Red Faction

Red Faction is definitely a product of its time, but it stands as an above-average shooter with some fun mechanics.

There's a decent variety of weapons in the game. Some items will make others redundant, but there aren't any hugely overpowered or underpowered items in the Red Faction arsenal, and so each player's preferences should be accommodated.

The famed destruction physics are fun to play around with, but they seem to become less relevant as the game progresses. They hardly factor into the final act at all.

There's an attempt at a stealth system in Red Faction, which is one of the game's major shortcomings in my opinion. It's hard to detect any guiding principles behind whether the protagonist will remain incognito or have his cover blown, and the forced stealth sequences strip the player of every weapon beside a holdout pistol. Even with alarms tripped and dozens of enemies swarming you, you're forced to stick to your pistol and can't even pick up fallen enemies' weapons.

The story is straightforward and light. There are two major antagonists in Red Faction, with the first being much more entertaining than the second. Battling these two villains is a bit of a let down, however.

Overall, I'd say the first Red Faction game has held up relatively well despite the clear signs of age. It's no Half-Life, but rests comfortably in the B-tier of early 2000s shooters.