Red Faction Guerrilla
I have some fond memories of the original Red Faction, so this was a game I wanted to play, but ended up waiting a while to try. I think it came out when a lot of other stuff was on my gaming plate, but here it is. As with the original Red Faction, destructible stuff is the name of the game. This time, paired with an open-world setup ala GTA. Guerrilla takes the destruction one level deeper, as it’s baked into the gameplay and even the strategy of the combat. Virtually EVERY structure in RFG is completely destructible. Seriously, if you wanted to take down an entire town with just a hammer, given the time, you could. The story is once again set on Mars, this time there is a bit more of a grassroots edge to the fight against the evil corporations that run the planet, and you play the unlikely hero in a huge series of “rebel activities”, sometimes bordering on terrorist acts, but for the “good guys”. Either way, you get to smash a ton of stuff, and there’s a competent story behind why.
The graphics on this one are solid, but nothing that will make your jaw drop. The engine seems appropriate for this kind of world, where much is said by the tone of the dust & dirt, and draw distance says more than a high-poly building. The entire world ends up having a feeling like the inhabitants haven’t been there too long, and that the environment is harsh, regardless of the terraforming. The almost pop-up feel of the buildings, makes their easy destruction all the more realistic. One thing that did fall short was the jumping from in engine, to FMV sequences for the story bits. This change of resolution feels all the more jarring now, given how many games these days stay right in engine to tell the story. I used to love rendered FMV sequences.. but that was when poly count was really low, and usually it had something to do with Square’s ridiculous attention to detail.
Smashing stuff is fun. There is no doubt to that, and RFG really lets you enjoy smashing stuff. There is gun combat in the game, and while it’s not really perfected, it’s solid enough for how often it makes you get through it that way. You just as often can sneak in, or destroy stuff from a huge distance, or even run through in a truck. A huge hint here, play the game on Casual. You won’t get as frustrated with the combat, but the smashing is still all just as fun. The driving is a bit clunky, reminding me of the buggy sequences on Mass Effect (which is not a good thing). That said, with some patience and a bit of time, you’ll get the later upgraded items which are a real blast to tool around with. The new items end up giving just enough variety to the missions and methods to keep you entertained the whole time.
Since I was so late to this game, I didn’t end up bothering with the multiplayer, nor did I really want to commit the time to the collection quests, so not much metagame here for me. I always love a game with an economy, and making cash by collecting salvage was a pretty enjoyable bit of the game. I did however only upgrade the items I enjoyed using from the offset, so maybe I missed some advanced versions of some of the more obscure weapons and gear. Oh well.
One Liner: If you like to smash things, Red Faction Guerrilla doesn’t disappoint. Solid open world scifi action.
Final Grade:B-