Red Faction: Guerrilla Game Review

Red Faction: Guerrilla Game Review
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Red Faction: Guerrilla is the third game in the Red Faction series, but with the long gap between the second and third game in this franchise the game is very different. The game play is now in a more open world with a wide variety of weapons and upgrades and a different style of storytelling. This open world sandbox style of gaming is augmented by the fact that nearly every building and vehicle you can find in the game can be destroyed so that you really feel as if you’re having an impact on the gaming world.

Story (3 out of 5)

In this game you play a miner on mars who is the brother of a Red Faction member. Because of this you are targeted by those who are fighting the Red Faction and forced to join the rebel forces. As a soldier in this army your job for most of the game is not so much killing people as destroying the infrastructure of the Earth Defense Force. This means that you can knock over buildings, blow up vehicles and if necessary kill people, using your hammer, explosives and a variety of guns and even mech suits to perform the tasks. As you do this you will tip the balance of power from the EDF to Red Faction and eventually be able to fight major battles to help free the people of mars from the tyranny of earth.

Gameplay (4 out of 5)

With a large gap between the second and third game in this series the game play has altered considerably. This is a third person sandbox game similar in many ways to Grand Theft Auto allowing you to travel generally where you want in the game, either doing story missions or ignoring them. What is good though is because destruction of EDF buildings is part of the game even when you are simply out exploring you having the option of moving the story forward.

The driving, running, shooting and other typical elements of this game are good but not exceptional. Where this game shines is in the ability to destroy things. Nearly every building in the game can be destroyed and the physics of them are fun. For example, in one of the very first missions you have a building and a tower you must destroy. Rather than simply attacking both with a hammer though if you aim right you can cause the tower to fall onto the other building. This won’t destroy it completely, but it can do some damage as can causing a building to collapse while enemies are still in, on or around it.

Graphics (5 out of 5)

Red faction explosion

Playing this game with the graphics at minimum the game still looks generally good with a lot of interesting areas to explore and characters that do not all look the same. Comparitive to any xBox 360 or Playstation game this would likely be better than most console games with a computer that could run with higher graphics. and with a high end computer it may look even better. In fact the only real flaw of the graphics are that the rubble left behind when you destroy buildings can become repetitive, but with so much destruction the physics engine does a very good job of keeping everything working most of the time and having a the pieces of rubble look the same is a small cost for how much processing that must take.

Sound and Voice Acting (4 out of 5)

From the voice acting to the sound of explosions and bullets this game does a very good job with every aspect of the sound design in this game. The main character especially gets across the feeling of someone who is tough enough to be valuable in the game but not, at least at first, glad to be involved in a rebellion. This ability to make the character feel real is vital to a game which requires such a stretch of imagination+6320. Even the radio which gets louder when you get nearer helps to create an illusion of a real world not just a game.

User Interface (3 out of 5)

As with most computer based first or third person games you control the direction of your character with a combination of mouse and keyboard. And generally this works very well for walking around with your character. Even aiming and throwing things works well. Where this breaks down some is in the driving aspects of the game because it uses the keys to steer along with both speed and breaks. This is not easy to use but as driving is not a major aspect of most of the game it isn’t a major problem, though late in the game when they become more important it could be better.

Flaws

Sign in Red Faction

There are a few minor but significant frustrations in this game. The first of them is that there are a number of glitches. In order to get this to play I had to install the first, but not the second patch and then after updating it wouldn’t run at all until after the files were scanned. In addition in order to be able to save the game you have to sign up for a Microsoft live account and sign in. This doesn’t add any value to the game and is an extra step every time you want to log in.

Overall (4 out of 5)

The sandbox aspect of this game along with a strong story and the ability to destroy almost everything makes for a very fun game and while there are some frustrating flaws these are not enough to ruin an otherwise very fun game. So if you enjoy open games and want to be able to destroy every building and vehicle and really change things then this is well worth picking because there is a lot of things in this game that you won’t find in many other games.

Resources

  • Source, author’s own experience
  • images, screen captures