All The Tropes

Red Faction: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Red Faction (view source)

Revision as of 07:16, 9 January 2014

1 byte added ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (change media template to media link)
m (Mass update links)
Line 2:
[[File:red_faction_guerrilla_logo.png|frame]] ''Red Faction'' is a video game series developed by Volition, Inc, set in the future of [[Canon Welding|the same universe as their]] ''[[Saints Row]]'' series (and possibly the past of their ''[[Descent]]'' series,) where [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|Earth]] has exhausted its supply of natural resources, and depends on mining operations on [[The Red Planet|Mars]] for the survival of its economy. The main gameplay draw of the ''Red Faction'' series is the Geo-Mod engine, a [[Stuff Blowing Up]] simulator ''par excellence''. Geo-Mod 1, used in ''Red Faction 1'' and ''Red Faction 2'', was based primarily around terrain deformation: Rock could be torn away with your weapons, but metal surfaces were usually safe. Geo-Mod 2, used in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', reverses this, enabling the player to destroy buildings using a physics system so realistic the game developers actually had to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6XM7NfGr8 study architecture] to get the buildings to stand up.
 
All five games take place in the same universe, although ''Red Faction 2'' has very little to do with the others. ''Red Faction 1'' is about a [[La Résistance|miners' uprising]] on Mars against the corrupt [[Mega Corp|Ultor Corp.]], the massive, corrupt conglomerate that manages the mining operations on Mars, in the style of the British East India Company ([[Even Evil Has Standards|though that]] ''MIGHT'' [[Insult to Rocks|be an insult to the BEIC]]). Through the [[One -Man Army|heroic actions]] of miner-turned-revolutionary Parker, and the intervention of the [[The Federation|Earth Defense Force]], Ultor's reign of terror is brought to an end.
 
''Red Faction 2'' is set on Earth, in the [[PeoplesPeople's Republic of Tyranny|Republic of]] [[Department of Redundancy Department|the Commonwealth]], a corrupt dictatorship that has used captured Ultor technology to manufacture [[Super Soldiers]]. [[Beware the Superman|Fearing the potential]] of these [[Super Soldiers]], [[Evil Overlord|Chancellor Victor Sopot]] orders them killed. The survivors form [[The Squad]], and join forces with a local resistance named after the Martian Red Faction in an attempt to overthrow Sopot. ''[[Red Faction]] 2'' is generally considered a [[First Installment Wins|step down]] for the series, due to its unrelated plot, removed features, and Geo-Mod unfriendly terrain.
 
''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' is a departure in terms of gameplay - a [[Wide Open Sandbox]] [[Third -Person Shooter]] similar to Volition's ''Saints Row'', as opposed to a [[First -Person Shooter]] - but a return to the continuing narrative. Fifty years after the original ''Red Faction'', the Earth Defense Force have [[Full Circle Revolution|turned from liberators to oppressors]], more concerned with exploiting Mars than helping it rebuild. A newcomer to Mars, Alec Mason, joins the reborn Red Faction to fight against the EDF after his brother is gunned down by an EDF gunship.
 
There's also ''Red Faction: Battlegrounds'', a top-down, twin-stick [[Shoot 'Em Up]] for the Playstation3 and Xbox360 designed as a tie-in to ''Armageddon.'' It consists of various challenges narrated by ''Armageddon's'' Sergeant Winters, and multiplayer where up to four players can control a variety of vehicles from ''Guerrilla'' and proceed to blow up ''everything.''
 
The fourth game in the series, ''Red Faction: Armageddon'', follows directly from ''Guerrilla'', taking place fifty years afterwards. Like ''Guerrilla'', it's a [[Third -Person Shooter]], but features tighter [[Gears of War]] style corridor-shooter gameplay in contrast to the [[Grand Theft Auto]] style [[Wide Open Sandbox]] gameplay of ''Guerrilla''. After the planet's atmospheric terraformer is destroyed by cult leader Adam Hale, a descendant of the defeated EDF and long-time nemesis of the Mason family, the people of Mars are forced to take shelter underground from the now hostile surface. The game stars Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason, who is tricked into opening an ancient sealed Martian temple by Hale, releasing a long-buried malevolent alien species and unleashing armageddon upon Mars.
 
