least in the multiplayer component. He came up with the idea of backpacks and tuned and balanced the weapons and much more. Unfortunately, he wasn't apart of Armageddon.
Another great video. Some video game franchises that I believe deserve a thorough look:
Max Payne
The Darkness
Resident Evil
The Witcher
Oooohhhh Max Payne is a good one, would love to hear Noah's opinion on the trilogy. I'm sure there's alot to say about the difference in each episode!
About The Witcher, better wait for the third chapter before doing an in depth review, don't you think?
I have to agree on Max Payne, that could be interesting considering the massive difference between MP 1 and 2 vs 3. MP 3 was pretty damn divisive and that makes it compelling to look at.
The Darkness is another one that could be pretty good, not a lot of people talk about them, as for Resident Evil and The Witcher though, ehh, both of those are pretty well covered already and there isn't really much to talk about with The Witcher, it's just not that interesting of a franchise from a critical perspective.
Giampaolo Mannucci I would also welcome Noah's take on it, but in the mean-time Caddicarus has a Max Payne retrospective of his own. If you don't know him, check him out. Very different style, but lots of fun.
Brad Smith Thank you! Starting right now :)
Sean Powers Three years later, you got that Max Payne video! :)
I just found your channel thanks to the Doom Review you made recently and I am absolutly blown away by the work and affort you are putting into your videos. I really appreciate your work and I hope you will keep on making these videos. So yeah, just a few words of appreciation.
I'm still left breathless when I remember just how irredeemably awful the writing in Armageddon was.
Your guy has a nanite reconstructor wrist gadget that can restore any destroyed object back into full working order, regardless of size or complexity. You can aerosolize two-story buildings in this game, and then put them back together completely by pointing your magic wrist gadget at it. The lights will turn back on, the computers inside the structure will wink with their cheery blue displays... Literally everything that was broken will work again.
So when The One and Only Terraformer That Supplies All Of Mars' Atmosphere (don't blow this up please!) gets blown up, Our Hero *could* just point his wrist gadget at it and fix it on the fucking spot. But instead everyone decides to just deal with the Climate Armageddon by reordering their entire city to live underground where there's still air.
And then Our Hero gets duped into unleashing horrible insect alien monsters and triggers the Insect Armageddon. That's two Armageddons Our Hero is responsible for in the space of the first twenty god damn minutes of the game! How is the player meant to even BEGIN to give a shit about a character this dumb?!
And then the entire plot is resolved when someone very pointedly reminds the main character that he has a bullshit magic wrist gadget that can fix the terraformer and kill all the bugs and he's just like, "OH YEAH RIGHT! HERP!"
It's great. It's so staggeringly dumb that I start to seize up and drool.
The only way this plot could have been saved if it is acknowledged by all parties that his nanite wrist watch is only able to bring back buildings if it is preprogrammed into the watch itself via blueprints. And thanks to the antagonist all backup plans of the terrarformer has been destroyed and he took the only plan remaining. Defeating him the protagonist took the plan from him and then proceeded to fix the terraformer via the recovered blue prints.
But this is the bad future, and in this future this plot is a awful plot. Pitty that only 10 minutes of thought was able to fix this awful plot hole.
The only redeeming quality in armageddon was the magnet gun and how much stupid fun it is to use. Big miniboss? off a cliff with you.
The game gets better if you restrict yourself to only use the magnet gun.
The reconstructor is in guerrilla. Fuck dis game
Best game reviewer out there. Simply no one puts thoughts together as well as you do.
Nonsequitorian
SuperBunnyHop comes close.
Joseph Anderson and MatthewMatosis also
@@BeatsByMemes chris davis too
I was the 1st person to platinum the PS4 version of red faction Guerrilla :D
Me too
Well done to all three of you!
Thank you@@stevo8433. It means alot coming from you.
Dude that’s so fucking dope im proud of you
I loved Red Faction 1. So much.
Yes! A very pleasant surprise as usual Noah! Keep up the good work man! :D
I've been watching your videos for a couple of weeks now. This has some of the best writing, your comedic expression and delivery is masterful.
"i'll never forget what my dad said to me on my 5th birthday, sometimes all you have is a bullet and a prayer, dont miss, words to live by"
It's really nice to see another one from you so soon. Cheers on the new tech, I'm glad things are picking up.
