Wrecking Crew
This mode promises to be a lot of fun. Anyone who has played the offline or online Crash Modes from Burnout: Takedown or Burnout: Revenge knows just how much fun a demolition-style, pass-the-controller party game can be, but I never thought that it would be able to translate well over to a third-person action-adventure like Red Faction: Guerrilla. Of course, that was before experiencing the Geo Mod 2.0 engine in action. It is an amazingly realistic physics system that truly makes RF:G stand out from the crowd, and when playing the game and you will constantly see evidence of this literally crashing down around you, particularly when you destroy the supports of a big tower and foolishly let it fall right on top of your head.
The Wrecking Crew mode is an offline-only mode that supports 2-4 players locally and has 4 game modes, Barrel Dash, Total Chaos, Rampage and Escalation. As time was limited, I only had time to try two of them before moving onto multiplayer, so I chose Total Chaos and Escalation. Total Chaos is simply a blast because much like in the Demolition Master missions in the single-player game, you have unlimited ammo and you have to cause as much damage as possible within a time limit, except now you’re not just battling against the clock and some arbitrary score, but against the scores of the people on the couch next to you. You will have to use your brain to really know where to hit certain structures so that you can cause the most collateral damage and gain more damage points, so learning how to take full advantage of the Geo Mod 2.0 technology really comes in to play here. For example, you can hit a tower a certain way and then move on while that same tower is collapsing onto another structure, destroying it in the process. It’s truly a sight to be seen and sometimes you will get caught in a building collapse and painfully witness it first-hand.
I definitely think that the second mode I played, Escalation, is going to be very popular, especially among players who are more competitive. Just like in Total Chaos, the object of the game is that you need to cause the most damage to win the round, but this time your ammo is limited. After each round the amount of ammo increases along with the time limit. What really makes this mode challenging is that once you run out of ammo the match is over, so you really need to make your shots count. For example, if you want to take a building down as quickly as possible it’s better to shoot the supports or ignite one of the yellow explosive barrels that are usually found right by the support beams , rather than wasting remote charges or bullets on it. Once you do that that can quickly move on to another structure and create more damage. Watch your back though, as buildings in RF:G never fall the same way twice.
To make things even more interesting, 4 backpacks are provided in Wrecking Crew. The ones that I got to play around with were the Rhino, the Jetpack, and the Tremor. These backpacks are really useful in creating your path of destruction.
Rhino
This backpack really packs a wallop because you can use its temporary speed and super-strength to bust through walls and structures with ease, and it is especially effective in destroying critical building support beams. It’s also very useful in multiplayer but I will talk about that later.
Jetpack
This backpack is simply too cool use. Flying around with it made me feel like Boba Fett from Star Wars and it can get you around really fast in Wrecking Crew games. Using this backpack with remote charges is even cooler.
Tremor
This backpack causes the area around you to shake and it will damage nearby structures, often causing them to collapse. It’s both a formidable weapon and a big time saver.
There are 6 Wrecking Crew stages that will ship with the game (more are available through pre-order and possibly future DLC as well). One that particularly stood out was Cascade, where you start on a long bridge and you have towers on each corner of the stage. The strategy that I found worked the best was to try make the towers fall in the direction of the bridge so it can be destroyed. You can get some big bonus points this way and it looks amazing when you see the Geo Mod physics at work.
Overall, Wrecking Crew is a highly entertaining game mode for people with friends who want to play offline. In addition, Volition’s Lead Developer and Tech Developer of multiplayer Luke Schneider advises that Wrecking Crew is best to be played on random because no one knows what weapon or backpack he or she will start out with, so this variant really brings out the strategy aspects of the game and makes it more unpredictable and fun.
Multiplayer
Without a doubt, Wrecking Crew was a surprisingly satisfying appetizer, but the 16-player Multiplayer was the true meat and potatoes of this RF: G event. 15 Multiplayer maps (not including those for Wrecking Crew) will ship with the final game along with 18 multiplayer weapons. All 10 backpacks are available in this mode and they really set this game above others in terms of variety. With other competitive shooters like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, it can be frustrating facing up against pros and I expected to have the same experience when I learned we would be taking on a few of the developers from Volition. However, even as a newcomer to the game I was still able to take some of them out, because winning a one-on-one matchup depends just as much upon what weapon you have in combination with a particular backpack as it does on your skill, and when you have 8 to 16 players gunning for each other, it quickly becomes anyone’s game. This random nature of the game really levels the playing field, especially for beginners.