A [[Live Action Adaptation]] called ''Red Faction: Origins'' aired on [[Sy Fy]] on June 4, 2011. The movie bridges the gap between ''Guerrilla'' and ''Armageddon'', with Robert "[[The Terminator|T-1000]]" Patrick as Alec Mason. [[Stargate Universe (TV)|Brian J. Smith]] plays his son Jake Mason, the main protagonist. The movie's plot has Jake tracking down the mysterious White Faction, {{spoiler|1=a secret [[The Remnant|remnant]] of the defeated EDF,}} who are plotting to take Mars for themselves.
Line 32:
* [[Bare Your Midriff]]: Quill, your sniper in ''Red Faction 2''. Also, the Team Blue Female and Team Red Female (multiplayer only) have a variant on the [[Cleavage Window]] - except in this case, it's a belly window.
* [[Beehive Barrier]]: In ''Armaggeddon'', Darius can use the [[Nanomachines|Nano Forge]] to create a projectile-reflecting [[Deflector Shields|energy barrier.]]
* [[Bond One -Liner]]: Alec Mason in ''Guerrilla'' cracks a few of these, usually after completing certain guerrilla actions.
* [[Bloodier and Gorier]]: ''Armageddon'', as opposed to ''Guerrilla.''
* [[Blow You Away]]: The visible effect of the "Impact" power in ''Armageddon'', which causes anything in front of you to be blasted away by a wave of [[Nanomachines]].
Line 42:
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: The basic alien [[Mooks|Mook]] in ''Armageddon'', [[Underground Monkey|comes in three different colors]] that denote their abilities. Reds shoot [[Flechette Storm|needles,]] Blues shoot [[Shock and Awe|lighting blasts]] and Yellows shoot [[Stuff Blowing Up|explosive blasts.]]
* [[Continuity Nod]]: ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' has many references to the original game. The major cities are all named after ''Red Faction 1'' characters, the defunct Ultor corporation plays a role in the game's plot, and there's an [[Easter Egg]] where {{spoiler|Parker}} from the original game has a cameo appearance as an old miner.
** An old miner who [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|keeps a stockpile of singularity bombs hidden in his house]].
** In the Ultor Echo mission, the first building you come across in the Maurauder ruins is the chamber in which Parker fought his boss battle against Capek. Mason will even hear garbled, ghostly speech throughout the level; the speeches are actually lines spoken by Capek in the first game.
** Capek is mentioned often in ''Armageddon''. You even encounter a holographic bust of him early on. Also, there are a number of implications that the plague miners suffered from in the original ''Red Faction'' stemmed from ''Armageddon's'' aliens.
* [[Continue Your Mission Dammit]]: ''Guerrilla'' would like you to think Red Faction missions are urgent. They aren't.
* [[Cool Starship]]: The Hydra, what little we hear and see of it.
* [[Co -Op Multiplayer]]: ''Armageddon'' introduces "Infestation" mode, similar to the "horde" or survival modes seen in other shooters. Up to four players can battle against increasingly nasty waves of aliens, using whatever upgrades they've obtained in the campaign thus far. In addition, you earn salvage for killed enemies and can purchase more upgrades, which then can be used in the campaign. These battles depict events that [[Gaiden Game|apparently occur concurrently with the campaign.]]
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Both literally and figuratively: Darius can use a melee finisher on some enemies, such as the scurrying Creepers. On them, he simply stomps their heads in for a [[One -Hit Kill]].
* [[Crapsack World]]: Nothing ever really gets better in this series; Earth is starving for resources so we mine Mars... but the corporation with a monopoly on it has zero interest in basic human rights. Parker brings them down... and then Earth itself puts things right back where they were. Mason liberates Mars...then the terraformer goes down, forcing everyone to live underground while everything Parker and Mason fought for on the surface is buried in red dust. Then the underground is harboring a [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] and it turns into something that looks a little like [[Dead Space (Franchise)|Dead Space]]. And if you take the [[Canon Welding|shared universes]] into account? Everything you did in [[Saints Row]] is irrelevant, because all of ''this'' comes next. Everything you do ''here'' is just going to lead to [[Free Space|Sol being cut off from the rest of the galaxy,]] [[Fridge Brilliance|thus exacerbating the resource problem,]] while five-legged omnicidal aliens destroy everything else.
** Earth itself by the events of ''Guerrilla'', even. The Council is going ahead with a "Forced Sterilization Act" due to rampant overpopulation, London is now several feet below sea level and relies on a complex network of dams, pumps, levees and reservoirs to avoid flooding (which is becoming ''more and more frequent''), countries that don't join the Earth Defense Council are pretty much on their own ''if'' they aren't ''wiped out and/or annexed by the Council'', a passenger shuttle crashes in the ''"Amazon Desert"'' with the loss of all aboard, rescue operations are grounded due to severe storms... Earth is pretty much a terrible place to be, it's no wonder Alec left.
Line 59:
