Red Faction: Guerilla
Yes, it's game review time again!
Red Faction: Guerilla is a spanking new sequel to the old Red Faction games, which were most notable for the fact that you could use weapons such as rocket launchers in order to blow your way through the terrain, and it would dynamically remodel the ground. It was innovative, but the games were never particularly great.
In RF:G, on the other hand, the ground itself is completely indestructible, but EVERYTHING ELSE, such as buildings/bridges etc., can be levelled to the ground in pant-wettingly orgasmic ways designed to appeal to the child in everyone that delighted in kicking over their younger sibling's lego set. And then shooting them in the face with a rocket launcher.
In case you hadn't guessed, this review could be best summarised by a Photoshopped image of me fellating Alec Mason, the protagonist of the game.
RF:G, as with the other games, is set on Mars (hence Red Faction). As Alec Mason, you embark on a happy trip to Mars to see your brother. Upon leaving the ship and embracing your dear brother, he almost instantaneously gets shot through the head by the Earth Defence Force (EDF) and you get drawn into the Red Faction who are fighting against them. There's some other plot, but it's mainly drowned out (quite literally) by the sound of buildings collapsing from huge explosions.
Fortunately, Alec Mason is an expert in demolitions, which means in practice that he's qualified to throw handy sticky remote charges at things and then press a button to make them explode. I'm not sure what course he went on to achieve this aforesaid expertise, but it certainly didn't emphasise the health and safety aspects of using high explosives.
So yes, he's another expert in the vein of Gordon Freeman, who had a PhD in Theoretical Physics that qualified him to push a wheelbarrow and throw the occasional switch. If Half Life: Episode 3 doesn't have a wave equation integration mini-game, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.
Anyway, as well as the aforesaid sticky charges, you also have your trusty sledgehammer, which can be used to break through walls as well as smack EDF troops upside the head. You also pick up plenty of other weapons throughout the game, all of which can be upgraded with enough salvage.
Yes, the primary currency in RF:G is salvage, as everything you destroy will tend to drop some shiny metal bits which you pick up in order to buy upgrades. Overall, this seems to make Alec Mason some bizarre cross between Harold Steptoe and Rambo. Personally, I am a little confused as to how collecting any amount of metal from burnt out car chassis would allow you to fashion a fully functioning rocket launcher, but perhaps Alec Mason also did some work for the A-Team before his jaunt to Mars.
The surface of Mars is split into 6 areas which you generally progress through one at a time by destroying lots of EDF structures and lowering their control over the area, then completing a few specific missions in order to properly free it from the EDF. As you gain popularity in an area, random colonists nearby will spontaneously join the Red Faction and help you with your assault, which is a nice game element.
I may have missed the plot due to some sound issues (run it in stereo if you have issues with surround sound), but it's never made exactly clear why exactly the EDF are quite so evil: even Thatcher never sent heavily armed death squads after the miner's union (which is effectively what the Red Faction is).
Happily, unlike many similar games recently, the developers actually remembered to put some game into the game rather than just develop a nice engine and environment and then tack on 3 mission types (cf. Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 2). There are a good number of mission types in RF:G, and the large number of different tactics you can use mean that the missions stay interesting right until the end.
In fact, I would have to state that RF:G probably has the best dynamic battles I've ever seen in any game. Even with the heaviest armour you're not *that* hard, possibly because the aforesaid armour was cobbled together from the door panels of a broken-down Volvo, so you have to be very careful not to be overwhelmed and try to find a few seconds to hide where your health can regenerate (every game protagonist is now also Wolverine, needing only a ten-second breather to recover from multiple shotgun wounds to the chest). For example, running through a glass covered walkway as APCs spray it with bullets from the outside is amazing, especially as the structure may then start to collapse behind you. Or, you could put some sticky bombs around either end of the walkway, lure some EDF troopers into it and then bring it down behind you to escape. Similarly, you could run into a building that you're assaulting, run up the stairs laying charges and shooting anyone who gets in your way, then smash through the top window and jetpack away (yes, you get a jetpack later on), bringing the entire building down on the rest of the troopers who had been chasing you and leaving you with a strong need to change your trousers.
The demolition physics (built from the Havok engine) are generally great: there are a few occasions when an entire building ends up being supported by a matchstick on one wall, but these don't occur too often. You'll spend much more time with your jaw in firm contact with the ground.
As an aside, one amusing thing I did notice while playing the game was the "Magic Taxi" phenomenon. Now, from a design point of view it makes complete sense: if the player has been wandering around on foot for ages not doing much, then have a vehicle spawn and drive to them so that they can get to their next objective faster and stop them getting bored. When you're at road level this seems perfectly natural and works fine. However, there was a point where I was exploring some of the highest mountains for secrets, and the general peace was interrupted every few minutes by the roar of an engine as a car came popping over the top of a near vertical inline and then stopped nearby, with the occupant apparently getting out for a bracing picnic by his Amazing Gravity Defying Car. It took this happening a few times in order for me to realise what the hell was going on.
Also, yes, I was slightly ashamed of myself when I started using the car bomb tactic of covering my vehicle in charges, then driving it into my next target and quickly running away before detonating it. At least there weren't any air units you could fly.
