There are quite a few reasons why I anticipated the release of Red Faction: Guerrilla. For starters, Volition Inc. is very versatile company as their games cover a wide assortment of genres ranging from Role Playing Games to First Person Shooters to Space Simulators.  I have enjoyed exploring space through their series Freespace as well as their entry into the open world genre with Saint’s Row.  Red Faction: Guerrilla seems to be the child born from the popular series Red Faction and Saint’s Row. This is a good thing, however, with a few cons.

Information

Developer: Volition

Publisher: THQ

Date of Release: 6/02/2009

System(s): PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Genre: Third Person Shooter, Open World

Number of Player(s): 1 (up to 16 Online)

Presentation

The world of Mars as depicted in Red Faction: Guerrilla looks spectacular at first and quite breathtaking in some areas. However, after visiting all six areas I felt like I had seen enough rocks and the different colored dust storms didn’t help too much. Oasis, on the other hand, is the one region that stands out the most…and even includes some grass. Grass that didn’t seem to have been given the same attention to the over abundance of rocks on this god forsaken planet. Nevertheless, the rocks do look pretty…as far as rocks go. I just wish I could blow some damn holes in those rocks.

Speaking of blowing things up, Geo-Mod 2.0. That’s where this game shines! You’ll start with  the trusty ole’ sledgehammer and its sole purpose is to bring down every single building that is owned by the Earth Defense Force (EDF). The process of ripping apart each building is both addictive and satisfying as the detail put into the decimation of said building is quite amazing. Not only do you see a few bricks here and there fall to the ground, but you’ll also notice the detail given to the other essential pieces that go into the making of said buildings. Wrap this lovely package with physics and there are endless possibilities on how you go about ripping the EDF a new one.

While this may seem amazing, there are a few issues here and there. Every now and again, I ‘ll successfully take out three of the four supports to a certain building, without taking out any of the walls, and somehow the building stays perfectly still as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Other times, I’ll watch, and listen, as a four story building stresses over the disappearance of its support and comes crashing down on my enemies, or myself…if I happen to be in the way.

Which brings me to the sound effects of this lovely game. Wow! Now, I’m not a audiophile, but I was amazed by the different sounds that erupted from my speakers. From the realistic effects of a building crashing down on my naive little terrorist to the sounds of massive explosives enacted by yours truly. The bottom line is that this game packs quite a punch when it comes to the varying sound effects.

Plot

Red Faction: Guerrilla takes places 50 years after the first Red Faction. EDF has turned into the same people that they fought against in the first game. They even look similar to them as well. It’s as if they picked up the Ultor: How to be Evil guidebook and followed it with every fiber of their being. The greed of money seems to be involved as well.

Anywho, this is where the major con of this game lies. The plot is on the back burner. You play as Alec Mason who is pulled into the cause of the Red Faction after his brother is massacred by the EDF forces. You then become the Red Faction’s little-solider-that-could and tasked with bringing down the EDF. Beyond that, there isn’t too much of a story. There are a few cinematics, which given the potential, could easily expand on the characters. Sadly, we are left an assortment of mission briefings that are reminiscent of Crackdown. I really wished they would have given me the same amount of story that is given to Saint’s Row for crying out loud! Even if it didn’t surpass the first Red Faction’s stellar story.

Gameplay

Fortunately, the gameplay picks up the slack of the plot and pushes the game up past the mediocre side of the gaming industry. You are tasked with lowering EDF’s control over each of the six regions while raising the morale of the Red Faction. Raising the morale helps by having the miners and colonists join you in the fight against the EDF. This is accomplished by completing the side missions. And there is quite an assortment of missions available, some that are even similar to Saint’s Row 2.

For example, the side mission Collateral Damage, which I find to be the most satisfying, is one that is not unlike the “sewage” side mission in Saint’s Row 2. The only difference in Red Faction: Guerrilla is that you’ll be riding in a rocket and machine gun strapped bike driven by some loony named Jenkins; instead of a sewage truck. You’ll also be tasked with reaching a set amount of damage in the millions by destroying anything owned, or considered important, to the EDF. That includes propaganda, bridges, outposts, soldiers, vehicles, and other targets.