Fantastic video as always. Thanks Noah :)
Another great video, filled with brilliant insight. Red Faction was always a franchise I've only been vaguely aware of, and hearing about the rollercoaster ride of design decisions from one installment to an another is very entertaining.
Great Video!
This is a highly well-done video on one of my favorite fps franchises even with its obvious faults and shortcomings. This channel deserves to be commended for such a video and I for one am proud to do so.
people still play red faction 1 online
I still do, oh look, two years after your comment. in fact I play with the same 10 people all the time
2 is way better. Is 2 online? The servers for all that crap is probably gone by now
does pc have split screen?
@Alias Alias ?
Are any of you people still Alive?
Fantastic work, as always. Surprised to hear this series may actually have a future.
haven't even watched it yet, but i know i'm gonna love it. you fucking rule man. genuinely one of my favorite channels. you're a phenomenal writer and even games i'm not interested in, you make engaging stuff for. (:
You're the man Noah. Love all of your videos. There are few on youtube as insightful and well written as you are when writing about anything, so the gaming community is lucky that games are your chosen subject matter. I know there's probably not a lot of money in this so thanks for taking the time to do what you do!
Top tier, my man, as is every other video on your channel!
Another amazing video, keep up the good work!
Seeing a new video from you is like waking up on Christmas. Keep up the fantastic work!
Good review as always. Its nice to see your comedic side come out in your writing a little bit more.
Thanks for another great video.
Great work on this
So much for going to sleep! Great video, Noah.
Funny thing about the RF2 endings, I've literally never been able to get anything but the neutral one, because I never want to just shoot all the civvies for the evil one, but I can never get enough good-boy points to get the good one. I have never even been able to find them on youtube, so I don't even know what happens in them!
The underwater explosion at 4:52 is a really amazing detail
red faction 1 was one of the first (if not the first) shooters I played in that era and altogether, so I will always remember it quite fondly. A great video once again!
Man i love your videos so much lol. Been watching since the mass effect analysis i even rewatch that and other vids of yours again sometimes its just so entertaining. Id love it if you did a witcher analysis that franchise i feel is perfect for one of the just a request thanks for the time and effort you put into these man.
"Gotta love the guy, or you will die."
Noah, I thought you said this game had _bad_ writing. What you've just shown me is a masterpiece.
Excellent critique, very well written best video on red faction ive seen sir.
I love these videos so much!
Loved all of the Red Faction games, though obviously 2 was a weak point it was still incredibly fun.
Armageddon probably would have been a 10 if it came out before Guerilla, too, considering the weakness of 2 and the fact that Armageddon kind of returned to the claustrophobic roots of Red Faction while tying up the whole Ultor plot.
I got trapped in a room and spanked by like 2 bosses at once. In like the first 5 minutes
please do a video on the Timesplitters games
Yes
TIME TO SPLIT!
First of all, awesome video, like always. Excelent review!
Second, a weird fact: at 13:11, the logo at the metro station in Red Faction 2 looks a lot (if its not identical) to one used by a toy company in Brazil, called Estrela (star). It was just so random that I had to point
Just wanted to say I enjoyed the video, looking forward to the next one.
Another great video.
MAN I love your intros xD so analog.
Hey Noah. It's great to see your take on Red Faction. This video got me back into playing RFG. I was wondering, will you do a thorough look into the Star Wars Jedi Knight series. From Dark Forces to Jedi Academy. Hell, add KOTOR into it.
The first Red Faction was my first ever online FPS and with my dial up- I download so many custom maps (slowly lol). I remember rail only servers, increased geo mod servers, run maps, custom UIs. I was in a clan (Lost Souls).... The community was so nice and fun - it was a nice introduction to online gaming for me and I'm glad I got to experience it.
Red Faction Guerrilla remaster is out - it has awesome, classic multiplayer.
great video!
Your intro when you knock over the cans made me chuckle for a while. xD After the watching the video, the intro made sense.
Loved the video as usual. The shorter length of the video didn't make it less enjoyable, if this method lets you make more videos, then I highly encourage it. (Even though I highly value your longer videos.)
Thanks for the mention in the credits!
