Recent reviews by Type 1 Cryabetes

I wouldn't consider myself to be a hardcore fighting gamer nor am I very good at them so I can't comment on balance or difficulty and whatnot, but I'm having a blast with it just casually playing and trying to learn which character I prefer. There's a ton of DLC you have to buy to unlock characters which is mid, so I waited for a sale to pick them up. Treasure mode is my favorite since there's a crazy amount of customization items you can unlock for your fighters.

TL;DR: I liked this game a lot when it came out on the PS2 originally, but it doesn't hold up well today as it has been surpassed in every way by better shooters. I still like this game for nostalgia, but in my opinion, RF1 is the better game. Don't buy this at full price but if you get it in a bundle or super cheap, it's worth checking out just to see what the Red Faction series started out like before it's more modern iterations Guerrilla and Armageddon.

Red Faction II takes place a few years after the events of Red Faction, but this time moves the story away from Mars to Earth, where the simply named Commonwealth is ruled by the iron fist of the dictator Sopot. You start the game as Alias, a demolitions expert who is part of a squad of Sopot's elite guard. You come into possession of nanotechnology which can be used to enhance soldiers. You and your squadmates volunteer to be enhanced, but Sopot becomes afraid of your power so he marks you and your squadmates for death and abandons the project in favor of creating Processed, nanoenhanced zombies. Your squad vows revenge and joins up with the Red Faction on earth to help bring down Sopot.

Good:
+ GeoMod allowing for destructive environments was still ground breaking (pun intended) for the time, and it is cool to take a grenade launcher and blow apart buildings.
+ Ambiance of the game is one of the reasons I like this series, this one takes place in a dictatorial city. The environments are more varied than the first game which is an improvement.
+ Weapon variety, lots of weapons to choose from in this game. Since you begin the game as a demolitions expert, your first weapon is a grenade launcher which is a way better starter weapon than a lame old pistol. This game introduces duel wield weapons, allowing you to use either a single or duel pistol or machine pistol.
+ Playing through the game allows you to unlock bonus content, such as concept art, character models, etc. The game also has a built-in cheat mode system if you're into that sort of thing, which includes crazy cheats for over the top explosions, deaths, etc.
+ Multiplayer mode even with bots was fun. Lots of late nights playing this with my brothers huddled in front of the TV.
+ Unlike RF1 on PC, this game doesn't need much modding or tweaking to make it playable on modern systems. I was able to play at full settings without needing to install anything extra.
+ Campaign is split into "levels" which allows for checkpoints, one of my major gripes from RF1 was if you died you had to go back to your last save point. I often forget to save because playing modern games we are spoiled by the auto-save. This allieviates that somewhat.

Bad:
+ Even at the highest settings, this game is over a decade old and it looks it. It's not the most horrible game to look at but you definitely know you're playing an old game. Character models especially suffer here in cutscenes.
+ I hate the characters in this game. They're condescending ♥♥♥♥♥ to the people trying to help them for no reason. Your character, unlike RF1 where you play as Parker, is mute and has zero personality.
+ Story is predictable, even the twists are predictable.
+ Enemy AI is trash, although they did improve the questionable strafing and bullet spongery from the first game.
+ Difficulty jumps can make the game frustrating and not rewarding to play.

A classic FPS from my childhood that blew my mind when it first came out on the PS2. The selling gimmick was the GeoMod technology which would allow you to destroy the environment around you, a pretty unique concept at the time. Unfortunately, it is not used very often and generally is just a way to waste time seeing how deep you can dig with the driller, or how big of a hole you can blow in the wall. This game is two decades old and the graphics reflect that. This is not a pretty game anymore, but upscaling mods can make this a bit less hideous. The dialogue is pretty cringey, and I have some questions about how guards can take two slugs directly to the head and still be standing, but I can't ask that much of a game this age.

What this game does have going for it in my opinion is the story and the atmosphere. The game takes place on Mars, at a mining complex owned by the Ultor Corporation. They trick people into leaving Earth for a "getaway" by promising high pay high reward work in the mines. Unfortunately, once you arrive, you are forced into slave labor and made to live in squallor with a plague circulating around. You play as Parker, one such poor fool who was tricked by Ultor. Your goal is to incite the rebellion and join up with the Red Faction to overthrow Ultor and get back to Earth.

I still enjoy this game very much today despite it's age and dated flaws, but if you don't have nostalgia goggles like me, you may not find it playable especially if you're used to playing more modern FPS games. If you're curious about this title or you enjoyed Half-Life, I'd say give it a go once it goes on sale.

