Red Faction II Diaries Part Three

This is my ongoing exploration of the Red Faction Universe. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. I am continuing Red Faction II.

With Alias’ reason to exist -- committing the murder of Chancellor Sopot (done by launching an ICBM with him inside the silo) -- gone, it left the Red Faction with only one more thing to do. Escape from Sopot’s compound in a violently explosive way…

With bullets and grenades exploding all around, I murdered my way through a jack load of Sopot’s men. I killed snipers, blew up walls and floors, and even took charge of a turret at one point.

Not pictured: a dozen soldiers running into my crosshairs

Eventually, Echo contacted me to tell me that Molov, my commanding officer, wanted to unleash the same nanotech on the populous that altered Alias and the others - and created the zombie-like Processed. So, I had to meet up with Echo, the man behind the whole anti-Sopot movement - the Red Faction.

Meeting up behind a Sopot statue, Echo began to outline his plan -- and was shot in the back. Through a wall. Railguns, why does it always have to be railguns? My only hope was to blast my way through troops -- apparently now loyal to Molov -- and find my way into the sewers.

Yes, I did say a Sopot statue. Click to enlarge, and read the plaque

Why does it always have to be sewers? Yes, I know I just used that line…

Unfortunately it popped me up in a cathedral graveyard, with Quill -- former friendly sniper -- on the other side and a bunch of Processed between us. Luckily someone had left a railgun by the exit. Some move by Quill to prove she was better than me by putting us on equal footing? Or just an idiot who lost his weapon?

As I worked my way through the Processed and troops that Quill had with her, she kept taunting me over comms. Apparently the hacker Tangier was on Molov’s “Keep alive” list, for some experimentation. Probably to do with her ability to cloak. I had already been contacted by Repta, the heavy of the gang, with some taunts earlier in the sewers, so unless Shrike turned out to be on my side, I knew my only hope lay with finding Tangier, and helping her take out Molov. But first I still had to deal with Quill…

Okay, I'll admit it's one of the nicer looking railguns

I entered the nearby mausoleum -- mainly because one of the troops said “Don’t let him into the mausoleum!” -- and fought my way through the labyrinth underneath the cathedral, and found my way inside the cathedral, where an epic boss fight took place. Well, Quill took pot-shots at me whilst two Processed and two troops at a time came out and shot at me, and I fired everything I had at the balcony where she stood.

Literally as soon as she died, I was suddenly outside a factory, and had picked up a precision rifle. I have no idea how I arrived there, nor why I was there. But Tangier (who, according to Quill was totally into Alias), was on her way and I had to last long enough for her to get there.

Still no idea where I got this thing...

When she arrived in her mini-sub -- I’m going to use the line again, I apologise but damn it Volition why do you keep putting sub bases in these Red Faction games? -- why does it always have to be mini-subs? Was it something in the early-2000s Game Developer Bible that said “All first-person shooters must have an underwater base”? If Deus Ex Invisible War has one too, when I get back to it, I’ll be so annoyed…

Anyway, I had to drive the mini-sub to locate the hidden underwater base beneath a giant Statue of Liberty-esque Sopot statue, which was where the nanotech was being produced, and humans being turned into Processed.

Pictured: mini sub and giant statue of maniac

When we arrived, after a few dozen enemy mini-subs were destroyed, and a bunch of homing mines evaded, Tangier decided to tackle another area of the base, and leave me to do this one. After her offer of “Ready to get wet and wild?” earlier, I had expected us to do a good old fashioned team-up…

I entered the facility and was set upon by Processed and some kind of Enhanced Processed that took a lot more ammo to kill. I was also getting hit by anti-personnel mines fired by Repta -- who had joined Quill and apparently Shrike on Molov’s side, according to Tangier. I chased him through the facility, eventually catching up in a giant reactor room, with electricity arcing all over the place. If this was the route Molov took to get to his lab everyday, no wonder he’d gone nuts…

On the plus side, I picked this W.A.S.P. up outside the generator room

I took out Repta (well, he fell to his death so I classed it as a win), and continued through the facility, hoping to catch up to Tangier, who I had last heard creating a distraction to draw troops away from me. Luckily she got back in contact when I got into a mech suit, and started rampaging around the hallways. She told me to find where the nanotech virus was being created, and destroy the three units doing it.

I managed to completely miss one of them, resulting in some backtracking, but I got them all. Even the one which Molov claimed was responsible for Alias’ creation… But the next section introduced me to the Nano Elite.

But, you know, giant mech...

Like the Enhanced Processed, but with none of the defects, Molov sent three of them. So they were amazing, but he still didn’t trust just one to finish me off. Well, they didn’t, nor did the fifteen others sent after me. Unfortunately, I got a little heavy on the trigger, and killed a few civilians -- but hey, omelettes and eggs.

I was surprised to find Repta in the next section -- or Repta+ to give him his full name. Molov taunted that he was going to enhance Tangier like he enhanced Repta, who was now glowing, capable of Hulk-sized jumps and was completely silver.

And I'm pretty sure his clothes were ripped...

It took some doing, but he soon exploded, and I continued along my way, meeting up with Tangier hot on the heels of Molov. We chased him up the statue, heading for the top and wading through Nano Elite. It took a lot of bullets, and the statue was crumbling as we went, but we reached the top. Just as Molov started arguing with Shrike, his escape pilot…

A cutscene took over, with Tangier saying goodbye to Alias -- then leaping off of the statue, clutching the Nano Cell which she had just grabbed from Molov. So not only was I double crossed by Molov, I was then also double crossed by Tangier, before having to fight Molov in a mech suit. Not that I had mine anymore…

Shoot her, Molov!

The most annoying thing as I blasted the bastard, was Chancellor Sopot’s voice talking about how people should rise up against the Red Faction. Dude, you’re dead, someone turn the recording off...

During the battle, I noticed that Shrike was circling the statue, and at one point he came in to pick me up! It turned out that Shrike wasn’t with Molov, nor Tangier. And with Molov’s mech blown up, and subsequent murder at my hands, I climbed aboard.

The credits then rolled.

I looked it up, and they weren’t supposed to, there was actually a pretty sweet cutscene with Shrike doing some awesome flying, but whether it was due to it being on Windows 10, or the fact that it’s Windows at all, that’s all I got. Which is a damned shame…

Admittedly I did shoot at Shrike...

In case you wondered which of the four endings I got, I’m sorry to disappoint. However, I looked into it, and I didn’t score very well… Here’s what my ending would have been, after about five hours game time:

Alias was tried by the Red Faction government for the massacre at the Red Faction headquarters. Although the evidence of numerous murdered civilians was circumstantial, no one came forward to corroborate his version of events. He was convicted of murder and awaits execution.
Tangier was rescued from the harbor by a passing garbage scout. She fell in love with the boat's captain, they married and she lived happy ever after on the boat with her husband's six children, two dogs and three cats.
Judged to be too unstable to be trusted, Shrike was thrown out of the Commonwealth by the Red Faction government. Eventually, he was shot down as he smuggled bootleg copies of electronic games into the
commonwealth from third world countries.

“Revolution comes when human beings set out to correct decadent institutions.” - H. Rap Brown

Next time I’ll wrap this up before moving on to Red Faction Guerrilla!