Kick-ass, creative destruction is the key drawing card of this polished, satisfying action package.
So who knew it would be so much fun to blow up?
In the futuristic, third–person sandbox action game Red Faction: Guerilla, you can destroy every single man-made structure and vehicle that you see on Mars. And destroy them you shall -- for creative, realistic destruction is the key drawing card of Guerilla.
This isn't to say that "blowing up stuff real good" is the only thing Guerilla has going for it, though; because in many ways developer Volition has created the kind of polished game that fans of the open-world action genre were hoping frustrating "almosts" like Mercenaries 2 would be. The single player mode is filled with smart design choices, tight controls, and a fun variety of missions. The AI programming is more than competent, and the destruction physics set a new benchmark. Add to this a robust multiplayer suite including a unique "pass the controller" couch competition mode, and you've got an explosively satisfying package that is one of the best entries in the genre to date, if a bit too shallow to achieve "classic" status.
STORY
Red Faction: Guerilla is the latest in a series that began life as a first-person shooter. The original was titled after a revolutionary group on a colonized Mars fighting an Earth corporation that had essentially turned the planet into one giant, oppressive mining town. In Guerilla, you play as a new character, Alec Mason, but the basic story setup is exactly the same. The big difference is that Alec's adventures take place on the ruddy surface of Mars, rather than the claustrophobic catacombs of the initial games.
As Alec arrives on Mars, seemingly to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, and in need of a job, the slick opening cinematic immediately lets you know that this wasn't the best-ever career decision. The story quickly unfolds into a fairly cliche "fight-the-power" tale with some good voice work and serviceable dialogue. It sets the stage well for the action, but the game offers pretty shallow storytelling compared to standard-bearers like Grand Theft Auto IV. There are only a few key characters, and none of them are particularly memorable, particularly the generically evil and indistiguishible Earth Defense Force overlords. On the other hand, there's a stronger moral framework in Guerilla than most games of its ilk -- as Alec Mason you solely take down armored EDF goons in the cause of freedom; and you're penalized for killing innocents (as opposed to gaining cash by killing hookers a la the notorious GTA series). Additionally the sci-fi weapons and colorful wasteland of Mars make for a refreshing change of pace from the usual Earth-bound setting.
And you get a freakin' jetpack. But more on that later...
SINGLE PLAYER
The original Red Faction featured a key innovation in its "GeoMod" engine, which essentially allowed you to use explosives to blow open holes in tunnels and such. Guerilla utilizes the fancy-dancy new GeoMod 2 engine to take things to a whole new level – no longer do you deform terrain, but instead you can destroy structures and vehicles in a realistic fashion based upon their construction materials. Thus, concrete breaks into chunks exposing rebar, just like actual concrete walls would. Enough rockets to key girders on a tower will bring it crashing down to collapse the roof of a nearby garage in spectacular fashion. The brilliant physics engine brings a kind of puzzle element to a lot of the gameplay as you learn how to most effectively and quickly take down the buildings occupied by the murderous EDF regime.
And make no mistake, being quick is a key to success in Guerilla. As the title implies, you must employ hit-and-run tactics on most of your missions. Be a slow poke and you will be quickly swarmed and annihilated by EDF reinforcements. The enemy AI makes the game increasingly challenging as it goes along. It may seem almost as if they're a little too challenging at first, but once you adopt the guerilla mindset, the game's difficulty becomes more reasonable and rewarding to beat.
Happily, the AI of your allies is also stronger than some similar titles, and one of the most immersive parts of the game's design is a "morale meter" for each zone of Mars that you liberate. Stop an EDF convoy, rescue detained civilians, defend a besieged Red Faction base, or complete a story mission, and the morale meter goes up each time. The immersion factor emerges when you get the morale up to a certain level – you'll find yourself in a firefight with the EDF, but now suddenly the oppressed citizens nearby will spring into action and back you up, and your solo mission becomes a large-scale, chaotic battle. Your allies won't really save your backside, but they'll often effectively distract the enemy for you and soak up EDF ammo. This, along with chatter from NPCs that reflects Alec's standing in the world, creates a really cool sense that your actions are making a real impact on the world of Mars. The morale dynamic also brings strategy to your choices of which optional side missions to beat: for instance, some of the optional rescue missions seem virtually impossible -- that is, until you get the morale meter up high enough to get the necessary citizen back up.
Another key to your progression in the world of Guerilla is the gathering of "salvage". Not only is the toppling of towers and disintegration of vehicles key to the fun of the gameplay, but fresh destruction creates shiny chunks of metal that are the coin of the realm on Mars. Salvage can be cashed in at Red Faction safe houses to allow your revolutionary gal pal Sam to build you better weapons and upgrades.
