Red Faction: Guerrilla reviews

Red Faction Guerilla picks up fifty years after the original Red Faction left off. The EDF, once the saviours of Mars, have now replaced the Ultor Corp. as it's oppressors. Single player follows Dan Mason, a demolition engineer, as he helps the Red Faction insurgency drive the EDF of Mars to get revenge for his brother.

While this plotline doesn't seem especially original, it is quite well done and since you spend most of your time blowing EDF stuff up… well, let's just say there's plenty to keep you occupied. The difficulty settings are, well, difficult. Seriously, Volition has not made it easy for anyone (I hear it's the same on the console version), which doesn't bother me in the slightest – I like a challenge. Anyway, if you're really struggling, most people should be able to manage on the lowest difficulty setting. If you turn it up though… be prepared.

The visual effects are great, especially if you are running DX10. RFG runs surprisingly well on a near minimum spec. machine and if pretty explosions are your thing, then it won't let you down. I suggest considering tweaking the mouse sensitivity to your liking though – it may not default to what you'd consider normal and it will definitely feel quite different to what you're used in third person. It'll make getting used to being in third person for a PC shooter a bit easier.

GeoMod2 is a main feature, and plainly appeals to the inner vandal in us all – practically anything that has been ‘built’ in the game can be torn down by whatever means you please (rockets, hydrogen barrels, explosive charges, crashing a fuel tanker into it, among many others), so be creative The terrain damage from the original game seems somewhat lacking but I never once felt this was a drawback – there are more than enough man-made items around to pulverise. You collect salvage from just about anything you blow up. Salvage is basically the game's currency. So, the more stuff you blow up, the more new toys you can buy. Better guns, gun upgrades, a jetpack, etc, etc. You also receive bonus salvage for completing main missions, based on the morale of the civilians in the sector you're in, and yet more salvage as payment for certain kinds of Guerilla Action (i.e. optional side missions that spring up all over the place.) Blowing up EDF property reduces their control of a sector and can (if you do enough damage) increase civilian morale. Killing civilians in the crossfire reduces civilian morale, and therefore reduces payouts on some missions. Morale also affects how much ammo you get in hidden weapons caches (this can be pretty important, if you're on the way back from a big outing and either are under assault by half the entire EDF and need ammo to cut your way through to a vehicle, or if you just seem something nice that you want to blow up but looks like it will need a quite bit more than what you have on you.) High sector morale also increases the likelihood of civilians joining your cause and helping out. A car of rebels rocking up to the middle of a fire-fight can be very, very handy (lifesaving, in fact), especially in some the harder missions, particularly on harder difficulty settings.

The P.C. version includes 2 exclusive multiplayer maps, some (six, I believe) of the DLC maps, an additional multiplayer mode, the Wrecking Crew game type, and a prequel mini-campaign called Demons of the Badlands, which is essentially most of the content of three DLCs planned for the console version (IIRC, only two are out as of right now.)

My one complaint is that this is third person only, unlike the original Red Faction, but I actually got used to it surprisingly fast. By the time you finish Parker sector you'll probably have it down, if not before that. Besides, vehicles are a key component of survival in this game, and I've always found third person driving much easier to manage. Especially when there's a small army of armoured vehicles close behind you.

I haven't had time to try online multiplayer, but it looks set to be great too. Especially if the original RF community (which is still out there, around nine years or so after the original game was released…) gets onboard.

So for ninety bucks, how can you go wrong? 5/5, I am a huge fan of the original game and I absolutely loved this, third person or not. It feels very polished, and I also got the vibe that Volition still gives a damn about it's PC gamers. I think they learnt an important lesson from the Saints Row 2 port.

Its getting fairly rare nowadays to recieve a game that comes straight out of the box, ready to play, without any major glitches, or problems with the game, and being a Port as well from the Console versions, Volition has done well to get it all working smoothly on PC.

The fact that it is Third Person only did have me a little concerned as I haven't ever really gotten into Third Person Shooters, but this game does it well.

The obvious feature about this game is its awesome Geo-Mod engine, allowing just about everything to be fully renovated with a sledgehammer, explosives or even simply by crashing your car into it. The buildings all crumple in realistic ways, and the animations when they fall down are simply superb.

My only gripe with this game is that the Story is a little weak (much like Borderlands), and the voice acting is a little sub par, but there is still plenty of missions to do and buildings to destroy to keep you interested for a long time.

If blowing stuff up, and destroying things is your kinda game, then this is the one for you.

Almost cartoon with it's comical over destructive nature of the game. It is amazing what you can do to a steel reinforced concrete structure in under a minute with only a sledge hammer.

Although this game runs well on moderately spec'd computers, the game menu seems to require a Cray XT5 super computer to run.

