Red Faction: Guerilla
Far from the auspices of Earth’s law enforcement agencies all hell has broken loose on Mars, and a state of war now exists between the EDF (Earth Defence Force) – former liberators turned totalitarian oppressors – and the Red Faction freedom-fighters that oppose them. Into this melee wanders unsuspecting mining engineer Alec Mason, who is planet-side to see his bro’ and to earn a few easy bucks. He’s not looking for trouble but, when his brother is executed and he’s forced to go on the run, that’s exactly what he gets. And plenty...
What unfolds in Red Faction: Guerrilla is familiarly mission-based in structure, albeit with a highly explosive twist. First things first, though, and Alec soon finds himself running errands for the Red Faction, whose ambition of Martian liberation requires hitting the enemy where it hurts the most. Not by confronting them head-on, you understand, but by destroying their high value installations, thus earning the support of the put-upon local populace and weakening the EDF’s overall grip on a region. Here’s where the game’s signature ‘cool’ bit comes in.
You see, Red Faction: Guerrilla would be a standard third-person shooter were it not for the sheer amount of spectacular and hugely satisfying destruction on offer. Mason’s missions generally involve the obliteration of some EDF asset or other. This entails driving one of around 30 vehicles to a designated destination and hammering, shooting or blasting it to rubble. Thanks to the new Geo-Mod 2.0 game engine powering the action this has an entirely new meaning.
Destructible environments are nothing especially new to games, of course, but Red Faction: Guerrilla significantly ups the ante. Take a sledgehammer to almost anything and you’ll be able to knock large chunks out of it, but add sufficient explosives into the mix and the biggest structures come down, piece by potentially lethal piece. We guess the third-person viewpoint employed here isn’t just attractive but can actually be life-saving too. Every piece of the rubble generated has a distinct weight and destructive trajectory, meaning that if you stand too close to any of your demolition works you’re more than likely to be winged by shrapnel of your own making. If nothing else the new perspective allows for a wider view of where you stand in relation to the fireworks.
Real, or at least realistic, architectural physics is employed creatively throughout. You may only have enough charges to make a modest hole in the side of a building. However, careful targeting of a structure’s weak spots or, say, a crucial bridge support can bring the whole thing crashing down – hopefully on top of the EDF patrol that’s just turned up to investigate all that banging and crashing. It’s excellent fun, when you get it right.
All of the above makes something of a mockery of the stated need to go about your business as quietly as possible, so as not to attract the aggressive attentions of the EDF. Nevertheless a little caution should be employed if you don’t want to see innocent bystanders killed by your handiwork, or inadvertently caught up in the firefight that inevitably follows. Unscathed the locals will fight alongside you, rewarding you with more valuable salvage to spend on new weapons/upgrades when the job is done. Cause unwanted injuries and public morale drops, making your overall job all the harder.
Yes, Red Faction: Guerrilla is shaping up very nicely indeed – be sure to tune back in for our full review in the week of June 5th. Until then try to imagine the wanton chaos and utter devastation of the promised 16-player online battles. Ooyah!