PS: I highly suggest you keep linking your Patreon in the descriptions of your future videos, for convenience sake.
Thanks for donating! Shorter videos aren't the new format, I just talked about what I wanted to talk about and it happened to fit into a little over half an hour. It only takes about 55 hours to do all four games!
Putting remote charges on enemies in RF1 is endlessly entertaining. I will never forget the npcs squealing & running in circles.
Congrats on the Patreon support, Noah! That's awesome. I really can't wait for more content from you and if I can gather up the cash to help with that in the future, I'll do my best.
I'm wondering if you ever took a look at a couple series, because I'd love to hear your take on them. Darksiders, for one and Hunter: The Reckoning, which is set in the World of Darkness universe, the same as Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which of course you've already commented on. Darksiders 2 was one of my favorite stories within a game that wasn't really set up to be story driven, and Hunter... well, it's been a long time since I played it, but I remember it fondly and I wonder if my nostalgia can stand up to your scrutiny. I mention Darksiders because you brought up Nordic Games buying THQ properties, and Darksiders was one of the titles. It would be really cool if you could take a look.
PS: I was really pleased to see a new video from you so quickly,even if it was a little shorter than your usual. :)
Considering the name, icon, and story setup, I’m suprised the games don’t have more of a commentary on socialism and workers rights.
I support a lot of the comments. Xcom, Dark Souls, Halo. One of those series would be awesome. Great video
I don't understand Jerry Reed & hammering the soda cans. Is there something I missed?
I would love to see you do a video on the Myst series, it's one of those franchises that would be perfect for your style of analysis. And maybe a Thief video? Just a couple of ideas, keep up the good work!
I like the different take of your usual intro, using the hammer in reference to the game art. :)
Thanks for the series commentary, you totally nailed what most Redfaction fans were thinking all along. Hopefully instalment 5 will be a belter.
Great vid
Ooh a new video! :D
Like always another great upload.
Deus Ex would be a great a video. Dues Ex 1 is my favorite game of all time.
He did that! :D
When ? ? ?
He did one about comparing modernizations on Deus Ex and Duke Nukem, it's not really what you asked for but he does talk indepth about Deus Ex and how it changed in time :)
Thanks I'll go watch it .
Absolutely love your videos. Your writing style is excellent, and I've enjoyed every single thing you've put out. You are the only youtube content creator that I'm going to back on Patreon--your work just too fantastic for me to not donate. Keep up the good work!
This review inspired me to try Red Faction Guerilla. Excellent game.
Two years late to the party, I still feel the need to voice my opinion, even if it is read by no one.
Oh boy, Red Faction II. I'll come out and say it, I love that game. When it comes down to it, between all of the story driven shooters I've played over the years, Red Faction II is one of the memorable ones.
I admit, the plot and the acting aren't stellar, but the game sits between being outright goofy like Guerilla (never played Guerilla, going off the video here) and outright summer blockbuster serious like the shooters of this decade.
Perhaps to me, the game is memorable for being average and cliche. It may very well be the nostalgia factor, the longing for simpler games in a triple-A next-gen day and age, that makes me appreciate it.
All in all, I will never appreciate a singleplayer experience like that of BF4 the way I do Red Faction II. I suppose at this time, I long for an average game in a sea of hollywood productions.
I know this old-school charme of the games that don't take themselves seriously; indeed for me personally it takes a lot to like a game that takes itself completely seriously, but relatively little to like a game that delves in bathos or devolves to narm. This is not a popular opinion, but it's a reason something like Deadly Premonition has a cult following. And yet, this comment sounds like you only played two games, in which case, i must say, i pity you.
Artuurs Z. is right mate, guerilla is great. get on that shit
i fucking hated this game, i actually thought id bought the wrong game or something, glad you liked it though.
RF: Guerrilla was allways a favorite of mine.
the Freedom of just breaking a entire town down to just Red Sand and Rubble was allways a enjoyable stress-relief.
but the gameplay does remind me of another enjoyable sandbox, "The Saboteur".
Workers of Mars unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains
1:30 I love this moment because I think literally everybody who played it did exactly what Noah does in the video.
love you so much Mr Caldwell-Gervais. Doing the lords work.