Update: Here I am in 2024 still playing this game. It is still receiving new content. As a wise emperor once said, DO IT

I've completed all 8 class stories prior to SWTOR's launch on Steam and I love this game. If you're a Star Wars fan especially, but if you're looking for a fun immersive MMO with good voice acting and music there's no better time than the launch on Steam to give it a shot.

The Good:

+ Bioware style of dialogue choices. You can make light or dark sided choices as both Republic and Sith aligned characters, making it possible to play a cruel merciless Jedi or a compassionate restrained Sith. If you've played other Bioware games such as KOTOR or Mass Effect, you are familiar with this mechanic.

+ Varied and unique planets including many familiar names from the movie universe, each with it's own unique story arc independent of your character's main story line.

+ Eight independent character stories, some better than others but all worth playing. Beginners should start with Jedi Knight or Sith Warrior for the most "quintessential" Star Wars experience, but I highly recommend Imperial Agent's story.

+ Ability to customize colors of armor to match, and a wide variety of titles to personalize your character. If you’ve got a piece of armor or weapon and you like how it looks, you can purchase/find armor and weapon mods to scale the stats up to keep it from being obsolete.

+ Much of the content is available to experience for F2P. A one time subscription will move your account to preferred status which will permanently unlock all current expansions.

+ Subscribing gives you a monthly gift of Cartel Cash, the games premium currency, to spend on unlocking various perks and purchasing items in the Cartel Market such as armor sets, lightsaber crystals, mounts, etc.

+ Low amount of challenge for one just looking to play though stories (can be a pro or con depending on your playstyle). The game will scale your level/stats up or down according to the location's recommended level to attempt to help the player experience the content at it's intended difficulty regardless of your level (once again could be a pro or con depending on your playstyle)

+ Legacy system allows you continue to gain experience so to speak past the traditional exp cap to share perks you've earned on one character on all your characters, and continues to provide loot crate style rewards for "leveling up" past the level cap.

+ BitRaider is gone from the Steam version. If you know, you know.

The Bad/Annoying:

- In my opinion, if you really want to get in to SWTOR, you pretty much have to subscribe. Subscribing unlocks a lot of quality of life things that F2P misses out on, such as removal of credit earning caps, restricted action bars, using titles you've earned for your character such as Master/Darth, and quick travel buttons to return quickly to your ship or main faction hub. While a lot of the story is available to you, it can be less smooth to progress your character as a F2P having played both ways. If you are a casual player or just giving the game a try, F2P may work for you.

- A lot of the good Legacy perks are not available for F2P

- General chat on more populated planets can be toxic, as other reviewers have said /ignore is your friend.

- This game used to have a pretty low but dedicated playerbase, but I'm hoping the Steam release will help that out!

A bit simplistic, but well made and engaging for a short relaxing break from more strenuous games. The only controls are for simple platforming where you "jump" to the response you want to text back. The game is good at capturing the awkwardness of trying to sustain meaningful conversation via text message, as there were points where I was wondering if these two actually liked each other at all based on the tone of their texting. There aren't a ton of endings or choices, so once you exhaust them all there isn't much incentive to play again. It's a decent free game, good for achievement hunters looking for an easy 100% game.

I've already completed BL2 on it's original release for Playstation 3, but I'm more than happy to revisit it on PC. This game takes everything you like about Borderlands 1 and makes it better. Humor, tons of guns, shooting crazy bandits and monsters, colorful cast of totally sane characters including characters from the first game. If you like loot and shoot games, this one is one of the best.

Let's get you rollin'

If you like hack-n-slash games, this is one for you. Great ambiance and environment, every area of the map really feels like something dark and ominous is about to come. My only major gripe is that there's almost TOO much loot. I feel constantly weighed down by junk I have to sort through and sell. Portal system is handy for traveling back and forth to previously discovered locations. It's simple enough to pick up and play, but there's enough depth to keep me playing. Overall, I'm enjoying this game. I picked it up cheap after a free weekend and I definitely feel like it's worth my purchase.

A short text-based choose your own adventure with many different significant choices to make. If you don't like how your choices impacted the outcome, it gives you the option to restart from a particular chapter which I appreciated. Very easy to play through multiple times to get all the achievements and outcomes if that's what you're interested in. The plot, in my opinion drags in the early chapters but becomes more exciting later on. Pretty neat game if you enjoy fantasy novels, pick it up cheap if you can.

Story mode is repetative and tedious, but the fights are satisfying 3v3 battles with a team of your choosing. Good tutorial for beginners, like me. Graphics make you feel like you're watching an episode of the show. I don't have much experience with fighting games, but this one is fun and intuitive to pick up especially for fans of the DBZ franchise. I played this during the free weekend but I will probably end up buying it.