Mars game review - Red Faction

Red Faction (2001) is a classic first-person shooter (FPS) game. It's one of the first 3D computer games set on Mars and despite its old age - still the greatest. No wonder there were made several sequels in the form of computer games and even a TV movie.

Red Faction depicts a miner revolution against oppressive corporation conducting some nasty biological experiments in a Martian colony in 2075. The most innovative feature of this game is its Geo-Mod engine which allows to create fully destructible game world.

Story

Red Faction starts with the game's protagonist (you) Parker arriving at Martian mining colony with hopes of starting a new life away from his parents. Earth’s minerals are being depleted and humanity needs more and more of them. The Ultor Corporation runs the mining and research operations on Mars and is promising for potential fortune seekers high income and new horizons on a fresh planet. But the reality turns out to be not as bright - living conditions for the miners are poor, the guards are brutal and a deadly disease "The Plague" is spreading among the workers. Rumors are it is purposedly made by Ultor's scientists.

Where false promises meets discontent a rebellion is born

Parker is ending his routine mining shift when a daily strife between the miners and the guards spark an armed rebellion. Turns out the growing discontent of Ultor's rule has created an underground resistance force called "Red Faction", which now finally takes real action against the oppressors. Parker joins the rebellion and together with other miners is starting to fight his way out of mines with the helpful radio-guidance of Red Faction's leader Eos and Ultor's technician Hendrix. Parker is guided to join up with a group of miners who are about to steal a supply shuttle and escape the mining complex, but he arrives too late... luckily - the shuttle takes off and is immediately destroyed by Ultor's missiles.

It's now clear that escaping Mars won't be an easy task. Parker goes to Ultor's geothermal plant deep underground, sabotages it and through underwater tunnel enters the administrative complex of Ultor. There he kidnaps a high-ranking Ultor administrator, Gryphon, who turns out to be a Red Faction sympathizer willing to share his knowledge of Ultor's secrets to Red Faction. The man behind "The Plague" is Ultor's head scientist Dr. Capek who has been experimenting with nanotechnology and "The Plague" is a side-effect of injections at the miners' annual medical checkup. Parker tracks down Capek in his underground laboratory and with the help of Eos finishes him.

Mars game review - Red Faction: Guerrilla

Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) is an open world (sandbox) third-person shooter game set in the universe of Red Faction computer game series. It details the events between original Red Faction and Red Faction: Origins TV movie (followed by Red Faction: Armageddon computer game) on a terraformed Mars in 2125.

The most unique and compelling feature of this game is the ability to destroy almost everything in the game world. And you can do this in a lot of ways - by crushing with your powerful sledgehammer or any type of transport, by shooting, by blowing up a charge or a chemical cistern and so on.

Story

The story of Red Faction series is tied around the freedom fights of human colonists on Mars against an oppressive rule of Earth-based corporation - the plot line often used in Mars fiction. In the first game of the series - Red Faction set in 2075, 50 years before Guerrilla - Mars was liberated from the oppressive rule of Ultor corporation by revolutionary Martian miners (called "Red Faction") and its leader Parker (you can visit him as an old man next to his shack near a mohole in Badlands sector of Guerrilla). The allies of those fights - Earth Defense Force (EDF) - in last 50 years has become as ruthless as Ultor had been, for the interests of Earth's corporations pressing Martian society into forced labor. No wonder the Red Faction is revived. Unlike as in the original game where in open areas you should walk in a pressure suit, in Guerrilla the Mars is terraformed to the stage you can breath freely.

Mars game review - Chaser

Welcome to Mars...

As there are quite a lot Chaser game reviews (of which the review by GameSpot seems to be the most comprehensive), in this review I will give a much closer focus on my general interest in this game - Mars and the story of the game. Unfortunately there are not so many video games set on Mars, so despite quite a few minuses Chaser is still one of the best. Even considering that only less than a half of the game actually takes place on Mars (the first part of the game is about getting to it).

In general Chaser is a classic first-person shooter (FPS) game where the player will be shooting various enemies a lot and the story is mostly told by cutscenes in between. Game is quite long and difficult (mitigated by easy quick-save-load system) not to run through too fast.

Story

The game takes place in late 21st century where there seems to be failed states and various criminal organizations on Earth (at least in those locations in US and Siberia where the main character wanders around) and on Mars there is a well developed colony controlled by authoritarian corporation called Mars Corp (equipped with the latest military technologies).

The protagonist (main character of the game) is John Chaser who awakens on board the space station H.M.S. Majestic in Earths orbit. He doesn't remember anything about himself. In meantime the space station is being attacked by unknown troops and the main target seems to be Chaser who fights his way through the crumbling station. He gets to escape pod and crushes into some criminal ghetto in Montak City (US). The player's goal is to find out who Chaser really is and why he is being hunted.

In his adventure Chaser works for mafia in a gang-war thorn Montak City where there happens to be people willing to help him (authorities treat him as dangerous terrorist who has blown up the H.M.S. Majestic), then helps some Caucasian criminals in US and Siberia, fighting his way through both American and Russian military bases. Eventually the Caucasians turn against him and Chaser has to help some Russian guy to escape from Gulag prison to get into partly abandoned spaceport in Siberia. Not without difficulties :) he gets into a ship to Mars where his real troubles only start. After failed attempt to flee from Mars spaceport Chaser is imprisoned, but a cell mate, who happens to know him, helps to escape. Then he does several hi-priority tasks for Mars Resistance, which fights against the oppressive regime of Mars Corp, in the end blowing up the director of the corporation - Samuel Longwood.

Victory seems to be in the grasp and they fly to the secret headquarters of the Resistance. Suddenly there are lots of Mars Corp soldiers killing Chasers comrades. He fights his way through endless levels of the now occupied Resistance underground base only to fall into the hands of never killed Longwood and his army, who has used Chaser as a bait to get to the leader of the Resistance. Turns out that Chaser in truth is a head of Longwood's security - Stone - who has planed all this operation with his master and erased his own memory to become Chaser and infiltrate the Resistance.

Never trust your memories.

Something sounds familiar?... Yes, because the main line of the Chaser's story is very similar to the Total Recall (1990) - a Hollywood movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first part of the game on Earth is quite different from Total Recall's, also a lot of story details on Mars are modified and there are no Martian artifacts and mutated people in Chaser (aspects frankly I think were needless in Total Recall), but all in all Chaser is a video game totally inspired by the story of Total Recall. The ending is almost 1:1. And it's definitely a + for this game, because Total Recall is a great movie.