As a fan of the previous Red Faction games, I was concerned with the differences in this game, third person etc, I was not disappointed with this game at all. It felt more like GTA than Red Faction, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The physics in the game is a bit off, for example you can flip a 20ton truck with a half ton buggy by cashing into it at moderate speed, but this game doesn't seem to take itself too seriously with all that.

For the first 3 hours of installing then LIVE forcing me to patch the game (which the game menu running in the background stalled my PC to a crawl preventing me from doing anything while I waited) this really got on my nerves, but once I finally got into the game and got given the sledge hammer I just couldn't stop laughing.

Pros:
Polished Graphics
Simple Plot-line, easy enough to follow even if you never played Red Faction, however still throwing in references to keep the old fans happy.
Entertaining

Cons:
LIVE – I will never buy another game that has this ever again (all games which use LIVE should come with a health warning).

Great game, almost is just good enough to just free roam and enjoy destroying things,

Single mosts coolest thing in this game is that the whole world is destructible, which means you can use a hammer to knock down a building, place charges on a building and watch it fall and crush everyone inside.

Has great replay value if you just like going around and destroying things , and running away from the “police” in this manner it has a similar playing experience to the GTA series. With many side missions, and collectibles.

The main story line is great, in which you basically have to destroy buildings, convoys etc.

Definitely recommend this game, also has a really great multiplayer!!

In reality, the game is great fun, and sort of reminds me of a futuristic GTA without the unrealistic black humor.

So many different choices during game-play, such as choosing how to infiltrate and destroy an enemy base, whether attacking head on, to hit and run tactics, and an awesome arsenal of weapons just waiting to be unlocked.

Overall, well worth the money. It's not only challenging, but addictive also ;D

Good game, I would certainly give it a 4 stars, some area's could use a little work, graphics are well done, the game is built around a solid engine and seems to run well on my computer even with AA on x8. Would certainly recommend to anyone wanting a bit of fun.

I found this game to very enjoyable with many things to do and things stay destoryed in which some games do not. Looking at the trailers it looks good but playing this game was great and you can have so much fun destroying things with many weapons that you can upgrade and buy. Or just go out killing the EDF for a while.

Great game

Nearly everything in this game is destructible; Buildings, Cars, Soldiers, Civilians, Gas tanks and satellite dishes. Nearly the only thing you can't destroy is the terrain which is odd for a game set in a mining colony. However it's easy to ignore as acts of pure destruction can make you ignore anything this game does wrong. The voice work is good, the story is a little cliché, the action is intense and the explosions are beautiful. It runs like a dream on a mid-range computer and is most fun when using a 360 controller for PC. The multi-player (or single-player for those who are particularly lonely) modes are amusing beyond all reason as they put you in a massive killing machine and tell you to wreak havoc. You don't need to be asked twice, you can trust me.

If you set out to completely ignore the storyline and just destroy everything in the game, it would take you about 70 hours. At least. It's pure unadulterated fun and is one of the greatest ways of blowing off stress. Because let's face it, not many other games let you face an army and level entire buildings with a sledgehammer. For maximum sociopathic enjoyment, throw sticky bombs onto enemy soldiers. You will not regret it.

My son and I really enjoyed playing through this game! Love all the destruction!

Hopefully there will be another one soon!

This is not a deep game or a complicated game or a game that says a lot about the human condition. It is a game that does what games should do – be a whole heap of fun!
You have lots of guns and they do feel significantly different. You have grenades and remote detonated mines. And, best of all, you have a sledge hammer! You can demolish buildings!
There are many different vehicles and they do drive and handle very differently. Some can take passengers (important for some missions). Some have weapons. If you have passengers then they will automatically and competently operate the turreted weapons.
The main plot involves a workers revolution to overthrow EDF, the ruling party of Mars. Originally they were the salvation of Mars but they have turned into fascist bully-boys and the Martian workers have had enough. It does a good job of moving the game along but there is plenty of freedom to do things unrelated to the main plot. Like demolish buildings. I did mention demolish buildings, right?
Every civilian that is killed by the EDF is a setback to the revolution. This means that you have to protect civilians as well as succeed at missions to further the main plot.
If you are bored with demolishing buildings (hah!) then there are lots of different types of side-missions. Demolition, vehicle racing (often while being shot at), fetching items, armed assault, defending against armed assault, and timed puzzles (some of which are quite tricky). You can also just roam around at will, enjoying the sights (and sometimes demolishing them).
This game should not bore you.
Graphically it is very detailed. You can see the people inside vehicles and buildings. You can tell what weapons the soldiers have by just looking at them (and loot those weapons when the soldiers go down). When you demolish things you get to see the internal structure of walls and floors. Buildings fall down according to the damage you do to this internal structure and they fall down beautifully.
I have a slightly older gaming computer and video card and I still felt the graphics were excellent.
This game has given me many hours of laugh-out-loud fun and continues to do so. It won't get deleted from my hard drive for a long time.

