Red Faction has been one of those very odd series where it hasn’t really had a consistent franchise in the gaming world, and for that reason I have never really witnessed a consistent fan base for the series, they can all be seen as standalone games with only really a couple of noticeable things in common; destruction and rebellion, both of which it has done pretty well.
Red Faction Guerrilla is no different from these two basic rules and has stuck to them in this successor, but has changed in almost every other way in terms of game mechanics. Instead of leading the rebellion directly, you’ll be experiencing it from a short distance away... over the character’s shoulder, it’s interesting how such a simple little change in perspective can make such an impact on the gameplay, but once you get your hands on the demo, you’ll soon see how that is.
The demo itself doesn’t mess around with getting you into the action quickly, Volition are proud of their most destructive Red Faction game yet and so you start off right next to an enemy inhabited base, and more than enough mines for starters. Basically this demo is a small play pen for you to discover your creative juices for anti-creative businesses, but how do we take part in these?
A few franchises have their own symbolised weapon, Half-life has its crowbar, Bioshock has its wrench, and now Volition have given you a large two handed hammer that can knock people and large chunks of building flying. There are several weapons they’ve shown off in Red Faction Guerrilla, but unfortunately you only get to handle a few of them in the demo, and I had only witnessed a standard plasma rifle – which most of the enemies drop – a single shot pistol, and some throw-able mines, but to be honest that’s all you need weapon wise to cause absolute havoc on the battlefield, that and a collection of trucks and APC’s which are scattered across the Mars desert.
The taster mission given hadn’t been exactly sophisticated. It was simple; you had to recover a mechanised walker which has been held by the EDF (Earth Defence Force) – the controlling armies who are enslaving you to work for them, and who you also happening to be leading a rebellion against. There are also two optional side missions, and they have you blowing up two major buildings marked on your in-game map; an incentive to blow something up on the way, just in case you weren’t already thinking about it.
The control scheme isn’t the most complex of control schemes, but there had been some odd layout choices. The attack button is as you expect the RT, and this is to use your hammer and shoot, although if you want to aim you must click ‘R3’. But the weapon allocation has you hold ‘RB’ and then press the face buttons to change to your chosen weapons, not particularly cumbersome for any player, but seeing as I didn’t use the D-pad at all in the demo it questions why they didn’t assign those as the more appropriate buttons.
As for the main feature Volition have been boasting; the dynamic and dramatic decimation of almost everything, and yes, it is as good as it looks on the trailers, it’s shame though that it feels like your smashing your way through Legoland instead of an actual mining facility. Understandably there has been a great deal of work put into the creation of the impressively crafted structures and environmental objects, but the physics of blowing them apart piece by piece really isn’t as satisfying as it could have been, and I see it being highly unlikely this will change in time for the final version. That’s not to say it still isn’t fun shovelling a few mines on top of a building and then jumping off as it explodes, I can see the multiplayer side of the game making the most of this quite outlandish physics engine.
To give you an idea of how the game plays as a third person action/shooter, the best and most fitting example I could come up with is Mercenaries. It has the same movement mechanics, the same perspective, and the same methods in exaggerated explosive content. From the lack of information in story and the focus on the turns in gameplay, I can see the story being as over-the-top as the gameplay itself, another familiar attribute of Mercenaries.
The demo definitely gives you a good taste of some of the senseless but potentially highly enjoyable sessions you might have with this game, and I can see anyone who’s thirsty for some less serious but ‘actual’ dynamic destructibility having a real blast with it. The new perspective and combat mechanics may not appeal to those who remember Red Faction, and the overly hectic and exaggerated action it forces upon you might be a little too much for others, but as long as the multiplayer embraces these changes – and the single-player racks up some variety – then I can foresee the game being worthy of some quality playing hours, despite the somewhat 'cartoony' take on it.
Preview By: Lee Burton
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