Honestly, one of the most fun games I've played in a while.
For one thing the destruction is absolutley fantastic, I have never played a game before where you could just run up to any building you want and just knock it down. This concept alone makes it at least a very good rent, but what will really keep you coming back for more is how its implemented. You are put through a short tutorial sequence that teaches you how the destruction works and introduced to some of the core features of the game. After that, your brother gets killed by the EDF, the main enemy you fight in the game which you should know already because if you are reading this review then I assume you have done some research at least, if not look this game up on youtube and come back later. Anyway back to this review, after the turorial you are taken to a red faction stronghold and you learn how to upgrade weapons and how to work red faction crates and all that. Once this is over you are put into a big open world, equipped with a variety of able, not to mention cool vehicles to get around in. Your main task is to liberate each sector from the EDF's control, this is done by reducing the EDF control in the sector to zero, and doing red faction issued missions. Reducing control can be accomplished in a number of ways, you can do side missions like defending outposts from EDF attack, or a personal favorite of mine is to distract the EDF by smashing their vehicles with a giant walker. There is another bar that, unlike the EDF control bar you want to go up, this one is called morale. This is one of the things that makes the world seem more fleshed out and alive, when the morale bar is fairly filled mars colonists will assist you in the fight with the EDF, and when you go to your base the guerilla's talk changes from discouraged moping to fierce threats against the EDF. The plot as I said before is not very interesting, nor is it very immersive, but it will be easy to ignore between the gunfire, the explosions and the falling buildings.
As for the general gameplay, I personally like it, bursting into an EDF compound, quickly destroying a building and getting out of there as fast as you can is a very fun style of gameplay that I dont find myself experiencing very often. There is a satisfying array of weapons to facilitate the destruction with, from humble assault rifles and remote charges, to nuclear rocket launchers and a rifle that disintegrates anything it shoots. The graphics are beautiful and I have not seen one frame-rate dip even when things were exploding around me and EDF soldiers were firing with abandon. The desruction is pretty realistic for a game and very satisfying, I also have not seen a more realistic pyshics engine on any game to date.
All in all this game is one of the best games of the year so far and with its fun gameplay, lengthy campaign and wonderful testosterone fueld destruction makes a great buy for a summer title, I would highly recomend it for anyone who enjoys making things go boom.