When it comes to your tools of destruction, there are several of the expected weapons available early on -- automatic rifle, shotgun, pistol, rocket launcher. As you progress, some awesomely effective specialty weapons come into your itchy-trigger-fingered hands, such as an electric arc welder than zaps groups of enemies around you (including those inside vehicles -- very helpful), a disintegration rifle with a sweet visual effect, and an uber-RPG with a screen-filling explosion that says "boom" in a big, big way. There are only two disappointments in the arsenal: the razor-disk spitting "grinder" and the X-ray vision "rail driver." On the one hand, the grinder is pretty much useless until several upgrades; while on the other hand, the rail gun is incredibly cool and useful but is never officially presented to the player, such that this reviewer had literally completed all of the story missions before happening upon one and going to a save point to keep it handy.
So, by the end of the substantial single player campaign you'll have unlocked access to a nicely wide variety of useful weapons, along with one of the best default weapons ever: a massive, upgradeable mining hammer that is crunchingly effective at knocking away scenery, and thunkingly devastating as a melee weapon. Besides the hammer, you have three weapons slots which can be swapped out at ammo lockers scattered across Mars as well as at safe houses (a.k.a. save locations). After a while, you'll settle on a standard loadout according to your play style, but certain types of missions will be easier to tackle with certain loadouts: for instance, I found that laying down a trail of "smart mines" along my planned escape route made hostage extractions much more enjoyable. While hit-and-run is still the best approach to combat, such possibilities create a nice tactical layer to the flaming carnage.
Likewise, there are some "Demolition Master" side missions in each zone that act as a nice primer to several of the game's weapons. These also act as fun little self-contained, change-of-pace puzzle games that reward the most efficient use of your boom sticks and boxes. Another particularly satisfying side mission type allows you to pilot "walkers" (tank-sized mech suits) and mow through hordes of incoming EDF. The only side mission type that gets truly wearisome is "Transporter" which has your race the clock as you "repossess" various vehicles.
You have an additional tool that eventually becomes upgradeable, and that is the aforementioned jetpack, which is well-implemented and highly worth upgrading as soon as possible. Doing so will open up some delightfully devious ways to gain the high ground and outwit the swarms of punishing EDF elites that appear in the latter stages of the story. Plus, who doesn't want a freakin' jetpack?
So, it's a fun set of tools, but even the best weapons can be ruined by poor controls. Happily, the controls of Guerilla are some of the most well-designed seen in an action game. Driving a few of the vehicles can feel a bit floaty (Mars gravity?), but otherwise, Volition really nailed the controls. Aiming and hit detection are spot on and the sticks are fluid and tightly responsive. And a special shout out to the designers for finally creating remote charges that can be used on-the-fly -- you can easily toss a bunch of charges, swap to a rifle to cover your retreat and then -- button tap -- ca-boom go those charges. It just feels so good. The same brilliant simplicity applies to weapon swapping: holding down a shoulder button displays a radial menu of four weapon choices, each corresponding to a face button (the hammer always being "A" on the 360 controller, for example). While this limits you to carrying only 3 selectable weapons at a time, the payoff in terms of speed and flexibility is huge in a game that's all about keeping on the move. There's even a button for cover that works more consistently and fluidly than most, even if you won't find yourself using it very often.
As ought to be de rigeur at this point in gaming, Guerilla offers a number of control layout options. One should fit most any style: Halo players will feel at home with the default "click on the right stick" control for over-the-shoulder and scoped aiming, while those accustomed to Gears of War will prefer the alternate layout that uses the left trigger
So, kudos to Volition for nailing so many of the essentials of AI, mission variety, weapons and controls. However, as many previous games have proven, "God (or the devil) is in the details." In so many of the details, Guerilla seems designed to learn from what's gone before and to avoid the pitfalls that can squeeze the fun factor out of a sandbox game. Some helps, such as "breadcrumb trail" navigational paths for missions, may strike some as being on the verge of dumbing down the genre; but when you're trying to make your way across mile upon virtual mile to beat the clock on a vehicle mission, you're pretty damned glad that you don't have to keep switching to the map view every five seconds. Other key design choices that negate past frustrations of an open world are blessed checkpoint saves at the top of every mission (including multiple checkpoints for multi-part missions) and the buyable ability to rapid-travel to any safe house on the map.
GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
Most open world games have to sacrifice some level of graphical fidelity in order to render their large worlds and busy action scenes, and Guerilla is no exception. It's a really good looking game with a unified art style and lovely particle effects; but visual showcases of current gen technology like Resident Evil 5 have little to worry about here. That said, you'll usually be moving too fast to notice the lack of shadows under characters and other nigglng graphical concessions. On the technical side, draw distances are well managed to avoid pop-in, and the frame rate remains high even when the action gets really hairy, with only infrequent slowdowns during the most hectic battles. Considering that in Guerilla, "hectic" can translate to a battle with half a dozen mondo tanks sharing the screen with tracer fire from a dozen solidiers while a bridge explodes and collapses in the background... keeping a decent framerate is no small feat. NPC characters can be pretty low poly and stiffly animated, but your player character of Alec or whomever you chose in multiplayer is always nicely animated and detailed.
