Red Faction: Guerrilla Review

Another summer game landed on the market, so the season isn't as dry as we thought it would be. Volition has been working on this one for some time and, as expected, the focus remains on basic shooter-style action and destruction - sticking to the tradition of the Red Faction series.

Red Faction: Guerrilla offers a regular sci-fi plot involving the EDF (Earth Defense Force) and the oppressed colonists on Mars. Your character -- a miner named Mason (convenient name) -- arrives to Mars and meets his brother, who, as it turns out, is helping the Red Faction (rebels) against the domination of the EDF. Before you know it, Mason is in the thick of the action and battling alongside the rebels, in an attempt to liberate the citizens of Mars and put a stop to EDF's tyranny. Resembling practically every single corny sci-fi story, RF: Guerrilla may not deliver deep characterization or unique plot twists. Let's be honest; nobody expected to encounter an incredibly complex storyline in this game. The purpose of this game is to keep players focused on the action, as well the ability to obliterate nearly every structure you run into along the way.

That's right, Red Faction's demolition-flavored gameplay makes a return and the developers definitely went to all out to make the mechanics work. Your first weapon is a massive hammer (being a miner and all). The hammer is used to smash a variety of objects and even buildings. It's also used to mine valuable indigenous precious metals and that comes in mighty useful. Mining these materials adds to your scrap (scrap is the in-game currency). Scrap is also collected from destroyed vehicles and buildings. Apart from the hammer, you're gonna need weapons. The rest of the arsenal includes various types of explosives and, of course, rifles, rocket launchers, electricity-based weapons and more. To make thing a bit more interesting, the developers also allow you to unlock a handy jet-pack, which is an excellent mode of transport when you don't have a vehicle nearby (although there really are plenty of those in the game). All in all, the weapons are one of the cooler elements of this game. It's possible to grab different weapons from fallen foes or to unlock them by completing missions. This brings me to a very important point about RF: Guerrilla.

The profound influence of GTA in many games and this one is no exception. There's a strong accent on driving, as well as exploration. In fact, this one feels a lot like Far Cry 2 on Mars (another game heavily influenced by GTA's free-roam gameplay). The mechanics are very similar, except the patrols and African factions were replaced with EDF troops. However, the lack of mission diversity is a symptom heavily present in this game. As such this title has a nasty tendency of becoming repetitive. We do appreciate the hard work that went into the demolition mechanics brought to life thanks to the Havok physics engine. In fact, the game boasts some of the best explosion physics we've seen to date. At some point though, gamers are going to realize there isn't a lot of depth to the game. The main missions vary enough I guess and in a few situations you can even utilize a powerful satellite-based weapon against the enemy. Otherwise, it all boils down to shooting, driving and demolishing as much as you can. Random goals are optional, although they can make way for a wide choice of practical upgrades and weapons.

Upgrades are a crucial segment in this game. When the EDF is on high alert, they send almost everything they have to your location, which denotes troops, armored vehicles, APCs and God knows what else. Rebel allies aren't always around to help, so you need to be resourceful and well-equipped and that most certainly refers to high-level body armor - some sections in the game are almost impossible to beat without decent armor (unless, of course, you prefer dying 140 times and starting the mission from scratch.