Red Faction: Guerrilla is sort of the continuation of the Red Faction series.. sort of as in "not really". It stands on it's own as a unique game, driven by it's physics engine, which was a bit inspired by the original Red Faction's destructible walls in select points of their campaign and multiplayer maps. It is a 3rd-person shooter, taking place on Mars. Your character is Alec Mason, and you are determined to aid the Red Faction as they liberate the people on Mars from oppression.
Gameplay: 10.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Red Faction: Guerrilla features a very robust campaign, multiplayer and challenge mode (Wrecking Crew), most of which based around their very unique physics engine.
From the start, the developers were boasting about how cool it is to build buildings in this game from bits and pieces, and how it has realistic physics and crumbling patterns compared to actual structures. If you shoot out a corner of a building, or enough important support structures, and the building is heavy enough, the building will fall over. Rumor has it the developers had to hire architects as consultants to instruct them on how to build buildings due to early tests of the game constantly having buildings fall down on their own due to poor construction. Now that's interesting!
The physics are really fun to play with. In Wrecking Crew, in particular, finding quick and efficient ways to take buildings down is a ton of fun - something no game has really done before. They give you a nice arsenal of unique weaponry to play with, too, so your ability to customize your destruction and present challenges (like taking a massive building down with nothing but a sledgehammer before the time runs out) can be a lot of fun.
Red Faction's campaign is seemingly routine by today's standards, in the sense that it's an open-world, mission style campaign with collectibles, a mercantile system and plenty of side quests. The challenges are pretty varied and often very creative. These challenges can be wrecking property (and fighting off hoards of enemies), rescuing civilians, killing lots of guys, or taking down a building with strange weapon combinations within a certain amount of time.
In addition to taking down buildings with weaponry, you can also use vehicles to do so. Namely using their "walker" vehicles, which are basically giant robots, to destroy buildings is chaotic and very entertaining.
Red Faction: Guerrilla also has a pretty decent multiplayer, which has standard shooter game modes. They also have a "destroy buildings" game mode, where one team is expected to destroy structures while the other defends/repairs it. It combines a lot of the skills acquired through the campaign and Wrecking Crew to be effective, and provides for a nice balance of gameplay between positioning, tactful building destruction and just flat out shooter skill.
Their multiplayer isn't the greatest in the sense of game balance, and a good player would definitely abuse a novice player due to knowledge of the game, but it's fun and has a good range of gameplay modes that almost everyone will appreciate.
Aside from weaponry, they also have backpacks that your character can wear in multiplayer and Wrecking Crew to help you take down buildings, fly around, see/ram through walls, run faster or knock opponents down. It provides for a good range of strategy as opposed to running around and senselessly shooting enemies or blowing up buildings.
I can't say enough good things about their ideas and execution in this game. It's very unique and combines elements of puzzles and shooters together well.
Presentation: 7.5
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
This game doesn't have the greatest of visual presentation, and their characters are definitely behind the times, but it's not that distracting or really that important.
Theatrics: 5.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Red Faction: Guerrilla certainly does not have a great story. It's essentially one plot device and trying to string together a story that's more important than "hey, go blow stuff up for us". It's average for gaming these days. Considering my alternate title - "Blow Shit Up: The Game", it doesn't seem like the story is that important. But, having a good story or characters that mattered would have been a good boost.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
I have very few complaints about controls in this game. The 3rd person mode can be a little tough to navigate when it comes to movement, at times. The camera shaking when stuff is getting destroyed can be a little irritating sometimes.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I played through the campaign once (even though it was really fun and I didn't ever get tired of it), a lot of multiplayer matches and tons of Wrecking Crew (I'm actually the overall #1 player in the world in Wrecking Crew!). Outstanding value and it has pretty much every game mode you can ask for.
Fun: 10.0
How much fun was the game?