This game is lots of fun, seriously, lots. It's free roaming, kinda like GTA, but there's more of a story in this one. You get some mean wepons too, all good for blowing stuff up. Seriously, you can blow up anything; everything! Chuck like 10 bombs on a building and click boom, boom, BOOM! They all go of in the order you ckucked them at the building. That not enough for you? Pick up a walker with rockets and boom, boom BOOM! Blow up stuff from a distance. What's that? Still not enough for you? Pick up a Thermobaric Rocket Launcher BOOM.

Wreck havoc, blow stuff up and generally deface the face of Mars.
Two words: Pure Awesome.

i really got into this game fast and enjoyed what it had to offer. its a bit diffrent from the other Red Factions that are out there but alot better than red faction 2. with all the extra missions and challanges the game never got boring for me at all. really a MUST get if you are a red faction fan like me :) enjoy!!!

If you like breaking and blowing things up in an epic fashion this is definitley a game for you! Game ran really well on my PC with no crashes or frame rate hiccups, the story is kinda linked to the previous 2 games in the series but the action is where its at in this game. The destruction is very well done and every building you see you can lay waste to. The terrain isn't destructible but that doesn't really matter much. Overall a good buy and would recommend this game.

I spent hours walking around shooting people and destroying entire buildings. Hours of fun can be had without doing missions. For the price it is, your a fool not to buy it! :D

only con is: color of landscape gets boring, but hey! it set on mars!

It's nothing special but it is enjoyable enough, the first red faction is still the best. I recommend it to all red faction fans.

Quite a different format to the first Red Faction, this one is a fun free-roamer. Not necessarily an easy game, death comes often and rewards aren't that easy to find. Takes a while to build up your arsenal, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite fun. Knocking down multi-storey buildings and all sorts of mayhem – great stuff.

The natural border between physics and gaming world never really blended in properly in past games.
Somehow, when you destroy a structure or an object it always followed an “animation” , a preset pathway for that object to react when attacked or touched.
Somehow, you never received that “feeling”, that “accomplishment”, that “reward” where you know you destroyed a flippin 3 storey building and desire to see how each and indiividual matter of that building flies of to a bunch of C4 in your package. Well.. in Red Faction Guerrilla you can.

The game is set at 4/5 as it's story really never reaches the top mark. Also, the main gameplay mechansim kind of follows those “Player-Is-Free-To-Move” games to some great extent, its just that repetition is the main downside.
Other than this, visuals are fantastic and core level of destruction you can muster is great. The fun really hits in when you have arsenals of mass destruction at your disposals and just wish you had enough building and enemies to totally blow up. Far as the level of detail that the building and structres get destroyed … its top notch !
Because the game is like GTA or maybe Assassin's Creed, your free to roam around anywhere, and along the way there are side and main missions for you to enjoy.
Graphics is fairly good (my opinion), although some do say that there are technical and graphical glitches for weaker and older graphics cards, so do update your drivers for best possible experience. Otherwise fairly good CPU , graphics card and ram will allow you to enjoy this game to its potential.
The barrier set between physics and gaming truely sets in well and blends well too, player can get quite addicted to destroying the buildings for some time and then begin to play the core game it self. Because of the innovative physics system and great graphics, the repetitive gameplay is buffered to high potentials leaving me to give this game a 4/5.

I'm not a huge fan of first-person shooters – there's a few too many out there and I choose them now based on the ease of multi-player and a convincing storyline. But when the price drops significantly, I'll try it.

This one has entertained me for a number of hours. The graphic level is set to low to cope with my mere 2.6Ghz QuadCore, 4GB RAM machine and even at low it's perfectly acceptable. The story line is reasonably bland – you're required to liberate sections of Mars from the ruling faction (who are the bad guys of course) and you go about it by destroying their buildings, and occasionally getting involved in a guerrilla battle against them. Better guns are earned by collecting salvage – which seems about as exciting as cleaning up a beach in Real Life.

The landscape is interesting enough, the graphics are fine. I cannot imagine Multi-player would be particularly brilliant (not having tried it though). Overall – entertaining but not a reason to buy a computer to play it.

Great 3rd person style run and gun gameplay. The ai isn't great, but the destructible environment makes up for this.
The missions work similarly to Assassins creed in that you get to certain locations, don't stop or act suspicious and the guards only chase you so far until the coast is clear and won't recognise you later.
Overall a very fun game that keeps me playing it. Graphics are very good in DX11.

An awesome game made even more awesome by the fact that you can use a sledgehammer to destroy every single building watch it collapse. Never gets old!

While Red Faction Guerrilla never quite lifts its head above the soup bowl of mediocrity, there is a lot of fun to be had thanks to the destruct o matic nature of the game world. More than just a gimmick, this has a direct impact on gameplay and how you approach the various situations thrown at you. Unfortunately I am yet to finish the game completely due to some technical issues with this game and my graphics hardware. All in all good, dumb fun (like a hollywood summer movie).