by: Dameon White

July 05, 2009

Forget what you know about the Red Faction series of yesterday. Long gone is the first-person shooter we once remembered and in its place is a third-person action title with an incredibly heavy focus on blowing building to smithereens and knocking the bejesus out of people with a giant hammer. I’ll take two please.

Red Faction: Guerrilla, as aforementioned, is a third-person action shooter that takes place in a very sandbox style Mars environment several years after the events of the first game. This time around, though, Mars is currently under control by the EDF, Earth Defense Force. You play as Alec Mason, originally just a guy looking for an almost honest day’s work and instead find yourself entangled with the Red Faction resistance who’s struggling to regain control of Mars from the EDF.

Regaining control (or ‘liberating’) of territory is rather ingenious, as it involves raising morale in each of the 6 combat zones by completing story and side missions, as well as destroying key buildings marked on your mini map. Blowing up buildings reduces the EDF’s control rating, which in turn boosts Red Faction morale and this of valuable importance to you as it results in Red Faction AI companions coming to your aid to fight against the EDF, making things a hell of a lot easier for you.

As you work your work through missions you also collect salvage pieces that are either laying around or can be picked up after the destruction of buildings and other environmental structures. Salvage is like gold on Mars and to the Red Faction and those leftover pieces of junk can be traded in to purchase or upgrade your arsenal. Like big hammers? How about an even bigger, more powerful sledgehammer? What about better body armor or heavier artillery in the form of assault rifles that pack more bite, rocket launchers, stronger mines and even a jetpack? As you progress through the game, the upgrade system progresses accordingly to give you access to heavier firepower as it becomes necessary. Of course, you can opt to not college salvage, but this of course will make things a bit more difficult. Volition has managed to make the upgrade system rather worthwhile and completely useful and not just a mindless tasked as found in many games it accompanies.

Destruction is the key to RF:G and there’s definitely no shortage of structures to destroy, nor ways to do it. Explosives can topple buildings or destroy tanks, your hammer can smash through walls or slowly chip away at buildings and their support structures or you can just ram vehicles through pretty much whatever you want. It’s rather entertaining to just sit back and watch the fireworks or try to figure out the fastest way to topple buildings, which is actually a pretty significant part of the game seeing as how the EDF comes at you pretty quick once the fireworks show starts and you might need to get a building down rather quickly. Your best friend will ultimately be detonator charges. You can place several of these pretty much wherever you want – including throwing them from a distance or at higher points of the building) – and set them off in the order you placed them. You can take down a building with ease if you place them appropriately or get creative and set a trap for those nasty EDF and lead them down a narrow path filled with explosives and wipe out an entire assault team with little to no effort. Destruction has never been so methodically cool.