Red Faction: Guerrilla

"Red Dawn"

We're on Mars baby!

Red Faction: Guerilla is a new sandbox adventure based on a futuristic industrial operation on Mars in which the oppressed workers of Mars' mining and industrial base begin to fight back against the Earth Defense Force. As Alec Mason, you get to lead the Red Faction to victory after victory by destroying any and all remaining EDF presence on Mars. The concept is ideal, the story is average, but the ability to bring down a three story building with a sledgehammer is what makes Red Faction the most fun sandbox games that I have played in a long time.

Story

In the future, Mars is finally transformed into a viable colony with the only emphasis being the vast mining operation to keep up with demand from Earth. The resources on Mars seem to be very great, but the corporations behind the Earth Defense Force's brutal oppression of the workers have gotten many of the miners and scavengers ready to start taking back to become independent of Earth. Alec Mason rejoins his brother on Mars as a demolitions engineer and scrap scavenger in the distant Parker sector of Mars. When tragedy strikes, Alec decides to go all in on wiping out the EDF and securing a future for the workers on Mars. The story becomes average afterwards with only a handful of colorful characters (Jenkins) that make the war worth fighting for. Some explanations get thrown such as to how Mars is able to become a breathable planet and who exactly the mysterious Marauders are. Unfortunately even in the far distant future it seems there are still no flying cars so there is not much to hope for.

Game Play

Red Faction is set in a third person view as you traipse through the Martian landscape on foot or by vehicle. The controls are easy to handle but the continuous weapon upgrades become too many as you can only carry up to three different weapons at a time. You never get to change out anything for your trusty sledgehammer. So given a choice between a gun that vaporizes anything, 30 explosive charges, rocket launcher, voltage gun, a gun that shoots saw blades, and a much needed assault rifle...I get left with a tough choice of taking only three!

There are five sections of the colony that you have to liberate and these are easy to do by either doing only the missions or by bringing down EDF buildings, coordinating raids and defensive actions with other Red Faction members as well as breaking those members loose from house arrest. You can also ride shotgun with the very colorful and probably Mars' first true patriot named Jenkins who will ride you around in his dune buggy while you blast everything in sight. Red Faction has a lot for you to do beyond the main missions so you will not be quickly running through the game as with a poorly developed sandbox game.

Destruction is the name of the game as you can bring down or blow up everything in the game. Given the vehicles in the game you can start leveling everything in sight when you hop inside a mammoth EDF tank or a walker. A walker? Really? There is no shame in calling it what it is. I am very sure that there is no patent or copyright on calling it a MechWarrior. These things made into the Metal Gear series. Anyway you do get to use two legged tools of destruction whether you call them "walkers" or mechs and they also serve a great purpose in leveling fortified bases. The salvage you collect from destroyed buildings and vehicles allows you to upgrade your weapons and get cool stuff like a jet pack and more ammo to carry. On the down side, you have to be careful in not killing people that are on your side (which is anybody who does not shoot at you) and with so many people carrying on like there is no war going on you will end up causing a lot of collateral damage. There is no way to avoid killing so many innocent people when they are everywhere.

What I enjoyed about Red Faction's game play was that you have a constant save system where you can go in and attempt a suicide raid and whatever you destroyed will be gone when you restart. The only progress that is not saved is when you are on the main missions and dying or failing them means you have to start those all over again.

The stuff I side-stepped in this game were the timed trials that did not add much to the replay value. After beating the campaign you can still go back and do these things and finish up any guerilla raids that were not completed before. I did not see the point in them. You will do plenty of bashing and blowing up throughout the campaign. Mason swings one heck of a hammer but we get the idea after having to knock down a building in under two minutes. I did not feel that this was necessary for this game. However, if you are into such time trials there is another mode called Wrecking Crew in which you get to try all kinds of building bashing in time trials.

Multiplayer

Red Faction's multiplayer is very well developed with plenty of run and gun action. The various weapons and backpacks in the game allow for an even fight between rookies and veterans as long as you know where to find the good weapons. The different game types are all fun including the free for all games and Red Faction even goes so far as to allow a spectator mode so that you can watch games being played. I am not too big on watching other people play a game I could be playing, but it is definitely worth the five achievement points. The multiplayer is very decent and adds a lot to this game beyond the mindless destruction modes.

Graphics/Sound

If you have seen the land rover pictures from Mars you will notice that Red Faction has a very good rendering of the Mars environment. Futuristic trucks and cars roam the dirt roads while a few dust storms come through. Red Faction has a time change mode to go along with everything else, but the landscapes really set this game off on the right track. All of the structures seem to be very cheaply built due to their inefficiency to hold up to a maniac with a sledgehammer and the only glitch I saw here was that some of the structures could still stand even though they were being held up by a single piece of rebar. The frame rate holds up surprisingly well due to all of the explosions and mass devastation that follows a raid on a fortified area. The graphics are excellent for this game. The music in Red Faction is no less equal to a real movie soundtrack. The dialogue follows along nicely as you progress through the game.

Replay Value

Achievements in Red Faction: Guerilla are all mostly easy to obtain. You can collect most of the campaign achievements even by playing on the easy difficulty. Some of the multiplayer achievements may take longer to get and then some are very easy such as the one where you play online with somebody else who has beat the game. Then there are the time trial modes where you race a vehicle to a safe house or complete demolitions. You can find these in the campaign as well as on the Wrecking Crew mode. As for the campaign itself there you have the option of doing things straightforward or you can take your time. You will have to complete side missions to be able to unlock the last mission in a sector because Earth Defense Force levels have to be brought down before moving on. Even if you skip the time trials or some of the guerilla activities you can go back and play through them after you complete the game. It took me a full two days to get through the campaign so it lasts a good while.

Final Recommendation 9/10

The problem of sandbox games like Red Faction: Guerilla are either that the campaigns are too short, or the objectives in the game are repetitive and boring. Red Faction does not have any of those problems. With so many features to name, Red Faction packs a punch with its campaign and multiplayer. You can go anywhere and do anything in this game, but then you could go anywhere and blow up everything in a tank, which is what makes this game that much more fun than games like Just Cause. The missions are not repetitive, the story is good enough to want to follow along and beyond everything else you have an outstanding multiplayer. You won't go wrong in buying Red Faction: Guerilla. It is definitely going to be one of the top sandbox games out there to date.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/09

Game Release: Red Faction: Guerrilla (US, 06/02/09)