It’s been seven long years since the last Red Faction game was released. Back in 2001, Red Faction debuted on the Playstation 2. It utilized the then-new Geo Mod technology, its selling point being real-time terrain deformation. In other words, just about everything in the game could be blown up. Red Faction and its sequel, Red Faction II took a decidedly revolutionary approach to the first person shooter. Instead of forcing gamers into a linear level structure, Red Faction allowed the user to forge their own path.

2009 heralds the return of the Red Faction series with Red Faction: Guerrilla and while it may have taken a few years, the third chapter in the series is one hell of a game.

Gameplay

You play as Alec Mason, a miner on Mars who works for the Earth Defense Force. Yes, the same EDF that was allies with the original Red Faction movement in the first two games. It seems that in the 45 years since RF II, the EDF have become as corrupt as Ultor was before them, abusing miners and taking advantage of their efforts for supreme profit. When they make the mistake of killing Alec’s brother, he feels reluctantly compelled to join the newly reformed Red Faction movement and fight against the EDF.

The game concept revolves around completing missions just like any other open sandbox game (GTA, Saints Row, Crackdown) but does it very differently from what we’ve been accustomed to see. Six sectors, each owned by the Earth Defense Force, need to be liberated. Your goal will be to destroy as much enemy-controlled buildings in order to bring the EDF’s territory control, characterized in the game as a meter, down. However, in order to access the last mission of each sector and liberating it, you will need to bring down the control meter to zero. Completing side-missions or “Guerrilla Actions” such as raids, data transportation or structure demolitions are great ways to drive the EDF’s control down.

Of course the more you advance into the game, the EDF will become more aggressive towards you and enemy support will increase in numbers. Cleverly, these “Guerrilla Actions” also have an effect on how the Red Faction will offer its support when you will be fighting the enemy. A second meter called “Morale” will go up every time you destroy EDF property, taking down propaganda or complete “Guerrilla Actions”. The “Guerrilla Actions” remain optional however the game pushes you to complete a few of them in order to set the meters where you need them.

Red Faction: Guerrilla does focus on destructive environments and with the right tools, you can become extremely powerful. What would a Red Faction game be without a plethora of weapons to help you on your way? Rifles, rocket launchers, remote charges, disintegration guns and the trademarked sledgehammer are some of the weapons you will be able to use. Intentionally, the developers wanted you to have fun blowing stuff up but they also turned it into a reason to do and becomes extremely rewarding in the end. How? Every structure or enemy vehicle you destroy will earn “salvage”, which is the in-game’s currency. Salvage gives you the possibility to buy new artillery and upgrades to help you become the most badass player on Mars. Among the abilities and upgrades available for purchase, there’s one cool little thing that lets you warp from one Red Faction camp to another which means that if you don’t feel like driving from one territory to another, you can teleport yourself to the desired destination.

Weapons are an important part of the game but so are the vehicles. You can obviously use them for transportation but they can also be used as deadly weapons of destruction. While some of them have turrets and rocket launcher mounted on them, you can also use them to ram into buildings, especially the big armoured EDF vehicles that you can steal. For those who tried the single player demo from a few weeks back will be happy to know that Walkers are also available. These bad boys will be of great help in your quest for liberty.

Controlling Alec and the vehicles around the world is smooth and the weapon selection system, while it doesn’t use the directional pad for some strange reason, remains solid. It will take you a few minutes to get used to hold one of the shoulder buttons to bring up the weapon menu and then press on the desired face button to which a weapon will be assigned. There’s no way to change the button configuration so you have to deal with it. Thankfully, the control scheme is simple and it will be a matter of time before you get used to it. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the game offers different stick configurations including Southpaw.

There’s one last thing I should mention about the story mode though. While it remains interesting it quickly gets overshadowed by the overall awesomeness of the game, its weapons, the destruction and all. Not that is a bad storyline is just that if it was that great, I would have paid more attention while I was playing.

Aside of the story mode, Red Faction Guerrilla’s multiplayer brings all the craziness and destructive nature of the single player experience and offers a satisfying and addictive experience rarely seen around in games lately. A good variety of maps (21 at launch supporting from four up to sixteen players) and modes including Deathmatch (Anarchy), Team Deathmatch (Team Anarchy) Capture the Flag, Damage Control (similar to a Domination mode), Siege (Attack and Defend structures) and Demolition can be found in game. During our multiplayer tests, Demolition was certainly the most fun of all the modes available. You team needs to capture and claim structures known as Destroyers found around the map. If the enemy claims one, you will need to destroy it and then rebuild it with your regeneration tool, thus gaining its control once more. Sadly, vehicles aren’t playable online but the fact that you can use backpacks and most of all the weapons found in the single player makes it up for it. Personally, I prefer destroying structures with the heat-seeking rocket launcher while flying around rather that going cheap by splattering people with the vehicles. It doesn’t mean that Volition will never include them in the future via DLC but don’t expect to find them on day one. Now, we did not have the chance to play the game online but from what we’ve experienced via System Link was very positive. We will come back to the online multiplayer part later on when the game gets released. If we judge from what we’ve seen from the multiplayer demo, it seems like the online part will be just as strong as the rest of the game.