Along with the collateral damage side mission, there are nine other side missions. Five of those nine are grouped under Guerrilla Actions, which includes House Arrest, Courier, Convoy Hijack, EDF Assault, and Guerrilla Raid.  Courier, Convoy Hijack, and EDF Assault, for the most part, are radioed in and need an immediate response, otherwise you’ll lose the chance to complete them. House Arrest and Guerrilla Raid appear on your map, along with other missions, before you secure that region.

Each of these missions help in the long run by either lowering EDF’s control, giving you salvage, or by raising morale (and sometimes all three). This creates the addictive nature of Red Faction: Guerrilla as you’ll want to pick up as much salvage as you can in order to upgrade your equipment to make the freeing of Mars a little more easier. You’ll especially want to upgrade your armor as soon as it unlocks. Pronto!

A con of the gameplay ties in with a con of Geo-Mod 2.0. as many of the buildings and bridges that I ripped to part with my hammer and explosives didn’t always seem that realistic to me. For example, there are a couple of times in the game where you’ll be tasked, optionally of course, with taking out a bridge. So, after I realized this was my task, I set away with 20 charges and my trusty sidekick. Once I arrived I was told, “you’ll need more than charges for this task!” and I soon realized why. The supports at the bottom of the bride were immune to charges. How convenient. So, I went away at the top of the bridge and blew the majority of the bridge apart.

However, you’ll soon notice when you begin playing, that each building has a percentage attached to it on your mini-map in the bottom right-hand corner. So, in order for you to be congratulated on destroying a target, you will have to keep whacking, detonating, and pulverizing the target till it reaches 0%.  Sometimes, this seems realistic when you destroy all the supports, and other times, you’ll notice a building is barely there anymore and yet still has 20% left to it according to your minimap.

Another con of the gameplay is the drastic changes in difficulty that will pop up every few missions. This con becomes even more aggravating by the fact that in some missions no one will come to help you, as the Red Faction relies on Alec to be a one man army and save them from the EDF.

These are not game breaking issues as you’ll enjoy trying to upgrade your equipment and trying different ways on laying destruction upon the EDF.

Multiplayer

I’m not a huge fan of the multiplayer side of gaming. I’m a loner. While that may be true, I did enjoy the diverse modes that can be found once you tire of shooting the AI and want to go after someone that won’t repeat the same line over and over. Another plus is that the diverse ways to cause damage to the environment through the Geo-Mod 2.0 engine is still the same in multiplayer! Of all the modes Siege would have to be my favorite mode as I sure do love to cause some extreme damage online as well as off.

There are seven Online modes and four offline modes; the offline modes require you to “pass-the-controller.”

Overall

I was quite pleased with my experience on Mars. While I wish they would have cranked out a far better story with more cinematics, I believe the gameplay and multiplayer more than make up for it. While I do believe that have taken the best of their entry into the open world genre with Saint’s Row and combined it with the Red Faction series, I still feel like they could have ironed out a few of the cons to make this a near perfect game.

I felt that the game would have benefited with a story that is more than paper thin. There was much potential here with the revolutionaries within Red Faction and I felt like they were trying to balance seriousness with the humor found in their Saint’s Row Series. Instead of actually feeling anything for the characters, I felt like a disgruntled bomb-crazy terrorist. While that may be fun, I really wished they would have either chosen to take the serious approach or the humor aspect that comes up every now and again.

However, with an online experience system that isn’t too different from the likes of Call of Duty 4 and World at War, a single-player campaign with an assortment of missions and four difficulty settings, I believe this game has more than enough replay value to justify a purchase.

Pros/Cons

Pros

- Great replayability

- An Assortment of side missions

- Amazing Destructible environment

- A great assortment of Mulitplayer Modes

- Amazing Physics

- Amazing Open World

Cons

- Weak Story and Plot

- A few issues with the realism of the destructible environments

- Jumpy difficulty

The Save Factor (explanation)
For fans of the open world genre: $59.99 USD.
Otherwise: $45 USD (When compared to open world games like GTA IV and Saint’s Row 1 & 2, I believe Red Faction: Guerrilla falls short).

Josh T. Console, Games, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360