On the audio front, Guerilla delivers mostly in the impressive explosions, where it counts. Vehicle and and ambient audio create a good sound field for those with surround systems. Most of the weapon sound effects are satisfying, but only the massive thermobaric rocket has a truly memorable wallop to it. The voice acting by the lead characters is good if not exactly iconic, while the NPCs can get a little annoyingly cartoonish at times with their melodramatic reactions. On the other hand, the NPC dialogue is cleverly programmed to change dynamically as Alec Mason gains renown and Red Faction fights the power, which adds greatly to the immersion as your struggle to liberate Mars. Finally, the very pro music score has a cinematic blend of orchestral and synthesized elements which perfectly sets the tone for the story mode. It's nothing blazingly original, but it works to get the pulse pounding and dynamically shifts to complement what you're doing on screen.
MULTIPLAYER
In what one hopes becomes a trend among game designers, Volition has created both online and offline multiplayer modes for Guerilla.
The online suite includes an excellent variety of maps and modes. While the expected deathmatch and capture the flag are represented, the most fun is the be had in unique modes that take advantage of the GeoMod2 engine in thrilling ways.
"Damage Control" is bound to be a popular destination online. This mode recalls the classic PC game Tribes, as well as borrowing from the latest Unreal Tournament, but has its own special destructible flavor. Opposing teams have to hold various control points to gain points -- first they have to destroy a structure the enemy has taken, then use "reconstructor" guns to rebuild the structure in their team's color. As is often the case in Guerilla, there's more refinement than revolution of what's come before, but in many ways Damage Control improves upon its antecedents in sheer explodalicious fun. Add to the formula tactical elements such as the ability to destroy barriers to create shortcuts and the option of yelling "timber" as you bring a tower down onto the enemy's structure, and you've got a winner of an online mode.
Additionally, the desingners have wisely tweaked the controls to replace the sprint button with a backpack button. In all of the multiplayer games, backpacks play a key role. Available at various stations across each online map, the roster expands far beyond jetpacks to include various other power-ups such as the "rhino" backpack, which momentarily turns you into a human wrecking ball. There are both offensive and defensive backpacks, creating the ability for on-the-fly roles to be taken, such that those teams that work tactically together will have a huge upper hand in battles.
Team tactics and communication are equally rewarded in the "Siege" mode, where each team takes a turn defending a large base while the other tries to decimate key stuctures.
"Demolition" mode is a blast-laden twist on the oft-seen V.I.P. mode. Here both teams have a V.I.P. "Destroyer" who is the only team member capable of earning points by demolishing structures. This creates all kinds of fast-paced shifts in the dynamics of battle, as each team is simultaneously on the offensive and defensive.
Multiple tests showed smooth, lag-free performance in all online modes, with highly respectable speeds for matchmaking.
To round out the package, Guerilla includes a pass-the-controller couch mode called "Wrecking Crew." This is an expansion of the "blow 'em up puzzle" side missions, wherein each player gains points by figuring out how to most cleverly lay waste to specific structures. Here again there is a nice variety of maps with varying degrees of inherent difficulty. Wrecking Crew includes three different modes which tweak the rules of destruction: Total Chaos, Rampage and Escalation. Each one is enjoyable in its own way, as you take turns with buddies to compete for the highest score in wrecking the same level. Volition recently updated Wrecking Crew via an online patch to add a fourth mode, Challenge, which allows you to play solo, taking on a specific set of challenges on each map. This mode is particularly addictive for those with a scoreboard jones, as your tally is immediately posted online. The hours can quickly evaporate as you experiment "just one more time."with just how to collapse an office building using just that single explosive at your disposal...
CLOSING COMMENTS
Red Faction: Guerilla is a welcome entry in the sandbox action genre. While it lacks any substantive originality besides the GeoMod 2 engine, its designers were smart enough to take that innovative engine and milk it for all its worth in destructive gameplay that is both visceral and -- dare we say -- cerebrally challenging. The single player campaign is 10-20 hours of challenging and enjoyable fun, despite the fact that midway through you've pretty much seen all the mode has to deliver. The narrative has a few good twists but little emotional or thematic resonance; the characters are mostly generic and shallow; there's little of the world-deepening detail or bold personality of a GTA IV or Bully; and none of the RPG elements of a Crackdown (which in some ways is the game Guerilla most resembles). So, while eventual redundancy kicks in compared to some in its genre, the core gameplay of Guerilla is so fun and challenging that it keeps you engaged as you progress towards the epic, edge-of-your-couch final battle. When you add in the impressive and innovative suite of online and offlne play (forgiving the sad omission of a co-op mode), along with promised downloadable content, any gamer with an appetite for creative carnage will find Red Faction: Guerilla to be a very satisfying package.