Red Faction was almost cool.

[@NthReview]

Tell me about your experience with the Red Faction series! Get early access to videos and support the channel at patreon.com/thenthreview

[@MidnightMedium]

"the tragic rise and fall of Red Faction." that no subtle jab at GVYMERS, I love it

[@NthReview]

Drama mamas.

[@GooberPlaysGames]

Awesome video! Probably my favourite, and the most comprehensive deep dive I've seen into the RF series on KZbin. Regarding "why did they make RF:A?" - RF:A was originally slated to be called Red Faction: Crusade, and the pivot was driven by Bilson (no surprise there). I did a video on it a few years ago that you might want to check out, it's on the community wiki page that explains all the information we have about it. I can't link it here (YT keeps deleting my comment), but if you Google for "Red Faction Crusade", you'll find the page on the RF wiki.

[@ThatDangBee]

I have some fond memories of playing the first Red Faction back in the day.

[@HeatherHolt]

Four games??? I’ve only ever seen played or heard of the one. Wow. Great breakdown!

[@OgOssman]

I love to look back and see the early implementations of mechanics that newer games take for granted.

[@alexanderlindstrom01]

Great work as always! You're steadily improving.

[@bennygerow]

RF2 is easily one of my most played single player campaigns of all time because of the gun play and geomod. A couple awesome voice actors too. I bought it for a few bucks when I saw it on the PS5 store. Couldn't bring myself to play it more than maybe 20 minutes. It hasn't aged well, and it used to scratch an itch that the battlefield games did so much better (and had great PVP). 1:39:56 I'm literally doing the dishes 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@stevenguitink5947]

Personally, I reckon franchises like Red Faction and Quake have something in common, that being a constant identity crisis. Neither franchise can nail down any consistent tone, thematic identity and to that, a consistent gameplay loop. It might be why both series have more or less fallen in obscurity outside of old-school gamers.

[@tech9d]

Loved your video dude, hope you read this comment. I think everyone soft locked at the submarine part in the first game XD, I laughed so hard when you mentioned it. During Armageddon you didn't mention the BEST post game weapon, the pony! Lmao Also, i also didn't buy this game, it was my first gamefly rental if you can believe that

[@NthReview]

lol, why does everyone have to soft lock at the submarine part?! And yeah, I used to hawk GameFly at Best Buy 20 years ago lol

[@Rhomega]

Destructible buildings has always been fun. It reminds me of playing a demo for a racing game called Rollcage where you could knock down buildings. Thus was around when 9/11 happened, and I felt guilty about it for a while.

[@pootisengage6672]

Americans have to get over it. It was cringe in 2012 its downright pathetic in 2024

[@TheOriginalDuckley]

⁠@@pootisengage6672if you would just read, he was recalling a memory that happened around that time? I don’t see how that’s cringe. What is cringe is you getting upset about it.

[@pootisengage6672]

@@TheOriginalDuckley nah. If you had a sliver of reading retention i am not admonishing him but the gringo society in general. Also by your logic you getting upset (and not understanding basic words) by me getting upset is like....double cringe. Dont you think?

[@tommyswain3762]

That’s why I like The Finals, excellent destruction

[@pootisengage6672]

@@TheOriginalDuckley another gringo destroyed by facts and logic

[@NoSleepDaChimney]

You probably won’t see this but try the finals I think you’ll fall in love with the destruction… fuck what’s the word… gameplay? Mechanics? Anyways it’s fun to break stuff try it out it’s free and I’ve been binging it for a while

[@HQ_Default]

I think Geomod in the context of a linear corridor shooter _can_ work if it's used more to amplify the affects of shootouts rather than just being a scripted navigational thing. Sort of like how FEAR had a bunch of craters in the wall and dust particles in the midst of combat.

[@pearofsalamanca]

The stick inversion trick is actually also a thing in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This is hardly a spoiler, as it is part of the opening section of the game, but the (Cypriot, I believe) doctor who helps Punished "Venom" Snake recover from his coma asks you to look up once he thinks you're able to move your head, and it does the same thing as Red Faction: Armageddon does, although without the explicit "your inversion setting has been saved" message, probably not to break the immersion intended throughout that opening mission.

[@NthReview]

I figured it wasn't the only game that did it, but MGSV did also come out four years later.

[@JimsMusicDungeon]

Great video as usual! I've actually enjoyed all the 4 main RF games, mostly because I was there when the multiplayer was still active (RF2 multiplayer was so glorious back then). The campaigns on the other hand... had some problems, but I still finished them hah :)

[@Valkbg]

Red Faction probably has my favourite concept for a game. Im a fan of the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson so this is perfect for me. I still love the first 2 games. I know that may not be popular opinion but I still love the story and gameplay. I have played them recently and I understand the frustration but compared to Doom it was way better.

[@Audiojack_]

Absolutely agree with you here, although the 2nd game was a bit disappointing I still enjoyed the story playing it with my friend back in the day. The first game is one of my all time favourites with the Mars Ultor storyline, the basic but mostly solid (except for the stealth) gameplay and the fantastic soundtrack.

