Red Faction is a first person shooter set on Mars in the not-so-distant future. I have two words for you - deformable terrain!

The game has amazing graphics, as you'd expect on a PS2, a decent soundtrack, and an involving storyline. You're in a mining colony on Mars. The colony has a mysterious plague wiping people out, and an underground movement is pointing out that the mining corporation isn't very ethical.

So you get sucked into the revolution against the company, and are being helped out by the rebels. There's really cool glass-shattering effects, submarines to ride in, Ultor Corporation baddies to blow away, and the plague to figure out. Lots of weapons and levels to plow through.

But what makes this game so much better than its HalfLife siblings is the TERRAIN. In say HalfLife or most other games of this ilk, you shoot a wall and it gets charred. You can leave bullet holes in things, or maybe shoot out the window. Red Faction brings this to an ENTIRELY new level by letting you MODIFY THE TERRAIN with your attacks.

Yes, this means if someone has locked a door you want to get through, you blast out the wall next to the door and go through the hole you've made! Know that the room below you has something special in it? Blast a hole into the floor! Trying to negotiate across a room? Be careful, because your enemies could cave the floor in beneath you!

It turns what was before a "go through this maze in THIS order" kind of game into a "you have this huge 3D space, use your brain to figure out how best to reach your objectives." It's amazing how much this expands the game!

There's a two player death match mode, and 20 levels of gameplay. Well, well worth the money - and watch for Red Faction 2 coming soon!

Buy Red Faction for the PS2 on Amazon.com