** The best part is ''the game actually permanently saves every bit of damage you do'' to the various buildings and structures scattered around the game world. By the end of the game the Mars colony may very well be a smouldering wreck thanks to you.
** "The best part?" That's the ''worst'' part! It means you can't go back and [[Stuff Blowing Up|destroy it all again.]]
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: {{spoiler|Guerrilla's finale, in which the ragtag Red Faction take out ''the most powerful space-faring vessel ever designed'' with a single missile. This vessel has sufficient firepower to "cleanse" entire planets and weapons accurate enough to hit individual people from orbit, yet can't shoot down a missile.}}
* [[Disaster Scavengers]]: The Marauders in ''Guerrilla'' live like this, with structures, weapons and vehicles that appear to be cobbled together from bits and pieces of scrap. {{spoiler|It is however, [[Masquerade|a facade.]] They do this to hide their identities as former [[Mega Corp|Ultor]] scientists, and descendants thereof. And they know very well how their [[Lost Technology]] works, thank you very much.}}
** ''Armageddon'' turns this [[Up to Eleven]].
Line 68:
* [[Dragon Their Feet]]: Capek, the [[Big Bad]] of ''Red Faction'', dies about halfway through the game, with the rest of the game being spent fighting Colonel Masako and her Merc soldiers.
* [[Drop the Hammer]]: The sledgehammer in ''Guerrilla''. It can can singlehandedly destroy enormous buildings with enough swings and one-hit kill many mooks in the game...
* [[Elite Mooks]]: The Elite Guard and Merc soldiers in the original ''Red Faction'', and the Sopot Elite Guard and Nano Elite in ''Red Faction 2''. The Merc soldiers in RF1 are ''particularly'' elite. As in, you could be running around with a shotgun and an assault rifle gunning down Ultor guards left and right, and you'll be just fine, but when the Mercs roll in, it's a severe shock to the system when half of them are carrying [[More Dakka|Heavy Machine Guns]] and the other half carry the [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword|Rail Driver]], which can kill you ''with one shot, through walls and on any part of your body''. [[Critical Existence Failure|Apparently, Parker has vital organs in his feet.]]
** Try multiplayer mode on impossible and watch the comp get a sniper rifle, I didn't know computers could hit you with their back facing you so well... [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|yea...]]
** ''Guerilla'' have EDF Heavy Troopers, 7-foot tall guys in white power armor. They have twice as much health as standard EDF soldiers, and only show up in the final region of the game, Eos.
Line 106:
* [[La Résistance]]: The eponymous Red Faction.
* [[Lethal Joke Item]]: Mr. Toots in ''Armageddon'', the shoulder-mounted, dog-sized unicorn pony that farts a destructive rainbow beam.
* [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]. The first game features a bullet proof shield.
* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: The Missile Tank and Combat Walker in ''Guerrilla''. The Combat Walker fires a constant hailstorm of rockets from its mounted rocket pods, and the Missile Tank can unleash a long, staggered barrage of missiles over a few seconds, pulverizing vehicles, buildings and infantry alike in a Katyusha-esque fashion.
* [[Made of Iron]]: Colonel Masako and Secretary of Defense Molov can both take multiple rocket launcher shots (and your entire stock of small arms ammo, railgun rounds, and... well, you get the idea) to the face before dying, even on the easiest difficulties. This is averted in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', where [[Big Bad]] #1 {{spoiler|General Roth}} drives a tank to fight you for the game's final battle, and [[Big Bad]] #2 {{spoiler|Admiral Kobel}} is killed in the ending cutscene. It's very satisfying to shove several rockets up {{spoiler|Roth}}'s tailpipe [[Shut UP, Hannibal|whilst he's in the middle of his speech...]] You can also snipe him with a railgun through the tank's armor. Or [[Shock and Awe|electrocute him with the Arc Welder]].
* [[Made of Plasticine]]: Enemies in ''Armageddon,'' especially the aliens.
* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: You can upgrade your rocket launcher in Guerrilla to fire up to 3 rockets that home onto a target. [[Awesome but Impractical]] because of the tiny ammo repertoire.
Line 118:
** There are several "Guerrilla missions" where you are asked to hunt down a traitor who is going to sell out the location of the Safehouses to the EDF. {{spoiler|Interestingly, even if you do all of these, they still know where the Badlands Safehouse is}}
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Colonel Joseph Broga is painfully (and loudly) tortured in the ''Catch and Release'' mission, before being dumped off a cliff. Apparently, this is [[Unfortunate Implications|A-okay]], because Broga himself tortured people.
* [[NamesName's the Same]]: Alec Mason's [[Voice With an Internet Connection]] for ''Guerilla'' was Sam (short for Samanya). Darius in ''Armageddon'' gets a "Sam" of his own, the "Situational Awareness Module" that also tells him where he needs to go next.