Nice overview. I remember being completely turned off by the first title but I think Guerilla might be worth a look. Thanks!
I love every one of his intros
I think there are a lot of aspects of game production that are rarely if ever factored into reviews. One aspect that I think could be mentioned when it comes to game reviews, which is highlighted by Red Faction, is the game packaging. Specifically? The art work on the cover. Most of the time when I see covers of games, the cover tries to sell you every aspect of the game in a visual clusterfuck. Like look at Donkey Kong 64's cover. It shows all 5 of the playable characters, a golden banana (the things you need to win), the antagonist, and the setting, all in one image.
By contrast look at the PS2 cover for Red Faction. Just a red graphic with an arm holding a pick-axe. The cover is abstract to the point of making it hard to tell what the game even is, but the significant difference between that type of cover art and the likes of DK64's cover art is staggering, and when you see Red Faction among a series of games on a shelf, it stands out as unique in how it looks, and may influence somebody who's looking around to buy it over other games they spot.
As a result, they will find an underrated shooting experience.
A sequel should always use the art work to distinguish whether or not it's going to be a new experience or more of the same. Red Faction 2's art work is very distinct from RF1's art work, while keeping the abstract "arm holding something up in the air" logo. But this time, it's a gun, so people will know much quicker what kind of game it is. Still, when I saw that cover, I was like "wow, another Red Faction game! And this one's gonna be way different because look at how different that cover looks! New color and everything!"
Yea it's simple and stupid the way I worded that, but my point is both games stood out from each other, and from every other game on the shelf, and for years I wanted to play Red Faction 2 because I loved the first one, and the logo gave me ideas of what the next game would be like, and how much they could expand on the first one.
And... Red Faction 2 is garbage.
The very shortened version of this, if I were to do a mass review like yours, would be to point out how the covers make it ambiguous what you're in for, but both entice you to buy it. Red Faction 2 misleads you into thinking that the game you've just purchased is going to be interesting, and that's a shame because I could have imagined a million ways that they could have not fucked this up, and they dodged every last one of them.
I usually don't like your videos but this one was actually pretty great.
Very well written video.
"you like explosions right? That's what you're here for right?"
"Oh yes, most explosions possible."
One thing that should probably be mentioned is that RF1's Geomod was taken far more advantage of in it's multiplayer. Which was popular albeit short lived during it's lifespan. The multiplayer for RF1 on the PC featured things like secret areas in the levels that would contain powerful weapons that players would need to locate. This was taken to an extreme in the custom map community for RF1 where players would construct levels that other players would create elaborate tunnels inside of.
Unfortunately the custom map community is largely dead due to one of the big mod sites for RF1 going the way of the dinosaur a few years ago. Currently the last remainder of RF1's modding community is the mod Pure Faction which is used to play the game in higher resolutions and is currently the only way to play the multiplayer today.
Red Faction 1 was also spawned as a cancelled sequel to the Descent series that was to focus on tunneling. And Red Faction Guerrilla was spawned largely due to the popularity of the Saints Row series Volition made, since they had more or less established a name for themselves at the time as a sandbox game developer.
Yeah, it's too bad that the multiplayer aspects of these games are kind of lost to time that way. I wasn't there for it, and have no way of recreating it on my own so I just focused on the single-player. This is really cool to read about, though.
there are still a lot of us still playing. lack of new maps is nothing to do with l4y going and more so to do with less players, factionfiles replaced l4y anyway due to pf auto download being hosted there. that being said we will be having the third run rally at the end of the year with about 5 new run maps and we should hit 30 players like last run rally
Fucking love the intro mate, keep up the good work
"You want an assault on a baige military base of offices and parkinglots? We have every shade of baige in the god damn paint sample pack" This made my day :D
Great video, man.
Never played anything from Red Faction, but the 3rd installment seems like a pretty great game to pick up one day. The "destroy literally EVERYTHING" attitude feels reminiscent of Just Cause 2, and that game is brilliant.
I know there are only a few installments, but I would like to see you tackle the Metro games. I have never played them myself, but I always wanted to. They look to be solid story based shooters with an atmosphere and creativity that drew me into the likes of Half Life or BioShock.
And good for you with Patreon.
