Join the rebels in 'Red Faction II'

You're trapped in a ruined sewer system. A constant parade of enemy soldiers is firing at you from above and below, aided by killer machines which follow your every move and shoot the second they see you.

Such is your lot in life when you're playing "Red Faction II" from THQ and Volition for the PlayStation 2. It's a game backed with entertainment and bloodshed that amps up one of last year's most popular first-person shooters, "Red Faction."

You play as Alias, once a national hero but now a member of a renegade team of technologically altered super soldiers battling against the forces of your maker, Chancellor Sopot.

You and your squad have gone over to the Red Faction, which is targeting Sopot for early retirement. While you can't control the others in the squad, they do show up at opportune moments to help squeeze you out of tight corners.

Vaguely reminiscent, in concept at least, to the highly revered "Halo," "Red Faction II" is a nice, although not dramatic, step ahead for the series. Call it evolution, not revolution.

This first-person shooter puts you in control of a nice arsenal of more than a dozen weapons and sends you on a series of not-for-weenies missions against vastly superior forces.

You handle most of the missions on foot, although there are tanks and other vehicles to drive and gunships to use in mowing down the enemy.

And while the game won't take you online, it does offer a solid multiplayer mode which lets you battle with up to three friends in a split-screen format.

There are some neat toys, like an excellent night-vision device.

There is also a serious step backward. The ability to save your game anywhere has been dropped, and the game now is auto-saved only at the end of each mission. That's a big mistake, in my humble opinion. Gamers should not be forced to play the same long mission over and over just to solve one tiny piece of it.

I must have played a mission where you have to blow up a bridge 20 times before I stopped getting run over by trains and finished the job. I was not amused.

Graphics get a B. While not groundbreaking, they certainly can't be criticized for lack of detail or color. Some of the areas were a bit dark, but otherwise, this game is fun to watch, with excellent weapons effects.

Control gets a B. Getting Alias to do your bidding causes no problems, and after playing for a few minutes everything, as they say, falls readily to hand.

Sound gets a C+. Sound effects are pretty good, but the rest is generic.

I liked "Red Faction II" and I'm giving it a B. It's an excellent pure shooter with some puzzle features and a solid four-player option. It's a great way to spend a rainy afternoon blowing things up.

"Red Faction II" is rated M, for ages 17 and up.

Contact William Schiffmann at bschiffmann@ap.org.