Red Faction is back, only this time the EDF are pitted against you in a violent battle for Mars. Third person shooters don’t get much more destructive than this…
Fans and curious outsiders alike have been waiting over eight years for the release of the third instalment of the Red Faction series. Offering destructibility like nothing ever seen before, Red Faction games of old accounted for the hundreds of hours spent mindlessly tunnelling through walls, toppling buildings with precise explosive work and hauling over-the-top weaponry through single player missions and multiplayer mishaps.
Alec Mason, recently transferred from Earth to the ore-filled Mars, touches down on the Red Planet and meets up with his brother Dan, who hatches a plan to make some quick salvage to exchange for goodies. Whilst on the hunt, the brothers are spotted by an EDF gunship and Dan is murdered in cold blood. Alec, clearly distraught and confused, reluctantly teams up with the Red Faction to combat the once-friendly EDF and their tyrant-like leadership over Mars’ civilians. What follows is a bland story, but damage mechanics your eyes won’t believe.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Destruction like you’ve never seen before
While not everything can be flattened in the way you wish, such as the landscape and rocks, everything else can. Bridges, buildings, fizzing power cores, huge advertising boards, outposts, pretty much anything the EDF use to maintain control is fully abolishable and the way these structures fall is very impressive. Everything has been designed and falls as it would in the real world – detonate a charge on a building’s supporting brace and watch as it topples to one side all in real time.
Not my fault. Honestly.
Similarly, if you fire a rocket towards the top of a tall surveillance tower, the falling pieces of debris create cracks and holes in the lower levels and save you a ton of time from attacking the foundations. It’s entirely down to you on your approach to a demolition task, in which you’ll have plenty of planning to do as destroying key EDF facilities plays a vital role in story progression.
Lots of things to do
Alec Mason’s title by trade is a miner, and you can continue to mine for ore on Mars whenever you wish. Collected ore can be traded in for salvage, which can be spent on upgrading items you’ve unlocked. Salvage can also be obtained by dropping off vehicles at locations, participating in demolition lessons and attacking/defending bases.
Missions themselves are plentiful – as well as removing Mars of EDF command points, they push you further through the campaign and assist in the liberation of any of the six sectors you’re active in. Each sector has its level of EDF control along with population morale, and need to be reduced and increased respectively. Less EDF influence pumps up support from Mars’ population resulting in extra numbers for the resistance and more ammunition from ammo crates. Killing citizen’s results in a drop of popularity and less people become willing to be ready to fight when the going gets tough, so take care of your minions.
Although side events aren’t too varied, they’re spread out well and require regular attacks on the EDF in order to be unlocked.
Mason, your task is to blow thi -- Again?
Aesthetically pleasing weapons
The destruction in Red Faction: Guerrilla is only as good as the weapon you use to cause it, and it’s a good job there are some spectacular gadgets on hand. To name a few, rocket launchers make a huge mess; a futuristic nano-rifle dissolves anything and a shuriken-like shooter slices and dices. Each item functions extremely well and along with a jetpack and vehicles, the way they’re used is entirely down to you.
Another exciting component at your disposal are mech-like robot’s that you can command when you please. Although finding one may be difficult, using it is simple and hysterical. There are light and heavy mech’s, with the ability to move quickly along with the addition of a jetpack, shoot rockets or use its arms and colossal size to topple buildings. Stumbling across one during a mission is extremely scarce but when you do, it’s like a godsend.
Use a mech to cause extensive damage
Brilliant multiplayer
Online, Red Faction: Guerrilla keeps its destructive nature by once again allowing everything to be levelled. The usual deathmatch variants are included along with capture the flag, and due to the extensive damage model, players can create a rudimentary path however they want by simply knocking stuff down. Other modes such as damage control and demolition encourage vast amounts of teamwork as you prevent your area from being captured or squad leader from dying.
Shuriken here, shuriken there.
Backpacks are included online and create a plethora of opportunity, anything from a jetpack to a concussive blast and even a health regeneration pack can be picked up and certainly warrant you and your team to control the area your favourite pack spawns in.
The multiplayer component is solid, and Volition’s extra treat for offline multiplayer, Wrecking Crew, doubles the fun as you and up to four friend’s can race against the clock to destroy as much as possible.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
Lack of love for anything
The storyline is there, but you’ll most likely fail in trying to follow it comprehensively. Everything is relayed to you via radio, and the few cutscenes that make an appearance are just meh, really. They’re rendered well though, which makes up for the average graphics and blocky textures throughout Mars.
