Very much of its era. Red Faction does feel like a game that came out in early 2000’s in every way. Occasionally very unfair in parts and there is little in the way of signposting which did lead to me to do backtracking in case I had missed something or wondering the game had glitched and thing that was meant to be triggered hadn’t.
The placement of enemies was also occasionally unfair as there would on occasion be three or so behind doors or around corners and they could me before I could see them. Though thanks to the game allowing saving to occur at any point this meant some of the unfairness could anticipated or dealt with by saving the game as it make these occurrences annoying rather feeling like I need to get good at the game.
Near the end of the game, a switch they needed to be pressed to access a locked area had not spawned correctly as it was invisible. Once I had look up a guide as I was so confused, I found that the button could still be pressed despite it being invisible.
So while I did enjoy Red Faction, the fact that is clearly a game of its time, did take a little to get use to but once I did, the negatives of the era sort of gave it a bit of charm in a retro way.