[@Valkbg]

@@Audiojack_ I liked the idea of the stealth sections but not the implementation. The first 2 games suffer from being too early

[@ocirontariocryptidinvestig8010]

Red faction was my favourite game from 2001-2002 and I thought it was going to be the new biggest shooter game series. Red faction 2 came out and I could not believe the direction they took it not continuing on the story. the later games going to 3rd person just made me more mad then RF2 did. Red Faction could have been a great and successful franchise that was driven into the ground for god knows what reason that's what I wish I knew.

[@violettheshadowfan]

really enjoyed watching this ! i havent watched all of these reviews but this was a really good insight into a franchise i have next to no experience with, I'm a bit too young to have any nostalgia for the series but i found this rather interesting nonetheless

[@NavJack27gaming]

i swear i'm not being rude i'm just curious. your aim in red faction 1 / 2 (i'm only 47min in so far) seems like me when i try to game on a trackpad. are you playing on a laptop? EDIT: no, all your gameplay seems... off... like you're looking with your eyes instead of the crosshair and attempting to play catch up with what you want to aim at. weird.

[@attackboss6]

What an interesting insight. What tells are you looking at?

[@NthReview]

I don’t know what to tell you lol

[@CoreStarter]

His aim is just bad, like really really bad, like would be permastuck at the exact bottom of the ladder in counterstrike, he's constantly aiming at the floor, his sensitivity is way to high and he's fighting the mouse to not over move on small movements, and failing. I also see pixel skipping which confirms his sensitivity is fucking cranked, his critique of the games difficulty is almost entirely his lack of awareness, how did you not see that railgun soldier who killed you a few minutes into the video, he has to stop aiming at the floor and turns his sensitivity way way down.

[@NthReview]

Hmmm.

[@BicBoi1984]

​​​@@NthReview Came to comment a similar feedback lol. I gotta agree with these other folks. Your sensitivity seems way too high and you sometimes aim with purely WASD. As a result, most of your criticisms of combat/difficulty are void. It's an FPS video game if you can't aim that's a you problem sadly.

[@J.Wick.]

Just discovering your channel...Great stuff. Easy Sub. Cheers!

[@NthReview]

Thank you!

[@gilbertlopez2333]

I geeked out on red faction two and now I’m like why did I like it so much. Nostalgia for it just gone

[@Anxiou5Panda]

It's kinda weird how the 3rd one turned into a military sci-fi battling aliens video game. It's like watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy but the Return of the King is set in the modern era with Aragorn being a scout ranger sniping Orcs armed with AK-47s, RPGs, etc. lol. At least Halo and Mass Effect stayed true despite their respective flaws. It would have been nice if in the first RF game, there are already hints of an ancient civ or some kind of alien life form lurking in the shadows, because even though the story is about a group of people revolting against an asshole of a company, the players would be interested to know what lies deep in the mining sites.

[@sebastienberruyer4110]

Two hours of video! Thanks for this! Back in 2001 I was buying my games randomly, based on the box cover. Without reading tests, or the internet, just the back. I came across Deus Ex like that: I thought that all the fps that came out would be in the same vein. In addition, this time we were given told that we could also modify our environment. And above all... Mars! As a Philip K Dick fan, it was almost the perfect combo. After playing, certainly not all my expectations were met, but there were so many good things that I reinstalled it often. And then I bought Red Faction 2, and puked.

[@harrywrinklesach2057]

Oh man….PKD….. the guy who could dismantle your worldview in a four page short story. I adore that man

[@sebastienberruyer4110]

@@harrywrinklesach2057 Imagine if PKD had become a KZbinr... live streams for 17 hours straight with a different theory every day on the nature of reality

[@EvilScrooge]

I'm really confused about this RF1 part. I do remember clear as day finishing this game in one go (without ever softlocking myself) as a kid! The thing is, I was horrible at games at the time. I could barely aim with a mouse and didn't know a single word in english. This game couldn't be that hard, right?

[@NthReview]

Were you playing on PS2? The console probably had a lot more aim assists and narrower FOV whereas I played it in 4K with a much wider one that probably made everything so much more difficult since the game wasn't truly designed that way. As for the softlocks, I definitely stumbled into them!

[@EvilScrooge]

@@NthReview Played it on PC for sure. I would never touch a console back in the day. We had a $4k Pc that was a big cause of me looking down on console players. Just couldn't stand ps graphics. Glad there's basically no difference now so I can shut up.

[@NthReview]

Lol, you're good!

[@EvilScrooge]

@@NthReview Or just lucky... or can be that some issues are caused by newer hardware? Duke Nukem and Quake 1 felt impossibly hard for me. Either way I still give you props for finishing RF2. That one was just... surprisingly unrelated. That one felt super ps2. I played only an hour before I quit annoyed that I couldn't break anything. Fov was so narrow it was borderline unplayable!