Getting attached to Mason, your leader and any other lead character infact is just difficult; they’re all pre-programmed with one-liners when spoken to and are by far and away the dullest people around. Being apart of Mars’ last chance should surely have an exciting vibe to both the protagonist and the player, but you just don’t feel like you’re supposed to.
Who am I supposed to be thinking of again?
Repetition eventually sets in
Unfortunately, after eight to ten hours spent playing through and the game’s story beginning to close, final missions eventually take their toll and repetition sets in abruptly. There’s only so much ‘destroy this’ and ‘rescue those’ that a human can bare.
Not to mention what makes the missions bland in the first place – driving. There’s no skip-to-location option (aside from a jump-to-safehouse unlock) and Mars is a rather big and hilly piece of land. A lot of your time will be spent driving around to a mission, only to instantly die due to having no weapons after forgetting to stock up at a safehouse, and spawn a lengthy ride away. You can set a waypoint via the in-game map, but it usually picks the longest route and at times, guides you to the middle of nowhere.
Challenging games are a great test, but this…
There are four difficulties in Red Faction: Guerrilla – Casual, medium, hard, and insane. What they should really be titled is hard, harder, nigh-on-impossible and snapped disk (respectively). I know challenging games test the mind of the hardcore gamer, but Red Faction: Guerrilla is so frustrating at times, even early on, that you’ll spend a chunk of time sitting in the main menu pondering what to do with your life. Too many enemies attack you at once, you can have all the weapons you want, but blind luck is one you just cannot be without. The last mission in particular is one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced from a game.
This x 100 = casual difficulty setting...
RECOMMENDATION:
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a rental at the very least but more a buy than anything — the physics engine is second-to-none and totally dominates everything. The story is unimpressive however, and repeating the same task over and over again strikes me as lazy as so much more could’ve been done with this game, but it’s something to follow. The campaign is lengthy and will take anywhere from 6 to 15 hours if you can push past the ever-growing repetition. Multiplayer is extensive and a blast, the added backpacks and everything from the single player (bar vehicles) make it just as chaotic and enthralling as taking down your first EDF command center, and its ranking system adds a great level of competition.
Red Faction: Guerilla
Systems: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Developer: Volition, Inc.
Publisher: THQ
Find: Amazon - Gamefly - Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
Want to know more about the game? Just ask! We love to hear ourselves type, and might even say something vaguely resembling an answer to your question(s)…
June 10th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
This is a good start, and the multiplayer is terrific, but now that they’ve built the tech, the sequel should be an excellent game. I’m looking forward to it.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
If only all games supported Geo-Mod…
June 10th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
There wasn’t enough dust, honestly. Like when buildings collapse in real life, there’s a wall of dust that comes up. But in this game, even on Mars, the most you ever see are swirly knee-high dust clouds.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
6-15 hours… lengthy? I don’t associate the two in the same concept. A lengthy single player game should be at minimum 40 hours, preferably 200+ (see: Fallout 3, Sims 3, Spore, Oblivion.)
If the game has 6-15 hours of gameplay, and a multiplayer mode most people aren’t going to touch (considering there are far better ways to spend time online in multiplayer mayhem- Team Fortress 2, MMGSs, COD Modern Warfare, for those who like getting blown up by airstrikes every 2 seconds, etc.)
I tried the demo and it felt mish-mash. I couldn’t really tell who the bad guys were, or what I was really destroying.
One of the rare instances I’m not very interested in a game that others are liking! Go figure!
June 11th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I should’ve said it’s lengthy for what it is, which it is. I guess it’s down to the boring driving and similar missions taking their toll…
June 11th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I think 10-15 hours these days are good. I mean if you look at the games you are saying take 40 hours are either games with a lot of side missions, games with no real ending (sims 3/spore, I think). A lot of hit games are even LESS then 10 hours, Halo 3, Gears of War 1/2, Metal Gear Solid 4 w/o Cut Scenes.
Games now focus more on graphics, and multiplayer IMO.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:08 am
I think there are just too many enemies. If you go to an EDF base with high importance, you will either end up dead before you get there, after you destroy the base or even escape as the constant waves of enemies latch onto you like glue so there is not much escape. I can survive long enough to kill alot of enemies in a base but you can not keep the killing spree up. Eventually you will be out gunned by miles and you may not have enough ammo. If you keep on killing people ikt eventually gets boring as you will know the EDF will keep coming non-stop!!!