Red Faction Guerrilla Review

After eight years the fight is thankfully back on Mars and developer Volition’s Geo- Mod engine takes a giant leap forward.  Originally released for the Ps2 in 2001, A new miner takes on the fight to finally bring a lasting peace to the red planet and end the planets global tyranny from the EDF (Earth Defense Force).

Gameplay

Volition hones their skills acquired in making Saints Row and Saints Row 2 and builds a huge sandbox environment.  Much of the mission based gameplay plays a lot like the Pandemic’s original Mercenaries title. (Not that crappy sequel that EA published, blech!) You choose a vehicle and mission, complete it and then run back to your safehouse to get your warning level down.  What really separates this tile from the pack is the newly designed Geo-Mod 2.0 engine that allows you to literally blow up almost anything you can see.  After blowing up an installation you then collect scrap which can be exchanged for weapon and armor upgrades.  The weapons are diverse and interesting enough to keep any hardcore shooter happy, however the vehicles are another story.  Driving on Mars is pretty standard no matter what vehicle you are using.  You will frequently get that odd physics bounce that send your truck flying uncontrollably, much like the driving in Mass Effect.  Most noticeable and extremely disappointing was the lack of any air power units.   The whole time I am being chased by the EDf Vetrtibirds I was thinking, “When do I get to fly that?”  After finishing the game the sad answer was, “You don’t.”  Maybe Downloadable Content (DLC) can remedy this exclusion. On the plus side you do get super armored exoskeletons with rockets, so all is not completely lost.