Words: Mav

Pix: courtesy THQ

Sometimes you want a game with a rich story, and sometimes you just wanna blow stuff up. Red Faction Guerrilla is the second kind- in the best possible way. Those familiar with the original games will be expecting some action from Geo-Mod; Volition’s destructible terrain engine. The new Geo-Mod 2.0 really lives up to the hype, creating a dynamic of destruction that goes beyond amusing explosions and into a vehicle for waging war.

The game’s hero is hardboiled Alec Mason and within minutes his fate is wrapped up with a few strings of dialogue. He comes to Mars (now under EDF control faction-fans) to work with his brother who immediately starts spouting family values; it may be the year 2125, but these homely working fellas still worry about mum and the price of petrol. The initial cut scenes don’t waste any time ramming these points home- soldiers beating miners, and a mysterious woman who provokes Mason to actually say “Who is that girl?!”

Now Mason’s unlikely to just dive right into a desperate industrial rebellion, but brother dearest keeps mentioning it. You’ve been here five minutes, why not? Well, Mason’s a level headed guy and won’t go anywhere without an irrefutable emotional hook. Ergo, within the opening act bro is shot dead by the EDF, and later that day the EDF try to shoot Mason too. It’s nice to be clear about who’s side you’re on.

So you join the Red Faction, liberating Mars from the Earth Defence Force; and as game play begins, the changeover from FPS to sandbox third person suddenly makes sense. The sandbox style inevitably dilutes a setting- the designers no longer have as much direct control of what a player sees and how dialogue drives the story, in exchange for greater player freedom. This is true of Guerrilla, but the benefits outweigh the costs by far, as the open Mars surface dotted with miners and EDF buildings makes a perfect staging ground. When a band of workers are helping you to plant charges on a smoke stack while soldiers shoot at you, you get exactly what it says on the tin- the middle of a gritty guerrilla war. You enact your revolution in stages, terrorist acts and pitched battles, not one man ploughing Arnie-style through a corporate building.

On the subject of sabotage, the destructibility of buildings is divine; everything falls apart and crumbles just how you’d expect, with a surprising amount of small individual breakable components on the simplest of buildings, each with supporting beams or weak areas throughout. Mason (ironic?) is equipped with the game’s iconic space sledgehammer, which makes very satisfying noises when it breaks down bridges and people’s houses (which stay down, so don’t knock down any bridges unless you have to!) The only slight flaw is, perhaps a by-product of gearing the game towards using breakable terrain, that some of the buildings feel too breakable, like papier mache constructs that you can drive a truck through with reckless abandon. Still, that’s what we wanted to see, and the visceral elements still drive home an enjoyable and tactically diverse experience.

Graphically speaking all this destruction looks great- the Mars surface is a swirly dusty desert dotted with towering industrial structures and careful use of blur effects and detailed textures make it immersive and realistic. The artists have done a great job making everything look worn down and battered from the buildings to the gorgeous vehicles and even the people. Vehicles in the game vary from little utility trucks to massive off-road monsters which bounce around like a kind of red-hued low gravity Grand Theft Auto with industrial machinery. I personally was very amused when I had to take a truck from someone only to have them shout “How many cars do you need, Mason?!”

There are bigger vehicles waiting further into the game- jury-rigged desert bikes, space tanks and various mech-like walkers which respectively bring a change of pace and game play, though at the same time the game starts to get crowded with ideas. Your guerrilla mates turn up to help a lot but tend to try to get as close to you as they can, which usually means under your wheels. Killing them reduces the morale of the sector, a gauge of how ready the population are to overthrow the EDF in that sector. When it gets crowded a simple mission can rapidly evolve into a huge pitched battle with giant chimneys falling onto soldiers in vast clouds of dust and rubble like some kind of ragnarok in space. One slight criticism here is that falling masonry can look really transparent and even safe to stand under; but that’s as much a failing of the video gaming media than anything else.

Guerrilla also appealed to me in that it’s a game with sleeves, with said sleeves hiding many surprises. The event in mind was me smashing some ore into bits on a hillside when three whooping nutters appeared out of nowhere waving home-made halberds at me, looking like a cross between Fremen from Dune, Tusken raiders and cyborg ninja. These marauders bring a whole new dynamic; a creeping horror element with almost post apocalyptic vibes, due to their piecemeal weaponry and tendency to hoard arcane technology in the depths of the desert.

Speaking of weapons and combat, both are very smooth and well executed in Guerrilla. Mason gets to play with razor guns, rifles, rockets, scythes and more as he deals death to evil corporate types, with a very smooth one-touch cover hugging mechanism that proves invaluable in pitched battles. These battles occur a lot but vary wildly in size- true to sandbox form, Guerrilla features main story missions which move the story along and several set and spontaneous side missions which boost your standing and unlock new weapons. It works well and in terms of size there’s plenty to keep a gamer busy; I want to say that the blow up building, shoot soldier, drive away routine gets old fast, but with little surprises like the marauders cropping up, that’s not happened to me so far.

his instalment may upset fans who wanted another FPS, but in truth, it’s a logical step for the setting and fits it perfectly. The over arcing plot contains references to the people involved in the first game which should satisfy the die-hards. As a complete product Red Faction Guerrilla is not so much original, as an original way of combining existing games. Volition have rolled a lot into one and through some excellent creativity and design, made it into a new product. Put down the crowbar and give the hammer a try- you won’t be disappointed.

4 Z's out of 5

- Mjolnir

- Dip-in casual gaming

- Killing someone with masonry

- Sand raiders with tent bike things