Yes, multiplayer in Red Faction: Guerrilla is damn fun but its also common knowledge that not everyone is into multiplayer. However, Volition has your back with Wrecking Crew, an offline couch mode in which you and three of your friends fight for the biggest score by destroying as many structures as possible with different weapons in a certain given time. Beneath this mode, players will have the choice to choose one of the various presets available in which you have to choose a weapon from the list combined with certain power-up backpack. For instance, the Total Chaos mode gives you one minute to destroy as much structures with unlimited amount of ammunition. Choosing the Tremor backpack, which creates seismic activity, paired with an unlimited amount of remote charges gives enough tools to destroy stuff by using your imagination. Besides Total Chaos, three other modes are available in the game. Escalation makes you do as much damage as possible with limited ammo with the possibility to increase both ammo and time after a few rounds. In Barrel Dash, you need to destroy as many read and blue barrels as you can in 60 seconds. Rampage makes you do as much damage as possible in three minutes but every time you take a shot with a weapon or use the backpack costs you precious time. Once you will be done with the main campaign and need to take a break from the multiplayer, you will find yourself logging an incredible amount of hours into this mode, we guarantee it. It’s the most fun, thrilling and addictive gameplay mode since “Horde Mode” in Gears of War 2.

Graphics and Sounds

Graphically, Red Faction Guerrilla showcases its incredible Geo Mod 2.0 physics engine to the maximum, but this is to its own detriment. The quality level of certain character models lacks detail, variety, and feels very generic. It’s clear that greater attention was given to the game’s destructible environments, rather than the characters. The worlds here are vast and terrain textures are well reproduced. It does take place on Mars so the color palette and the vast unoccupied outlands are different than what other open sandbox games set in cities offer, but you’ll get use to it very quickly. Frame-rate drops are rarely experienced, except during certain destruction missions near the end of the game and the dreaded texture tearing is practically non-existent. However, the greatest thing about Red Faction: Guerrilla is the environmental damage. It can’t be compared to Killzone 2 in terms of visuals but Red Faction: Guerrilla does it best when it comes down to non-staged and scripted destructible environments. Overall, the overall visual presentation in this game is outstanding.

In terms of audio, the voice-overs, the explosions and weapon sounds are great but the game doesn’t offer much aside of this. The game’s soundtrack is noticeable but doesn’t bring much to the whole experience. Intense music can be overheard during missions in order to bring additional excitement but that’s it. One thing that I would have loved to hear is Martian radio talk shows about the Resistance and stuff like that to spice it up a bit similar to what we saw in Fallout 3 and even Saints Row 2. It’s understandable that the Martian set-up had something to do with the game’s sound build. Still, it’s not a big deal.

Value

This game’s replay value is great. While the main campaign duration is around 10-25 hours depending on your level of skill and the difficulty level you choose to play the game, there’s a ton of things that you could do during and after you’re done with story mode. Of course, the online multiplayer component will keep you busy for hours but the Wrecking Crew mode is certainly the hidden jewel. It’s almost shameful that the mode isn’t playable online and it’s not too late to add it through DLC. Still, if you played other open sandbox games in the past like GTA, Crackdown or even THQ’s own Saints Row games, you will understand that you can log additional hours by completing the side-missions offered in the game, especially if they are directly linked to an weapon/ability upgrade system like in this game.

Overall, this is one of the rarest games that you will pick up just for the heck of it even if you’re done with it. Trust us when we say that the Wrecking Crew mode will make you come back. Plus, THQ already stated that they will support the game through downloadable content so that’s good news. This game will certainly give more bangs to your buck that any other game released lately.

Conclusion

Bringing the Red Faction franchise to next-generation consoles might have took three years but the final result is astounding. There’s no doubt that THQ and Volition have put all their knowledge, energies and hearts into this project not only to please Red Faction fans who were disappointed by Red Faction II but also to captivate a whole new audience looking for the next great game. By delivering a solid campaign mode, an incredibly vast open world, destructible environments and addictive multiplayer modes, THQ and Volition brings you a high quality game that you can’t miss. Red Faction: Guerrilla is a must have in your collection and it won’t be forgotten when award season starts somewhere by the end of the year. While people aren’t expecting the game that much, they will be extremely surprised by it. We highly recommend it.