Hey, thanks for namedrop in the Special Thanks!
That's what you get for donating so damn much-- thank you.
Put your Patreon link in the description.
Armageddon isn't without fun ideas but it's telling that only Guerrilla got a remaster.
"A path of Exquisite Carnage hand-cut by the player..."
I know you know this, but it bears repeating.
You are a hell of a writer.
It seems like Red Faction was a blueprint for the CoD games and other modern shooters in terms of design. The brisk pacing, the linear levels broken up by vehicle sections. Or at the very least the first two games function as some sort of connective tissue in the history of gaming.
I honestly do like how the franchise didn't stick to a set formula for each game. Strangely enough they probably should have.
Noah, love your videos and really thankful for all the work you put into each of them. Would it be possible if you kept your pateron link available in each video from now on, that way we can donate more easily? Thank you very much and have a great day!
Can do, and thanks!
hey man great vid, never have the want to play through the old two or 4 to see how they are so it was helpful. though i do think you could do with slowing down your talking sometimes. also when you talk about things like the magnet gun, you should so footage of it so people have the visual of it. other then that it was good.
If I remember correctly Armageddon came out after Dead Space hit and was so popular. So the devs stupidly were trying to cash and it became very reminiscent of that game with the tighter over-the-shoulder angle, aliens as enemies and there even being a foot stomp I think. While making the destruction just an inconsequential background thing that didn't really matter at all. One of the all time dumb moves in game dev, imo.
One of my favorite old-school gamer activities is to go back into RF Guerilla and attempt a perma-death playthrough on the hardest difficulty. It's a genuinely difficult game on this setting with tons of hard-hitting enemies. The final mission is brutal on normal settings. If you thought you had to play hit-and-run before, playing on hardest difficulty and not being able to die (or you delete your save) really ramps up the guerilla warfare tactics necessary. It's a blast.
And while the plot is simple, it's not bad. Nor is the writing and voice-acting bad. It's important to realize it's all basically pulp scifi. It's intended to be simple and straightforward with clearcut good/bad guys and with plenty of scenery-chewing from the supporting cast and villains. All of which it does well. If you approach the plot, writing and voice-acting with that in mind they are well done.
I absolutely loved RF2 when I was a kid (Sopot did it for me big time) but I can see its flaws. There's something about the story I can't get out of my head...
Any chance you could do a "What Could Have Been?" video/series? Focus on games like Prey, No One Lives Forever, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, etc.; games and concepts that were well-received (if not somewhat quirky or the best-implemented) and have essentially fallen off the face of the Earth? I think it would be an interesting look.
I also felt Armageddon way too linear after Guerilla, but what i really liked in Armageddon is the horde mode. Man, it was so awesome playing with a friend!
This guy should do a review of the metro series! I feel like he would knock it out of the park.
Red Faction 2: No cares given, no cares taken, the care economy here is in a complete depression because anyone who CAN care simply will NOT. I had to get that one down on paper and/or pixels.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on the internet these days who create "content" and ask for upfront donations when their work or effort doesn't really justify that influx of money from people. Sure, there is something to be said about supporting the people that make content you like. But rarely do you ever see that money ever being put towards the content in good use. I'm glad to hear about your work situation, and your videos have clearly improved in production value. So that's really great.
Keep up the great work mate. You're a great writer.
Correction: The Developer (Volition Inc.) didn't go Bankrupt, their Publisher THQ did. Also that long gap between Red Faction 2 & Guerilla they made The Punisher (their last game of the PS2 Era) and then went on to Create and develop Saints Row 1 & 2... Watching some Livestreams of Volitions last night it seems Guerilla was in development as early as Saints Row 1 btw (one of the leads now working on the new Saints Row said as much when others where talking about their memories of working on Saints Row 1)
I'm glad that Red Faction 1 & 2 are now on the PS4. This will give younger gamers (who never grew up on a PS2) a chance to play them. I hope THQ Nordic port Red Faction: Guerrilla to the PS4. I never got to play Armageddon, so i don't know if its any good.
Guerilla has the best core gameplay loop of almost...anything.
Armageddon is such an enigma, I can not imagine the set of circumstances that led to that game.
Meanwhile, 7 years later, still waiting on that Red Faction 5...