Red Faction II
Red Faction: II is the second game in the Red Faction series developed by Volition Inc. and published by THQ Inc. in 2002. Unlike Red Faction and Red Faction: Guerrilla, this game was directly ported from the PS2 to the Xbox and PC by Outrage. Lack of online multiplayer, developer support and editing tools were disappointing to most fans.
Gameplay
Red Faction II is a first-person, linear action shooter that takes place on Earth in the year 2080, 5 years after the events of the first Red Faction game. Players take the role of a Nanotechnology enhanced Super Soldier Alias, who is part of a larger squad helping the Red Faction resistance against the villainous Chancellor Victor Sopot as they battle for peace and unity within the Commonwealth.
Throughout their fight for freedom, players travel through the many areas of Sopot City, from the Propaganda studios (P.I.B) to the streets and all the way to Sopot's Statue itself, each level offering unique environments, challenges and hazards to the player.
Making a return from the previous game, Geo-Mod is back to enhance the destructive physics engine, allowing you to break through walls and floors with real-time destruction.
Multiplayer
The Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube releases of Red Faction II feature local split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players on multiple gamemodes. The PC release instead features single player bot match gameplay with the same set of gamemodes, allowing the player to choose multiple maps, among other customization options. The mode is separate from the singleplayer campaign.
Plot
In the year 2080, five years after the Red Faction rebellion on Mars, Chancellor Victor Sopot of the Republic of the Commonwealth, has stolen some of the Nanotechnology developed by scientist Dr Axel Capek, called the Nano-Cell, after it makes its way to Earth. He then creates an elite group of super-soldiers known as the "Nano-Elite," who were genetically enhanced to serve as his ultimate instruments of power. However, Sopot becomes paranoid about the threat posed by his own creations and attempts to have them eliminated.
The game follows the story of Alias, a demolitions expert and one of the surviving Nano-Elite soldiers, as he joins forces with his fellow super-soldiers in a rebellion against Sopot. The group, seeking revenge and aiming to overthrow the dictatorship, is led by Molov, who aspires to replace Sopot as the new leader. Throughout the game, players engage in a series of missions that involve combat against the Commonwealth's military forces, utilizing a variety of weapons and the environment to their advantage, thanks to the game's Geo-Mod engine that allows for the destruction of structures and terrain.
After the defeat of Sopot, the rebels discover that Molov has intentions to use the technology that created them for his own tyrannical purposes. The group splinters, with Alias and a few allies working to stop Molov and prevent the misuse of the nanotechnology. The climax of the game sees Alias confronting Molov in a final battle, with the future of the nanotechnology and the Commonwealth at stake.
Trivia
The manual claims that the processing dates for the subjects (the main characters) were mostly around the year 2161. However; this is nearly 40 years after the events of Red Faction: Guerrilla. All game listings for Red Faction II place the game five years after Red Faction in 2080. Furthermore, a radio tag left by Alias some years prior appears in Red Faction: Guerrilla. Due to the contradiction of the processing dates by the timeline of the games themselves and all other official media related to Red Faction II, those dates seem to be continuity errors by Volition and are non-canon.