Red Faction: Guerrilla

Standard negotiations for a free Mars.

Mason decided it would be an excellent idea to join his brother as a miner on Mars.  Unfortunately, Mason's brother gets killed within hours of Mason's arrival.  Now the local police force, the EDF, believes that Mason is a member of the Red Faction and is out to kill him.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 14 12 PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 4 6 3   7 0 0 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 0 7 0 0 0 3

1.     Gameplay

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• Overall Fun - 4

The Red Faction series was first created in 2001.  On the surface, the initial game seemed like a standard first person shooter, but five minutes of gameplay revealed something completely unseen in any other game ever created.  Red Faction included a completely destructible terrain, meaning that the player could use explosives to dig holes through cave walls or blow holes in walls.

_Ever since then, games have tried to replicate the destructible terrain but have only ever managed to accomplish it in small pieces.  Sometimes certain pre-determined chunks of terrain can be destroyed, but it’s an element that is rarely ever seen.  Most games have now moved to destructible objects and buildings.

Like so.

_Red Faction: Guerrilla has moved in this direction as well.  Instead of blowing up mountainsides and removing cave walls, the developers decided to have nearly every structure in the game be completely destructible.  It’s an awesome effect that is only hampered by how much it taxes computers and game consoles.

_The amount of processing power necessary to calculate how a building should dynamically collapse is extremely high.  Since this game was designed for consoles, the developers had to make a choice.  They could either have many structures in the game but only a few be destructible or have a few structures in the game that are all destructible.  They decided to go with the latter, and the result of their choice leaves much to be desired.

...huh.

_The Martian landscape in Red Faction: Guerrilla is extremely sparse.  There are highways with a decent amount of traffic, but no indication as to where this traffic comes from nor where it is going to.  There is nothing in the entire game that resembles a structure able to house the population of Mars.  In fact, most of the structures are military-based and controlled by the EDF.

_The emptiness of the landscape is only part of the problem though, a small part.  While the number of structures in the game is annoyingly low, the more blatant failure comes from the complete lack of a real storyline and any compelling characters.  The player goes to work on Mars with his brother, who is killed within the first minute of the opening cutscene.  The player is then forced unwillingly into the rebellious group known as the Red Faction and works on completing a series of random missions all based on removing the EDF from the surface of Mars.  The opening cutscene introduces the player to a blonde side-kick who remains almost completely abscent throughout the entirety of the game, some sort of gruff driver who takes you on demolition missions, and an older, fatherly leader who gives you missions.  The amount you actually see their faces is so little that I never even bothered learning their names.

Yes, [insert name here], I'll help you protect your people.

_I don’t mind a bit of mindless killing and demolition, especially when the demolition of buildings is as fun as it was in Red Faction: Guerrilla, but occasionally I would like to have some compelling motivation.  In a game where the storyline seems so critical to the motivations of the main character, it’s almost criminal to not include some sort of compelling reason why the player is spending time demolishing every EDF building on a planet.  “Because he’ll be executed if he gets caught” is not compelling motivation to fight an entire army single-handedly.

Why should I do the job that an entire rebellion is supposed to do?

_The ability to demolish buildings at will was pretty awesome, and that alone kept me around until the end.  But the lack of any real motivation left me wondering whether the developers actually hired writers or whether they simply took an outline of a story and tacked that on at the last minute.

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• Length - 6

I played about 16 hours of this game total, which is decently long and there were a good number of side missions left by the time I completed the campaign.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of the side missions were so repetitive and boring that I never even considered finishing them.  The side missions that involved demolishing buildings in creative ways were almost always fun, which was a huge contrast to the “drive this car to this location within the time limit” missions.  Unless you’re going to try and buy every weapon and upgrade available, there’s very little reason to complete every side mission.

_If you even manage to finish the campaign, there’s very little reason to go back and repeat it.  There’s supposed to be a multiplayer, but there’s no one playing this online.

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• Frustration Factor - 3

The health system in this game can be a bit odd.  It’s not extremely difficult to stay alive, but there were certain scenarios where I just ended up completely overwhelmed and with almost no means of defending myself.  As long as the player stays in vehicles, he’ll be able to make it out of almost any situation alive.  However, rolling over explosive barrels with vehicles can quickly leave the player on foot and completely exposed.

_The final mission was especially frustrating.  The player is given a rocket tank and told to roll up a hill while fighting what must be hundreds of EDF personnel and vehicles.  The EDF is fairly easy to destroy, but the dust and smoke kicked up by the rockets and vehicle explosions can make it almost impossible to see.  This is a problem because for some reason the developers lined the path with explosive barrels that the player will have to destroy if he hopes to get the tank up the mountainside.  If the player leaves the tank or the tank is destroyed, the player will be killed by the EDF within seconds.  It made for a slow, tedious roll up the mountain.

2.     Parental Notices

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• Violence - 7

Violence in this game is fairly mild.  The player will be able to use a variety of weapons against EDF personnel.  Most standard projectile weapons such as assault rifles, pistols, and shotguns, will simply create a small spurt of blood from the site of impact.

If you ever get close enough to see the blood, that is.

_Explosive weapons will send enemies flying in a ragdoll fashion.  No gore is present.

Flop.

_The player can hit enemies with a sledgehammer which will cause them to fall over and die instantly in a similar fashion to the picture above.

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• Sexuality - 0

Sexuality is not a factor in this game.

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• Substances - 0

Substances are not a factor in this game.

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• Gambling - 0

Gambling is not a factor in this game.

3.     Other Factors

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• Mods - 0

There are no mods available for this game.

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• Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

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• Anti-Law - 7

The entire game has the player fighting the EDF forces, the sort of security force for Mars.  The player will constantly be fired upon by EDF forces regardless of whether the player is doing something aggressive.  As a result, the player will have to kill nearly every member of the EDF he runs across.

There may be more EDF than civilians on Mars.

_The law enforcement on Mars may be corrupt and violent, but this game is all about open, violent rebellion against a governing force.

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• Online Community - 0

There is a multiplayer mode to this game, but there were no players online when I played the game.  As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.

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• Extreme Sports - 0

Other than the unrealistic damage the player and vehicles can do against structures, extreme sports are not a factor in this game.

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• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

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• Miscellaneous - 3

Interrogation

In one mission, the player drives a vehicle after kidnapping an EDF commander.  The two Red Faction passengers violently interrogate the commander for information.  No visual of the interrogation is ever shown since the player is too busy driving, but the interrogation can be heard from the back of the truck.

_Execution

In one scenario, the Red Faction leader tells the player that EDF forces are opening fire upon a peaceful worker rally.  As a result, the player must save the workers and destroy the EDF presence in the area.

_Another similar scenario has EDF snipers opening fire on unarmed civilians for no reason.  The player must get into the area and kill the snipers.

Hostages

The EDF has a habit of taking people hostage.  I presumed that the hostages were members of the Red Faction, but I can't name a specific instance where the game confirmed this.

Preventing the building from collapsing is more of a chore than saving the hostage.