Geekshow

Review – Red Faction: Guerrilla (Xbox 360/PS3)

Would you like to blow stuff up and smash things with a sledgehammer? Yes? Then Red Faction: Guerrilla is tailor-made for you.

Alec Mason has come to Mars looking to start his life over. All he wants to do is meet up with his brother and work hard. Unfortunately for Alec, things don’t go exactly as planned, and he quickly finds himself caught up in events when his brother is shot by the Earth Defense Force (EDF), the ruling government on the planet. It turns out that Alec’s brother was involved with the Red Faction, a band of colonists fighting to disrupt the EDF’s control of the red planet. Left with little to no choice, Alec becomes the newest member of the Red Faction.

The objective of Red Faction: Guerrilla is to free several different sectors of the Martian colony from EDF control. This is done by completing several different types of available missions. All of the main story missions must be finished before completely ousting the EDF from an area, but their control must be sufficiently lowered before the final story mission of any given sector becomes unlocked. Colonist morale in a sector is also affected by Alec’s actions. Different types of missions will either cause morale to go up, EDF control to go down, or a combination of the two. When the morale of the citizens is raised high enough, they will join you in firefights and supply crates will contain more ammunition.

The currency system that is used in Red Faction: Guerrilla is salvage. Certain missions have a salvage reward for completing them, but most of Alec’s money is gained by destroying EDF property. After causing a ton of mayhem by blowing up vehicles and knocking down buildings, it literally pays to run around and pick up all the pieces of junk that are left lying around. Collect enough salvage, and Alec will be able to purchase better weapons that allow him to cause more destruction, in turn letting him collect enough parts to buy even better weapons. This cyclical system works very well, and it makes a lot of sense within Red Faction’s story as well.

So what kind of weapons can Alec expect to use against the EDF and bothersome walls that stand in his way? Well, he begins the game with a simple sledgehammer and some remote detonators. While these two things may not sound very exciting, they are actually two of the most fun weapons to use in the entire game. The sledgehammer is especially entertaining as it can smash through almost everything you come across. Need a quick exit from a building? Smash a hole in the wall. Pesky soldier getting in your way? Knock him aside. The remote mines are also really versatile, especially when combined with explosive barrels or fuel tanks. Despite the many different weapons collected while freeing Mars, I always found myself returning to these two basics.

That isn’t to say that the other weapons in the game are horrible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thermobaric rockets are a particular standout due to their huge destructive potential. Hit a medium-sized building with one of these, and half of it will instantly be vaporized in the resulting explosion. The nano rifle is equally effective against real estate and personnel. Its rounds contain a swarm of nanobots that disintegrate just about anything they touch. Among the other weapons are a gun that shoots saw blades, an arc welder that can electrocute people (even those inside vehicles), and an assault rifle with heat-seeking bullets. Alec’s explosive arsenal offers a lot of choice in how to go about tackling missions.

The physics in Red Faction are what makes the game special. There are no canned animations here. Buildings collapse, walls break apart, and fuel tanks explode in a realistic manner. Seeing a large tower collapse under its own weight after you have taken out it’s supports never gets old, and it never happens the same way twice. Taking the time to set up an elaborate chain reaction, blasting away with a rocket launcher, or smashing walls with Alec’s sledgehammer are equally viable ways of destroying a target. Of course, it can be just as much fun taking out a building with a dump truck.

Apart from the main missions, there are several types of side missions to choose from. All important EDF structures are marked on your map, practically asking to be destroyed ASAP. Specially marked vehicles need to be driven back to different safe houses. Kidnapped colonists require extraction from EDF hands. Faction members want help in assaulting EDF bases. Attacks by the EDF need to be repelled. Supply convoys need to be hit and traitorous informers need to be tracked down and dealt with. The variety of mission types offers many options in how to deal with the EDF, keeping the game interesting throughout.

Red Faction: Guerrilla also features different things to search for while traveling around Mars. Hidden radio messages from deceased colonists can be found. Every few messages that you find will reveal the location of a large bomb that can be attached to a vehicle. Hundreds of crystal ore deposits are scattered throughout the Martian landscape that provide a small amount of salvage when smashed with a hammer. Finally, several dozen billboards of EDF propaganda can be discovered and destroyed.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, Red Faction: Guerrilla also includes robust multiplayer modes. Wrecking Crew is a local “pass the controller” mode in which players take turns trying to cause the most amount of damage in a limited time frame. There are many different online multiplayer modes to take advantage of as well. Even traditional deathmatch games take on a slightly different flavor when you find yourself in a collapsing building with chunks of the ceiling falling all around you. Destruction is the name of the game in other modes, such as Siege in which the goal is to destroy the opposing team’s buildings within a time limit while they try to defend it. When the time runs out, the teams switch around and you will find yourself defending your own structures. Adding to the replayability of Red Faction’s multiplayer is an experience system that unlocks new characters and uniforms to play with as you gain levels.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open-world game done right. It offers a lot of freedom to play the way you want to, and there is enough variety to keep things from ever getting boring. Enough cannot be said about the physics system that allows every structure to explode, implode, teeter, and collapse in a realistic fashion. A lot of fun can be had in finding different ways to convert buildings into rubble. The single-player campaign offers enough to be a complete game by itself, so the well-constructed multiplayer components are the extremely tasty icing on a scrumptious cake.

Finale Grade: A-