[@EntaraXia]

Red faction is a fun game and a childhood gem for me but it has some parts that are really not so well designed and misleading (Stealth sections, space station, part before the sub..last run to the 'boss...) Also it had some part where you can die in repeat because of unfair enemies placements or AI being a little too precise or spongy. ( and yes the laser gun of course adds to the "fun" ).The difficulty curve is messy at times but It was common in a lot of games back then.

[@nuekillie9552]

I loved red faction when I first got it and the destructive environment even though you could barely use it in singleplayer was still fun, with red faction 2 I had fun but it was so linear and the story was mediocre, loved red faction Guerilla because of the destructible environment and the throwback to the original story with the collectables and the audio tape things, when I finally played red faction Armageddon the story at the beginning was ok but then it sort of just changed to fight the bugs and repair this thing with nanoforge then repeat, it was such a chore to play through the whole thing by the end of it I was just happy to be done with it

[@diamondhamster4320]

Red Faction my beloved.

[@caseylascallette7269]

Wow... You channel is criminally undersubbed

[@bluebattlehawk]

I feel like this video was made specifically for me, thank you

[@bluebattlehawk]

THEY MADE DECENT?!?!

[@bretplaygame]

Interesting look back. I have very fond memories of first Red Faction, but nostalgia is a liar lol. People like to complain about games these days as if it's part of the experience, but games are far better now than they have ever been. Yes, there are a few old gems that hold up brilliantly, but they're the exceptions not the rule.

[@ThePrimordialChronicles]

Still remember the hype I had for Guerilla! And then the game was just fine.

[@NthReview]

It’s a solid 80%er

[@cane6074]

Story wise the series had a lot of potential, it could have been a multi-generational saga with each installment telling a complete and self-contained story. With each story being told from members of multiple interrelated families descended from the original protagonists of the first game, with themes like sacrifice, hardship, struggle and duty being the key themes of story with the fate of Mars at the center and great loss and sadness often occurring as a result needed for victory often of a bitter sweet nature. Basically something like Gone with the Wind or War and Peace but on Mars and more action/adventure oriented. What happened with THQ and volition were precursor to what is happening with the Video game industry and its all self-inflicted. They treated the series as more of a marketing gimmick then a brand or narrative, and one of the reasons I had bad vibes about THQ when it came to their products.

[@printisdead1983]

Just so we are clear, reeses peanut butter and ham sandwich is amazing, but the real cultured gentleman uses only peter pan honey roasted peanut butter , with the cheapest ham out there, thin sliced, in this day and age it would probably be buddig , but yea that opening line, is true as hell, dont believe me TRY IT, EVER HAD A PEANUT BUTTER GLAZED HAM, ITS BETTER THAN THAT

[@thesummerofmark]

great video buddy

[@NthReview]

Thanks buddy!

[@EvanTrease]

Avatar and Red Faction 2 kind of share the same ending

[@mrandroid52]

Red faction 1 is my favorite ps2 game of all time, however I know it’s gameplay is very generic yet as an 8 year old I filled its short comings with my imagination creating my own head canon. I did get it again when they ported it to ps4 a few years ago got every trophy and completed all difficulties which I really enjoyed. I enjoyed this since a lot due to Playing a lot of halo ce, killzone, timesplitters 3 and mace griffin bounty hunter. It has a place in my heart.

[@retropwned]

all hard-core pc gamers have beaten at least one red faction game.

[@alwhiting]

freespace games were so great, so sad the IP is lost in rights hell with interplay think im about the same age as you; played the red faction demo a lot just screwing around with the destructibility but never got the whole game or played the sequels unfortunately

[@NthReview]

It's so odd that Interplay has existed as essentially a rights holder to dormant property for so long. When Bethesda sued them for making their own Fallout games and won, that seemed to be the end of their game making capabilities or resources.

[@bluebattlehawk]

Reinstalled Guerrilla because od this video - may be a goodnor bad thing depending on your viewpoint

[@mannyrobles3065]

I loveeeee red faction, geo mod in 1 just hooked me

[@iforgotthenamemate]

red faction for the time when it was released was "revolutionary" especially the first one has high replay value, the second was meh, third was ok but the fourth one was out of the place.

[@mickaelfrimann]

Comment for engagement

[@n9ne]

red faction was clearly inspired by half life but done a million times worse. i don't understand why this game is cherished by people.

[@kennethm407]

Name another game in 2000-2006 with destructible environments and guns that can snipe people through walls. The multiplayer matches were wild with some vantage points with OP weapons only accessible by blowing through walls or tunneling up to the ceiling

[@electricmiragemedia]

There weren't too many single player FPS games coming out back then. I really enjoyed the first one (but holy God were those rail gun mercs annoying)!

[@miksiis]

Sorry brother. I was going to sleep with this video in the bacground. But your nonsense kept me awake. It just seems like a COD player reviewind Deus ex. Sorry friend. This is not IT!

[@NthReview]

...what?

[@printisdead1983]

THAT DUDES NAME IS NOT ACTUALLY TOSH SCHLONG AINT NO DAMN WAY freakin evil hippes