Part 2: Episode 2: On Rails

Episode 2: On Rails

This is the first of a few gunner segments in the game. The gunship is pretty inoffensive as far as vehicle levels go, it isn't stupid hard and it isn't just a simple Call of Duty style helicopter gunner segment. That said, the lock on function is completely useless on a number of levels, but primarily because of the reasons mentioned in the video: you don't get too far from enemy ships and the lock on goes to whatever vehicle the game wants to target, not the one you are aiming at. Worth mentioning here are the tips at the bottom of the screen when the level kicks off that tell us how to gun. The ones in this level are pretty good, but soon we'll have something that was completely broken in my test runs. The problem here is that you need to see those text boxes and the instructions they contain because if you go into the controls menu the game doesn't list the controls for the various vehicles. That's right, if you miss one of the boxes or hit E by mistake and dismiss it you may never find out how a vehicle works. If all vehicles controlled the same that would be nearly acceptable. In the first Red Faction you fired with the mouse buttons, moved with the WASD keys. In RF2 you end up in a few vehicles that don't share the same controls, and even the segments where you play gunner don't act the same.

Early 2000's game design in action right there.