I played three of the six available multiplayer modes, Anarchy, Team Anarchy, and Damage Control. Anarchy and Team Anarchy are the traditional deathmatch and team deathmatch modes of RF:G, while Damage Control is a territories-style game mode where instead of taking over control points by standing and holding them à la Battlefield or Halo, you instead have to destroy them with your weapons or repair them using the Reconstructor tool. The other three modes I didn’t get to play were Siege Mode (which is a variation of attack and defend except you have to take down the entire building to get points), Capture the Flag, and Demolition. In Demolition, each team has an “engineer” (a.k.a. VIP) who must to be protected because only he can only do damage to the environment to get points. Of course, Anarchy was the main favorite at this event because there was just so much chaos.
Another thing that really sets RF:G apart from other shooters is that while there are many unique and distinct maps in the game, it can be very hard to describe the layout of each map soon after the fighting begins because just about every “man-made” landmark can be destroyed. By the end of a typical match, most of the buildings and structures are flattened so you constantly have to apply different strategies when playing this game. There are no safe spots or buildings that can protect you for long. Sniper campers out there be warned; you are not going to last in this game unless you stick and move.
Likewise, there are some really good weapon/backpack combos that can give you an edge in multiplayer, but none of them can guarantee your safety. That said, some combos can really help you rack up some kills. I found that using your Sledgehammer (which you always have in your inventory) along with the Concussion or Rhino backpack is deadly. While the methods are different (the Rhino backpack simply bowls enemies over while the Concussion stuns nearby enemies with a shockwave), the results are the same: both backpacks knock opponents down to the ground, where they are vulnerable to a crack to the head with the Sledgehammer. This really shows that no matter what weapons or advantages players have, they can easily lose them and be taken out. Other notable backpacks in Multiplayer are the Stealth backpack where you cloak for a few seconds, the Vision backpack where you can temporarily see through walls, the Fleetfoot backpack where you can run really fast for a few seconds, the Firepower backpack which temporarily gives you a damage boost for all your weapons, and the Thrust backpack where you can shoot up into the air instantly so you can get the “jump” on anyone in a high structure.
While I had the opportunity to try out several of the aforementioned multiplayer weapons -- many of which were covered in our previous RF:G preview article in March -- two weapons that were not covered that I particularly had a lot of fun with were the Singularity Bombs and the Rail Driver. Singularity Bombs can be placed on the ground, after which they will go off in a few seconds. The resulting explosion creates a small gravity well that sucks objects towards it and then creates a second, bigger explosion, so it’s best to be far away when this thing goes off. If you’ve ever played Mass Effect as a Biotic and used the Singularity ability, you’ve got a pretty good idea what to expect. Meanwhile, the Rail Driver is a long-range weapon that can fire through walls, and when you use precision aim it provides X-ray vision, so anyone hiding behind cover had better watch out.
Players who are looking for reasons to invest time in RF: G Multiplayer will be happy to learn that playing multiplayer sessions will earn you XP points, and those accumulated points can be used to unlock up to 125 items that are hidden in the game. Among these items will likely be new playable characters, weapons and other goodies.
Through my play sessions with the game I didn’t really notice any bugs. We were playing on the final build of the game and so far I have no complaints.
To wrap up, Red Faction: Guerrilla Multiplayer is shaping up to be a fantastic multiplayer experience, both online and off. There are so many “wow” moments that you simply will not experience in other games. A few months ago, like many others who had not yet played it, I was on the fence with this game, but after this play session I see very little that will keep RF:G from becoming a day-one purchase for me. The multiplayer reminds me of Lost Planet but this game has so much more. For anyone else that is still on the fence, there is a Multiplayer demo coming out next week on XBLA, so you’ll have a chance to experience it for yourselves. If you haven’t already done so, I also recommend that you download and play the RF:G single-player demo so that you can hit the ground running when the multiplayer demo drops. Volition and THQ are not playing around with this title, and the gameplay is going to be something that people will be talking about for a long while.
Preview By: Din Taylor
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