This game is tons of fun. I love puzzle games and I love shooters, so it was right up my alley. The ability to destroy buildings and putting your skill and tact to the test is great. Even booting it up, jumping into the campaign and not caring where you are in the game is fun. I've played Wrecking Crew with people that almost never play video games and they couldn't set the controller down.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
Gameplay: 10.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Red Faction: Guerrilla features a very robust campaign, multiplayer and challenge mode (Wrecking Crew), most of which based around their very unique physics engine.
From the start, the developers were boasting about how cool it is to build buildings in this game from bits and pieces, and how it has realistic physics and crumbling patterns compared to actual structures. If you shoot out a corner of a building, or enough important support structures, and the building is heavy enough, the building will fall over. Rumor has it the developers had to hire architects as consultants to instruct them on how to build buildings due to early tests of the game constantly having buildings fall down on their own due to poor construction. Now that's interesting!
The physics are really fun to play with. In Wrecking Crew, in particular, finding quick and efficient ways to take buildings down is a ton of fun - something no game has really done before. They give you a nice arsenal of unique weaponry to play with, too, so your ability to customize your destruction and present challenges (like taking a massive building down with nothing but a sledgehammer before the time runs out) can be a lot of fun.
Red Faction's campaign is seemingly routine by today's standards, in the sense that it's an open-world, mission style campaign with collectibles, a mercantile system and plenty of side quests. The challenges are pretty varied and often very creative. These challenges can be wrecking property (and fighting off hoards of enemies), rescuing civilians, killing lots of guys, or taking down a building with strange weapon combinations within a certain amount of time.
In addition to taking down buildings with weaponry, you can also use vehicles to do so. Namely using their "walker" vehicles, which are basically giant robots, to destroy buildings is chaotic and very entertaining.
Red Faction: Guerrilla also has a pretty decent multiplayer, which has standard shooter game modes. They also have a "destroy buildings" game mode, where one team is expected to destroy structures while the other defends/repairs it. It combines a lot of the skills acquired through the campaign and Wrecking Crew to be effective, and provides for a nice balance of gameplay between positioning, tactful building destruction and just flat out shooter skill.
Their multiplayer isn't the greatest in the sense of game balance, and a good player would definitely abuse a novice player due to knowledge of the game, but it's fun and has a good range of gameplay modes that almost everyone will appreciate.
Aside from weaponry, they also have backpacks that your character can wear in multiplayer and Wrecking Crew to help you take down buildings, fly around, see/ram through walls, run faster or knock opponents down. It provides for a good range of strategy as opposed to running around and senselessly shooting enemies or blowing up buildings.
I can't say enough good things about their ideas and execution in this game. It's very unique and combines elements of puzzles and shooters together well.
Presentation: 7.5
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
This game doesn't have the greatest of visual presentation, and their characters are definitely behind the times, but it's not that distracting or really that important.
Theatrics: 5.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Red Faction: Guerrilla certainly does not have a great story. It's essentially one plot device and trying to string together a story that's more important than "hey, go blow stuff up for us". It's average for gaming these days. Considering my alternate title - "Blow Shit Up: The Game", it doesn't seem like the story is that important. But, having a good story or characters that mattered would have been a good boost.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
I have very few complaints about controls in this game. The 3rd person mode can be a little tough to navigate when it comes to movement, at times. The camera shaking when stuff is getting destroyed can be a little irritating sometimes.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I played through the campaign once (even though it was really fun and I didn't ever get tired of it), a lot of multiplayer matches and tons of Wrecking Crew (I'm actually the overall #1 player in the world in Wrecking Crew!). Outstanding value and it has pretty much every game mode you can ask for.
Fun: 10.0
How much fun was the game?
This game is tons of fun. I love puzzle games and I love shooters, so it was right up my alley. The ability to destroy buildings and putting your skill and tact to the test is great. Even booting it up, jumping into the campaign and not caring where you are in the game is fun. I've played Wrecking Crew with people that almost never play video games and they couldn't set the controller down.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
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