Red Faction: Guerrilla
Mars is yours to annihilate. Featuring GeoMod 2.0 technology- that allows almost everything to be smashed to smithereens.( For whatever reason, it just never gets old).This third-person action game is a great open-world adventure for anyone.
You will be able to roam around and try a variety of mission objectives right off the bat, as you are part of a rebellion that has risen up against the power-hungry EDF (Earth Defense Force), the faction who were the good guys in the original Red Faction game.
In Guerrilla, you will be able to find safe zones in the form of Red Faction headquarters, which is where you can upgrade your weapons, refill your ammo, and pick up a vehicle to go cavorting around.
You can sprint without tiring but you really need a vehicle of some kind to move around the planet effectively; some locations are quite far apart, so feel free to hijack a vehicle on the road.
It’s doubly important when you have to be somewhere in a certain amount of time, and having a vehicle on hand is also a good idea when dealing with the EDF. Who! by the way are alerted when you blow up their stuff, and a vehicle usually lets you beat a hasty retreat if you’re outnumbered and you will be.
You can stop pursuers by blowing up a bridge as you pass it, or even level an entire building to kill all of the troops inside. It’s hard not to get swept up in all the damage you can cause, and you’ll find yourself wanting to lay waste to an object just to see how it crumbles simply because it’s so much fun.
Story, for the most part, takes a backseat to Mason’s continuing mission to free Mars. What follows is a lengthy main storyline which is fairly cliched for the most part. Mason’s motivation for revenge doesn’t ring that strongly throughout the campaign, and there are very few twists and turns to keep the plot engaging.
The EDF have total control of the six sectors of the planet, oppressing its population of miners with a heavy security presence and upfront brutality. To free the planet, you’ll have to do it sector by sector. Each will have its own level of EDF control that you’ll have to lower while at the same time raising the population’s morale.
The game’s eight different mission types will do one or the other, and in many cases they’ll do both. Lowering EDF control opens up new story missions which will move forward Guerrilla’s main narrative, while improving morale means more of the population will randomly jump in and support you when you get into a fight with the EDF.
Guerrilla’s destruction manages to be engaging and entertaining for the 15 or so hours it will take you to get through the single-player campaign.You can go back into the world to complete any missions you may have skipped, as well as try your hand at the “insane” difficulty level you’ll unlock after your first run through.
Red Faction: Guerrilla’s controls are solid, particularly its shooting mechanic, which feels just right. You’ll be able to equip only four weapons at a time, but you can quickly switch between them by holding down the right shoulder button. Most are typical weapon archetypes–there are pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, and sniper variants–but Guerrilla does feature some unique weapons, such as the killer disc-spewing grinder and the electricity pulsing arc welder. By far the most interesting is the nano rifle, a weapon which sends out a bolt of microscopic nanites that corrode anything they hit–and this includes people as well as buildings.
There are large earth-moving vehicles, smaller two-person transports, and plenty of trucks, with a surprising number of them packing onboard weapons. You’ll also run across beefy mech-like walkers which are great to pilot against hordes of EDF soldiers–these are pretty rare, however, but they’re so much fun you’ll be left wishing there were more instances when you could use them.
The sledgehammer and the demolitions really make an impact.
Guerrilla’s multiplayer offers plenty of unique experiences you won’t find in the single-player game. Supporting up to 16 players online and features the stock standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag variants.
All of the single-player game’s destructibility adds another level of strategy to matches, as you’re only ever one sledgehammer blow away from instant death, no matter how thick your cover. This makes all matches tense affairs, and camping is a definite no-no. Added to this are new items exclusive to multiplayer which can radically affect how you play.
The main additions are 10 different backpacks which act as either offensive, defensive, or support aids during combat. The rhino backpack, for example, will allow you to charge straight through walls at a hiding player, while the thrust backpack can propel you quickly up a few levels to take out snipers. The stealth pack, on the other hand, will make you invisible for short periods of time, while the heal pack will quickly regenerate lost health.
The reconstructor gun can repair damaged or destroyed structures and is used in the Siege and Damage Control modes. Siege has two teams taking turns to see how much damage they can do to a map, while Damage Control sees two teams fighting for control of three structures.
There’s also an offline multiplayer mode called Wrecking Crew, where up to four players can take turns in doing as much damage as they can to a certain area. Wrecking Crew is a fun little distraction.
Architecture looks realistic, as do many of the lighting effects with the various explosions and pyrotechnics on show. Actors do well with their limited scripts, and the various explosions, gunfire, building collapses, and other sound effects are uniformly impressive.
The solid “thunk” you’ll hear every time you use your sledgehammer is especially satisfying.
Guerrilla is a nice looking game with a fantastic framerate.
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a third-person shooter video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ.
