Red Faction II Diaries Part Two

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.

Having declared war on Chancellor Sopot, the Red Faction had tried attacking his base of operations. Sopot gave flight, with the Faction in pursuit, resulting in Alias being cast into the sewers. Security forces swarmed, but he eventually reached a service tunnel, with a ladder heading up to the subway system...

As I reached the top of the ladder, there was a warning blast from a train horn as it almost took my nose off. I hung back before crossing the lines to a vagrant, who advised me to avoid the trains. Good advice…

The Future, yet it looks like a blue Virgin Train

I headed along the line, ducking into some broken sections of wall avoid several trains along the way. Upon reaching a station, the expected safety was completely taken away by some spider-bots which were lying in wait. As each one jumped at me and exploded in mid-air, I wondered what purpose such a device could serve, if not for the bioenhanced commandos coming after the Chancellor…

I found my way out, and onto a bridge. Quill, the sniper of the Red Faction contacted me instantly, expressing absolutely zero surprise in my reappearance as she told me to get over to her. This involved crossing a busy train bridge filled with enemies… Once I reached her, she told me to head back across and plant explosives on the three struts holding it up.

Moments earlier: "That guy really burns me up!"

Thanks to some hoarding of rockets, I went to the middle strut and blew away the concrete on the other two, before grenading the middle one to bare the metal beam. Three explosives later, I was suddenly in a tank with Shrike. No idea how it happened…

We were making our way through the streets -- again, with no question as to how I survived a gunship crash throwing me into the sewers -- to chase Sopot. Yes, I had gone missing for half an hour, radio silent, and they still hadn’t caught up to him… There were three tank sections which consisted of shooting everything whilst Shrike drove through everything. I took out walls where appropriate, of course, but mainly just blasted everything. There may have been some non-combattants, but I won’t confirm that…

Shrike ended our joyride by driving the tank straight through an outer wall to the citadel compound which Sopot had retreated to. Almost instantly, enemies descended upon me, and my shotgun was worked overtime. Very glad I packed sabot rounds as well as normal -- not that they set fire to anyone but the people I shot, but it certainly made me feel better.

I worked my way through buildings -- sometimes literally thanks to grenades -- until I was almost swamped holding the main gates for the rest of the team. Once everyone was dead, Molov decided it was time to turn up -- because what good CO doesn’t want to help his operative? That guy…

"Hey Alias, what'd we miss?" "Ah, not much..."

With him were Tangier and Repta, whereas Quill had given me cover-fire towards the end of the melee. Deciding to hang back whilst Repta and I made a distraction, Molov sent us off to blow up the armoury. I was happy to finally be killing alongside someone -- someone who wasn’t focussing on the driving and not killing, that is -- as most of the game had been solo. Repta and I made our way to the armoury, where he stayed by the door and I waded in gun-first. As the demolition expert, it made sense that I would plant the bombs in there, as on the bridge.

Three bombs and a lot of dead men later, suddenly Repta and I were outside the smouldering building. After the opening sequence ended in a wonderful explosion cutscene, I had such high hopes for this…

Smouldering in the fun way, not the douchey way

We continued, heading to where Sopot was. We entered a hanger and found an armoured mech suit! Thankfully Repta told Alias to get in, so that’s what I did. Whilst hardly MechWarrior-grade, it was equipped with rockets and miniguns, which I used with glee as we continued our romp through the compound. However, it wasn’t destined to last as we reached a building we had to enter, meaning I had to get out of the suit.

We went through the building, and Repta suggested we go into the communications building to the left -- so in we went! After all, I’m never one to be against killing hostile forces. In the building we were, of course, attacked by more soldiers who received many bullets from a few of my weapons. It’s so hard to gauge which weapon to use in each situation…

I planted an explosive on the thing that looked important, and legged it. It exploded, and Repta said that we should now go after Sopot. He had apparently taken refuge in the missile silo -- because what sane government official doesn’t have an ICBM tucked away in their base of operations? Molov was under the impression that Sopot was crazy enough to set off the missile whilst it was still in the silo, so we had to haul ass.

A gunship swooped in to attack, but Repta shot it down. It crashed into the building holding the missile silo, and two soldiers came running out on fire.Of course, we went that way, winding up in a sealed tunnel which began to fill with gas. Unlike the one I had encountered in the opening mission, this one didn’t have a vent to sneak through. However, I still had bombs, and planted one on the door, letting us out one explosion later.

By the time we reached where Sopot was, he had escaped in an elevator down to the control room. Repta once more hung back as I gave chase. Luckily the elevator opened into the missile bay, a very short walk from the control room which Sopot was stood in. The Chancellor waited for me to go in and, whilst holding him at gunpoint, march him out into the silo.

Sopot then ranted at me before I hit the launch button from the safety of the control room, burning the leader as it rose into the sky. Mission complete -- but as it turned out, the game continued after the team congratulated me. I had to make an escape...