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After years of slaving away under the oppressive fist of the Ultor Corporation, the miners on Mars have decided to strike back. The horrible living conditions and spread of disease have pushed them to the breaking point and beyond. As Parker, you play the point man for the rebellious factions.

This is Red Faction.

Parker arrives on Mars to hoping to find his fortune. The oppressive conditions soon push him into the ranks of the freedom fighters working to liberate the Martian miners. Over the course of 15 missions, you control Parker as he fights his way through groups of Ultor operatives, mining robots and the occasional experimental creature in order to topple the evil corporation.

The fine folks at Graphsim bring this Volition title to the Macintosh. While Macintosh gamers do not have the opportunity to play as many third person action games as their PC counterparts, they will still find that Red Faction has that "been there, done that" feeling. Red Faction breaks little new ground in level design and game play. Gamers have seen the same corridors with crates in every other shooter ever produced. The fifteen weapons Parker employs are standard fare and are used in the standard way. The AI opponents are competent, but they lack variety, as most are simply corporate thugs. Unfortunately, the mining community has not had the advantage of combat training. When additional miners arrive to offer assistance, you will find them of little use in a fight. I witnessed miners crossing each other's field of fire, getting stuck behind walls, and generally dying horribly incompetent deaths.

Parker has access to trucks, personal fliers, ATVs and submarines. While these additions seem interesting at first, you quickly realize that they seem to have been added simply as a method to move you from point to point with greater speed. Controls do not vary from craft to craft, and none of the vehicles were used in any way to further the mission objectives. The single player missions are interesting but will provide only about 10 hours of game play. Users will have to depend on multiplayer games to extend the life of the game.

One key component has kept this title from being totally forgettable, and that is the GeoMod engine Volition used to develop the game. For years, the flaw in shooters has been the inability to use your weapons to change the environments of the game. If the hero has a rocket launcher, he should not need to search for the hidden controls to open the lab door. Red Faction is the first game to allow you to modify the terrain, which means you have multiple paths to a successful mission. This approach will ultimately lead to more and more realistic experience in action games. You could follow the maze of hallways to the locked lab, or simply blow a hole in the wall and walk through. Nothing in this game is as satisfying as blowing open a wall with a rocket in order to complete the current mission. Unfortunately, Volition was a bit too reserved in its use throughout the single player game. Making better use of the technology as a story vehicle would have gone a long way toward a more exciting game.

The multiplayer component is well done but strangely limited to standard or team deathmatch and CTF levels only. Gamers have come to expect more options for multiplayer session. I was able to easily find opponents, and I participated in a few very exciting team-based deathmatch sessions. Multiplayer gaming allows you to see the possibilities for the GeoMod engine's terrain-altering abilities. The action is wonderfully confusing as the floor, walls and structures crumble around you. My favorite levels are those built around glass buildings. Players can no longer camp in hidden corners, as the walls will simply crumble around them.

The in-game graphics are well done, and they look clean and sharp on my GeForce card. The particle effects are particularly nice, especially when you are blasting through walls and doors to complete mission objectives. Users of G3 and older G4 systems with less capable video cards will need to make use of the reduced graphics option in the game. The sound effects were quite well done and what you would expect from an action title. I felt the music was average and turned it off in favor of my stereo.

A major Macintosh specific issue is the lack of a native OS X version. While the majority of Mac users still report using OS 9, many (myself included) prefer to work in OS X full time. As Apple has now issued OS X as the default OS in new machines, Graphsim has promised to have the port available soon.

Volition's Red Faction is a game that tries very hard to achieve great things. The GeoMod engine is revolutionary and will change the face of 3D shooters. Unfortunately, Volition was unable to package this technology in a more compelling game. Those who are looking for a great 3D-action title should look elsewhere.

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Minimum system requirements:
Macintosh with a 300 MHz or faster G3 or G4 processor, Mac OS 8.6, 128 MB RAM, 1.2 GB available hard disk space, 8X CD-ROM Drive or DVD drive, OpenGL 1.2.1 or later, 3D graphics acceleration with 6MB of video memory (ATI Rage Pro/128/RADEON, NVIDIA, or any OpenGL compliant graphics accelerator)

Recommended System Requirements:
Macintosh with a 400 MHz or faster G3 or G4 processor, 3D graphics acceleration with 16MB of video memory or better (ATI Rage Pro/128/RADEON, NVIDIA, or any OpenGL compliant graphics accelerator), Multiplayer via Internet connection