Red Faction: Guerrilla

Most helpful review Red Faction: Guerrilla

• Review of Single Player Game

   

  By Rushty (5 reviews) from Lincoln , 10 Jun 2009

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  So, I posted a review earlier for the MP demo. I bought the full game and have finished the single player campaign now so I thought I would post a full review of the game now. I'll touch on the MP at the end but since I haven't really played it in depth yet, I can't do it justice.
  
  Red Faction Guerilla (RFG) is an open world 3rd person action game. It takes place in the human colonies on Mars. Your aim is to eliminate the Earth Defense Force (EDF) from zones on the surface by chipping away at their control and gaining the support of the population. Once the control is zero and you have completed the Red Faction missions you have a single mission to finally push the EDF out of an area for good, eventually pushing them off Mars.
  
  One thing I really like about RFG is that there aren't too many missions that you have to do to progress the story. Each zone has less than 4 compulsory missions with the rest of the path being up to the player. You can demolish key areas of EDF infrastructure, weakening their control or you can play the many different Guerilla missions throughout each area. These missions include things like springing faction members from house arrests, defending bases which have been made or (my personal favorite) leading raids on EDF targets. The benefit of completing these missions is that your support will increase amongst the population meaning more of them will come to your aid in firefights. If you choose not to do the Guerilla missions you can still get population support by going on killing sprees and causing mayhem. Lots of different ways to play. This is great in my opinion.
  
  The compulsory missions are the highlights of the game, leading to many edge of your seat moments. I have never felt such a sense of relief in a game than when I finished some of them, but in the best way. You really feel like you have achieved something by completing them. As usual there are often multiple ways to complete them.
  
  Graphically the game is spot on. It manages to capture the essence of a dirty dusty planet that is in it's first stages of colonization. The art direction is nice. It would have been too easy to just make everything red but the areas all have a theme, ranging from the barren wastelands to the industrial centers to an area in the first stages of terraform-ation all the way to the metropolis of Eos at the end. The architecture in the first few areas is basic, favoring function over form but later regions have a more aesthetic quality to them. The thing is, each area is totally believable for what it claims to be in the story and the environments are totally convincing.
  
  Red Faction offers a wide array of weapons but unfortunately you will only be able to carry 3 at a time plus your sledgehammer. All the standard shooter options are there, rockets, shotguns, pistols and assault rifles and some futuristic twists on those weapons later, plus the awesome nano-rifle, which i wont spoil for you. All weapons come with a nice aside on how to use them effectively. Along with these are your standard remote mines that you can use for all sorts of mischief throughout the game. Only being able to select 3 weapons means you need to be a bit savvy on what you choose for different missions, especially on the harder difficulties where you can't just shoot your way out of trouble. There's no point loading out with a rocket launcher and a sniper rifle if you are doing a house arrest mission and it's almost impossible to take out a convoy if you don't have some kind of explosives, etc etc. You are going to have to experiment with the best way to achieve your objective. This isn't a bad thing though.
  
  The gameplay is, yet again, on the mark. There isn't a whole lot to say here, which is a good thing. There is nothing to distract you from completing whatever goal you are trying to achieve. So often in games I find that the control system is a hinderance, where you have to stop and think what control to press to continue what you were doing but here there is none of that. The player can use cover easily but should keep moving since it probably won't be there for long.
  
  You will spend a lot of time driving. Thankfully the driving model is excellent. The physics aren't exactly Forza 2 standard, but is that really what you want in a game like this? For me the only thing that was missing was the ability to spin the wheels but that's hardly a big deal. There are a wide selection of vehicles to drive, from mining trucks, off road buggies and taxis later on in the game. Some have weapons on them. The weapon control isn't the easiest to use but it does the job just about. The transporter missions are a good laugh, forcing you to see a lot of the map.
  
  Finally the destruction model. This is so much fun. There are even destruction challenges dotted around the map. It doesn't look quite as good as Frostbite (Bad Company) but the physics behind it is definitely better. The game isn't about the destruction but acts as a great showcase for how the engine can be used.
  
  Overall, you can't go wrong with this game. I don't think its quite the best game on X Box but it's up there in my top 5.

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