** It [[All There in the Manual|mentions in the manual]] that Samanya actually designed and built S.A.M. herself. This troper likes to think that S.A.M.'s personality, such as it is, is based off Samanya's, so Darius spends the whole game [[Never Mess With Granny|getting bossed about and snarked at by his gran.]]
* [[Nanomachines]]: The Nano Forge, a key [[MacGuffin]] in ''Guerrilla'', is among other things what enables the Red Faction to {{spoiler|destroy the EDF Flagship Hydra at the end of the game.}} It returns in ''Armageddon'', now strapped to Darius' left arm, and can be used to repair destroyed objects as well as granting him various abilities. In both games it's also the basis for the Nano Rifle, a powerful weapon that can disassemble whatever it hits.
Line 128:
* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: In ''Guerrilla'', no matter how fast you drive between safehouses, Sam will be there to exchange salvage for goodies.
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: She uses the same teleportation function that you can buy to warp between safehouses after a certain point in the game.
* [[One -Man Army]] : The great majority of the of destruction and salvation that occurs in Red Faction one and two is the result of one person. In ''Guerrilla'', NPC Guerrillas fight alongside the player, but Mason is still very much a [[One -Man Army]]. Lampshaded in Guerrilla: After purchasing an upgrade, Sam will sometimes say "We'll turn you into a one man army." Darius at least has an excuse: The Nano Forge affords him an array of powers.
* [[The Other Darrin]]: Averted in ''Origins'' and ''Armageddon'', where [[Big Bad]] Adam Hale (the only recurring character) is played by the same guy in both the movie and the game, and his in-game character even looks like an older version of the actor.
* [[Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in The Future]]: ''Guerrilla'' does a good boxy gun. It does several good boxy guns. Boxiest would be the assault rifle, which looks like it hasn't been unpacked from the box it came in. [[media:RFG_assaultrifle.jpg|link]]
* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: What happens during ''Catch and Release'' in ''Guerrilla''. You might ''almost'' end up feeling sorry for Colonel Broga, but given that he seems to have done a lot of torturing of the kind he is now receiving, it's a bit of sorely overdue [[Revenge]].
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Darius Mason decides to wait until after the miners are riled up and ready to kill him to try to explain his side of things. Of course, these miners are already ''very'' surly and they might have taken it out on him anyway, which is why he held back in the first place.
* [[Pre -Ass -Kicking One -Liner]]: Mason breaks out a wonderful one in the grand finale of ''Guerrilla''.
{{quote| Admiral Kobel: {{spoiler|This is Admiral Kobel of the EDS Hydra. What is your status?}}<br />
Alec Mason: {{spoiler|Just fine, Admiral, but yours is about to go red.}} }}
Line 172:
* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: The aliens in ''Armageddon'' have but one weakness: {{spoiler|Earthlike air. Reactivating the dormant terraformer is the killing blow.}}
* [[Take Your Time]]: Generally, the player advances the action when they want to in ''Guerrilla''. The commander thinks Sam might be walking into an ambush... get over there right now! Or later! When you feel like it!
* [[Third -Act Stupidity]]: In ''Guerrilla'', when you start the final invasion of Eos. You're ''in'' Eos to start with, but your commander first sends you to Dust as you can go to pick up a no-name band of Rebels to join you (in the south), then sends you to meet the army in the Badlands (''way'' in the east). Both areas are about as far as you can get from your goal in the northwest. Sure enough, while you're running around the boondocks of Mars {{spoiler|the Badlands base is attacked and the Eos attack called off. You race to its defense to no avail: [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]].}} As a result of this stupidity the ending gets stretched out for a few more hours.
* [[Tournament Play]]: Since the addition of the Major League Gaming Playlist to Red Faction Guerrilla.
* [[Translation Convention]] / [[Translator Microbes]]: Not in ''Guerrilla''! Whilst practically all colonists speak English (or what is presumably English) it is possible to hear Russian, French and other languages as well, usually from the citizens you rescue during House Arrest events. The emergency vehicles have reflective panels that read 'AMBULANCE' or 'EMERGENCY' in three different languages as well, depending on which angle you look at them from.
* [[Warp Whistle]]: By the time you reach the 3rd zone, you can purchase an upgrade that lets you instantly travel to any safehouse, as long as you haven't triggered an alert level. It dramatically cuts down on the transit time, although you still have to slow-travel to all non-safehouse locations.
* [[What the Hell, Player?]]: Try murdering your brother in ''Guerrilla's'' prologue.
* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: ''Red Faction: Guerrilla''. One of the nice features is the modicum of active events such as EDF raids and spontaneous firefights that break up the usual passive sandbox mission-supermarket vibe.
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: Achievement and Mission names in ''Guerrilla''.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/510052"