Review: Red Faction:Guerrilla

Blowing things up has never been this much fun

“Better Red than Dead” is an occurring theme throughout the Red Faction series but in none of the other games have you been able to see it and feel it as well as you can in Volition’s (makers of the previous Red Faction games and Saints Row) newest installment Red Faction:Guerrilla.

After the death of his brother at the hands of the EDF (the Earth Defense Force, which is currently the corrupt government upon Mars after liberating it from its previous corrupt government) Alec Mason, the game’s protagonist, gets thrown in to the liberation of Mars and the newly found “Red Faction” group. Throughout the game, Mason will encounter the EDF and the Marauders (a group of martians turned thug) as he begins to liberate Mars from its oppressors by bringing up the morale of the citizens and lowering the influence the government has upon the five sections that are currently inhabited upon the red planet.

This is, unfortunately, where the story stops. While there are still some major points within the game that I won’t spoil for you the cookie-cutter storyline that Red Faction employs is most likely going to be its lowest point throughout your play experience but one that should not deter you from purchasing and enjoying this game. You see, the wonders of Red Faction don’t lie within the storyline but within the great multiplayer and physics aspects of the gameplay. It looks exactly how a game in the middle of a console’s lifespan should look with rich graphics and textures that show very little if any pop ins for all of the action that goes on while you’re smashing away at buildings which is both a positive and a negative towards it: it looks exactly how you expect it to look, nothing special but nothing horrible either.

The physics play a major part within the game, allowing you to smash and destroy literally anything that stands within your way (people, buildings, walls). A ton of enemies within a building that you want to kill? No problem, just set charges on the major infrastructure points (something you will quickly learn through playing the game) and take down the entire building, killing your victims in the process. While most games with destructible environments just allow you to massacre a building or blow a hole in it, on Mars every piece of the building can be destroyed and if you don’t blow it up just right you’ll find half of a house still standing or even worse, that second half of the house falling backwards right on top of you which has the ability to seriously injure and/or take you out of the fight.

While the physics are great fun and definitely carry the single player campaign from becoming too boring with monotonous missions and a bland storyline, the multiplayer aspects of the game are a beast all its own offering a hot seat mode called “wrecking crew” (which pits players in timed destruction modes and, well, that’s about it. The wrecking crew probably shouldn’t have even been included as there really just isn’t much there) and then a full on XBox live component that offers a number of different play styles all revolving around, you guessed it, death and destruction. From the usual free for all deathmatch modes to the insanely fun destructor mode (which pits two teams, each with one selected person as its designated “destroyer” that gets points for their teams by destroying buildings while the rest of the two teams have to defend them/ kill the other) there is a ton of replay value as with each kill, victory, and match played you net valuable experience points that allow you to level up and unlock new multiplayer modes, character models, and other minutia for you to have fun with. Within the multiplayer mode, players can also switch it up by donning the various “packs” that are placed all around the maps. Each pack will give you different abilities and power ups that allow you to take on a different role for your team. From the jet pack which, that’s right, allows you to fly temporarily to get on to some of those harder to reach places to the healer pack, which allows you to heal yourself and your team mates around you the packs can quickly turn the tide on a multiplayer game and bring about a completely different spin on the same match types you’ve played time and time again. The whole multiplayer aspect has, for those who have played it, a kind of Tribes aspect to it which is definitely a great thing. So far there has been nothing more fun than a game of jet packs and rocket launchers and seeing everyone flying into the air and attempting to rocket someone in the face.

While I don’t usually enjoy games that are more focused on the multiplayer than the single player for one reason or another (either that the single player just plain sucks or its like every other game that comes out around the same time (I.E what’s up with three open-world games coming out less than a month apart from one another: Infamous, Red Faction, and Prototype?) ) but I really did enjoy this game. Even the single player has its moments and certainly never becomes so boring that I turn off the game after playing for 20 minutes. The fact is that the physics, the weapon selection, and the pacing of the single player keep you coming back for more to complete it and the multiplayer, with its robust selection of features and still throwing in the destruction found in the single player, both offer a ton of playability and fun and while the multiplayer will keep you coming back for way longer than the single player will both should definitely be given a chance as they combine to make a really great game.