Red Faction: Guerrilla Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 5th June 2009

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We go guerrilla on Mars.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Details:

	Third Person Shooter
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Volition
	THQ

16+

Out Now

1-4

The original Red Faction was one of my favourite first person shooters when it was released, so I was a little disappointed that the series was to become a third person action game with Red Faction: Guerrilla! But after getting my hands on it, I can’t help but be impressed by the experience the switch in perspectives has brought.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is set 50 years after the original, and puts you in the role of Alec Mason, a demolitions expert who has moved to Mars to start a new life. However, you are soon caught up in an insurgent uprising after your brother is killed by the one time saviours of Mars, but now oppressive, Earth Defence Force.

Red Faction: Guerrilla makes some rather significant changes to the series, switching to a third person perspective rather than the usual first person shooter action we have become accustomed to. The videogame is also now set in an open world environment similar to the Grand Theft Auto games, although the approach taken is slightly different! Instead of a rigid mission structure in the game you basically wage a guerrilla war against the oppressive EDF. There are some missions that you are required to undertake in order to progress the games story but for the most part you are free to attack EDF buildings, facility’s and outposts as you see fit. Each facility is ranked according to its importance and attack and destroying them will loosen the grip of control that the EDF has over the local populous until eventually the entire area is liberated. Whilst this approach gives you an unprecedented amount of freedom to play the game your way, it doesn’t really do much to hold your attention to the games story and you can quickly lose track of what s happening as you go on a one man rampage against the EDF. To address this, the developers have included a number of missions called “Guerrilla Actions” these tend to come along randomly depending on where you are in the game world and give you a bit more to focus on.

As in other open world games for Red Faction: Guerrilla, Mars has been divided in to sparse populated areas, all governed by the despicable EDF who oppress the local populations of these settlements. However, as you wage your guerrilla war and their grip begins to crumble moral will begin to rise. This in turn aides you in your fight to liberate Mars as ammo crates will become available and be readily stocked, and during fights the population will take up arms and join you against the EDF, who, it must be said pose a pretty formidable challenge! As they are a professional military outfit their aim is precise and deadly. But not only that they also have a formidable arsenal at their disposal and far greater numbers. Whilst the unbalanced fight is probably realistic, it can make the game very frustrating at times, especially when you take in to consideration that it doesn’t take many shots to take Mason down!

Of course we couldn’t talk about a Red Faction game without talking about destruction, and the game allows for players to wreck havoc on the EDF by blowing the hell out of any structure you come across. The game engine makes it easy and damn enjoyable if I’m honest, to bring entire buildings crashing down with a fairly extensive array of weapons. It’s easy to get caught up in simply smashing the hell out of the place, it’s that much fun. Weapons range from a humble sledge hammer to nano-rifles and demolition charges to rocket launchers. As you progress through the game more and more weapons can be unlocked by collecting salvage from the buildings and so on you have destroyed, sadly however you can only carry four weapons at any one time!

Mars is a pretty big place and you need to get around fairly fast from time to time and the game offers some rugged looking vehicles for you to get around in. These all fit in perfect with the Martian mining colony setting. Vehicles range from tough looking buggies to monstrous jeeps and pickups. You also get the chance to pilot some Aliens style walkers that allow you to smash any EDF units out of the way with ease. Driving vehicles in Guerrilla is pretty enjoyable and handling feels pretty authentic on the dusty Martian surface, although they do like to take to the air far to easily when you travel over bumps, which is strange considering the bulk of the machines.

The single player campaign is extensive and should provide a fair few hours of gameplay, to add further value to the game Volition have also included a couple of multiplayer modes. The first mode is Wrecking Crew, an offline mode that allows 2 to 4 players to take it in turn in creating as much damage as possible on some fairly small maps. Whilst this is fun in short bursts it doesn’t really have any lasting appeal, especially in comparison to the games online multiplayer modes! Guerrilla’s online modes consist of the usual deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag modes we have all become accustomed to. However, Guerrilla also introduces several unique modes that all focus on making the best use of the games destruction engine making the multiplayer aspect chaotic but damn right fun at times. Other differences in the games multiplayer is the lack of vehicles, but the addition of support backpacks that grant abilities such as, jetpack, cloak and rapid healing ability.

Graphics wise the game is solid, the game world is huge, but is also very bleak with sparse pockets of civilisation dotted around. As you would expect the environment is arid with dust clouds kicking up in the wind. There’s not really much to look at except wide open plains and hazardous peaks. The townships and vehicles have a very utilitarian look with battered paint work from the harsh Martian conditions and are pretty much what you would expect to see in any inhospitable environment. If there is one gripe with the games visuals it is the relatively short drawing distance on show, although this is largely obscured by foreground objects.

The games audio has also implemented well, the soundtrack is sombre but picks up when action intensifies and the voice actors do a great job of portraying the level of desperation on show. However, for me weapons fire and explosion effects steal the show as they are absolutely outstanding and some of the most authentic you’ll hear in a videogame!

I was fairly sceptical about the wholesale changes made to the series for this latest game. However, Volition and THQ have pulled it off with superb results and whilst it can become a little repetitive and the difficulty a little too unforgiving it is overall great fun to smash the game world to pieces whilst bringing down the EDF. If you’re a fan of open world shooters, Red Faction Guerrilla is definitely one for you!