I've never had the chance to play the predecessors of Red Faction Guerilla, which is the third game in the Red Faction franchise. The only thing I knew about the original and its sequel was that they were first person shooters with destructible environments. Like literally, you can destroy any structure within in the game, an aspect that helped the game stand out from the rest of the first-person shooter pack. But that's where my knowledge about the games end. Luckily for Red Faction Guerilla you don't really need to play the other games to enjoy this one-becauase it's such a fun game in its own right.
Red Faction Guerilla is an open-world third-person shooter set in a futuristic Mars. Like all future societies, their world is an oppressed one where the "man" (EDF) is coming down on the hard and has made them their slaves. Honestly, Red Faction Guerilla's story is the weakest point of the game. Graphics are great, characters are designed (enemies look a bit generic though) well and environments are fully realized, really leaving an impression. Despite Mars being barren, the towns in RFG look and feel believable but the story and characterizations are as weak and the structures you're eventually going to destroy. You have a generic-modern day ceaser-shaven reluctant hero who is thrust into a war between rebels and the "man" (I should call them EDF but the man sounds cool) and he meets a girl and they fight the this war to try and liberate Mars. Story is through told through voice messages via intercom and to progress the story along between different towns, Volition, Inc provided their audience with some crudely animated CGI cutscenes which look like it was done with the original Toy Story engine. In game graphics are fine but these CGI cutscenes are grainy and worse, boring. Thankfully, the gameplay is the opposite.
Being an open-world game, naturally you'll be acquiring vehicles to reach designated key points. The game is broken up into six towns and your goal is to decrease the EDF control in each to advance to the next. In each town, you'll have mission-based objectives such as destroying certain buildings, destroy all the enemies, following vehicles to their destinations, and helping out the rebels fight against the EDF. After completing each mission, EDF control decreases and the amount of townsfolk who will fight alongside of you increases. Just how will you be taking down these colossal buildings you ask? Well not by your bare hands. The game equips you at all times with a sledgehammer, which will more than likely be your primary tool in taking out enemies and destroying destructible structures. Not that the other weapons are useless (especially the handy Nano Rifle and bombs), but from my experience the sledgehammer was great because it required no ammo and for the enemies if you can dodge and weave your way around their line of fire and you can lay the smack down on their…well you know. And let me tell you, knocking enemies around with the hammer is gratifying!
Other weapons include bombs, rifles, pistols and other advanced makeshift tools of destruction. Weapons such as assault rifles and pistols are standard fare and should be used to take out enemies troops on the ground or in vehicles. You’ll also find two types of rocket launchers, weapons that fire saw blades or electrify and others down the line. The latter weapons are more effective in taking down structures throughout the game. Taking down buildings also provides you with currency so you can upgrade yourself and weapons, so you have incentive to the mayhem. The game also grants you a multitude of vehicles at your disposal. Vehicles come in different class such as light, medium and heavy. You’ll also find some vehicles with turrets. There are so many ways to decimate buildings, the act the never gets old, especially taking a structure down while enemies are still in the them. While destroying buildings and releasing EDF control, you also have to keep the town morale up by not killing civilians which is not too much of a pain, except when the AI for these rebels get in front of your vehicle or can’t learn escape a collapsing building. The single-player mode plenty of run-and-gun action as well as the demolition aspect, which will keep you engaged and entertain for hours.
In addition to the single-player campaign, Volition, Inc also added multiplayer. It comes with the by the books deathmatch but unique to RFG is Wrecking Crew where you have to destroy structures (surprise, surprise) within a time limit. Even with its unique power-ups, this mode feels more like an afterthought and it’s the destructivity of the environment which gives Red Faction its engagement and hook. If you took all the positive aspects that I listed and removed them from them game, what you would have is a very sub-par third-person shooter and that’s the level of quality of the multiplayer mode.
Red Faction Guerilla doesn’t turn the shooter genre over its head at all, but simply because of its gimmick, it gives you something more than just shooting baddies. The game can last you around the 20-hour mark which is more than enough enjoyment. If you’re looking for a solid shooter this may not be for you, but for those looking for an action game that does something a little bit different and can ignore the snooze-fest of a story Red Faction Guerilla is good game to fill those shoes.
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