Red Faction: Guerilla is a spanking new sequel to the old Red Faction games, which were most notable for the fact that you could use weapons such as rocket launchers in order to blow your way through the terrain, and it would dynamically remodel the ground. It was innovative, but the games were never particularly great.
In RF:G, on the other hand, the ground itself is completely indestructible, but EVERYTHING ELSE, such as buildings/bridges etc., can be levelled to the ground in pant-wettingly orgasmic ways designed to appeal to the child in everyone that delighted in kicking over their younger sibling's lego set. And then shooting them in the face with a rocket launcher.
In case you hadn't guessed, this review could be best summarised by a Photoshopped image of me fellating Alec Mason, the protagonist of the game.
RF:G, as with the other games, is set on Mars (hence Red Faction). As Alec Mason, you embark on a happy trip to Mars to see your brother. Upon leaving the ship and embracing your dear brother, he almost instantaneously gets shot through the head by the Earth Defence Force (EDF) and you get drawn into the Red Faction who are fighting against them. There's some other plot, but it's mainly drowned out (quite literally) by the sound of buildings collapsing from huge explosions.
Fortunately, Alec Mason is an expert in demolitions, which means in practice that he's qualified to throw handy sticky remote charges at things and then press a button to make them explode. I'm not sure what course he went on to achieve this aforesaid expertise, but it certainly didn't emphasise the health and safety aspects of using high explosives.
So yes, he's another expert in the vein of Gordon Freeman, who had a PhD in Theoretical Physics that qualified him to push a wheelbarrow and throw the occasional switch. If Half Life: Episode 3 doesn't have a wave equation integration mini-game, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.
Anyway, as well as the aforesaid sticky charges, you also have your trusty sledgehammer, which can be used to break through walls as well as smack EDF troops upside the head. You also pick up plenty of other weapons throughout the game, all of which can be upgraded with enough salvage.
Yes, the primary currency in RF:G is salvage, as everything you destroy will tend to drop some shiny metal bits which you pick up in order to buy upgrades. Overall, this seems to make Alec Mason some bizarre cross between Harold Steptoe and Rambo. Personally, I am a little confused as to how collecting any amount of metal from burnt out car chassis would allow you to fashion a fully functioning rocket launcher, but perhaps Alec Mason also did some work for the A-Team before his jaunt to Mars.
The surface of Mars is split into 6 areas which you generally progress through one at a time by destroying lots of EDF structures and lowering their control over the area, then completing a few specific missions in order to properly free it from the EDF. As you gain popularity in an area, random colonists nearby will spontaneously join the Red Faction and help you with your assault, which is a nice game element.
I may have missed the plot due to some sound issues (run it in stereo if you have issues with surround sound), but it's never made exactly clear why exactly the EDF are quite so evil: even Thatcher never sent heavily armed death squads after the miner's union (which is effectively what the Red Faction is).
Happily, unlike many similar games recently, the developers actually remembered to put some game into the game rather than just develop a nice engine and environment and then tack on 3 mission types (cf. Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 2). There are a good number of mission types in RF:G, and the large number of different tactics you can use mean that the missions stay interesting right until the end.
In fact, I would have to state that RF:G probably has the best dynamic battles I've ever seen in any game. Even with the heaviest armour you're not *that* hard, possibly because the aforesaid armour was cobbled together from the door panels of a broken-down Volvo, so you have to be very careful not to be overwhelmed and try to find a few seconds to hide where your health can regenerate (every game protagonist is now also Wolverine, needing only a ten-second breather to recover from multiple shotgun wounds to the chest). For example, running through a glass covered walkway as APCs spray it with bullets from the outside is amazing, especially as the structure may then start to collapse behind you. Or, you could put some sticky bombs around either end of the walkway, lure some EDF troopers into it and then bring it down behind you to escape. Similarly, you could run into a building that you're assaulting, run up the stairs laying charges and shooting anyone who gets in your way, then smash through the top window and jetpack away (yes, you get a jetpack later on), bringing the entire building down on the rest of the troopers who had been chasing you and leaving you with a strong need to change your trousers.
The demolition physics (built from the Havok engine) are generally great: there are a few occasions when an entire building ends up being supported by a matchstick on one wall, but these don't occur too often. You'll spend much more time with your jaw in firm contact with the ground.
As an aside, one amusing thing I did notice while playing the game was the "Magic Taxi" phenomenon. Now, from a design point of view it makes complete sense: if the player has been wandering around on foot for ages not doing much, then have a vehicle spawn and drive to them so that they can get to their next objective faster and stop them getting bored. When you're at road level this seems perfectly natural and works fine. However, there was a point where I was exploring some of the highest mountains for secrets, and the general peace was interrupted every few minutes by the roar of an engine as a car came popping over the top of a near vertical inline and then stopped nearby, with the occupant apparently getting out for a bracing picnic by his Amazing Gravity Defying Car. It took this happening a few times in order for me to realise what the hell was going on.
Also, yes, I was slightly ashamed of myself when I started using the car bomb tactic of covering my vehicle in charges, then driving it into my next target and quickly running away before detonating it. At least there weren't any air units you could fly.