Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
Sandbox mayhem that does not offer much bang for your buck
Being a demolitions expert in reality is probably less fun than it sounds. Sure, it’s entertaining the first few times you get to level a skyscraper or flatten an orphanage, but the simplistic nature of such wanton destruction will eventually lose its gimmicky appeal and turn old pretty quick.
Combine this kind of explosive carnage with some mission objectives, a handful of weapons and the traditional ‘fight the evil organization’ storyline, and you end up with Volition’s latest blow-em-up action game, Red Faction: Guerrilla.
Unfortunately though, like a misguided suicide bomber, you’ll find that despite the initial appeal of causing large scale demolition there’s a fairly short-lived amount of fun to be had in pushing that detonator.
The story follows Alec Mason, a sledgehammer-wielding miner who’s just trying to make ends meet as he takes up new employment at a mining colony on Mars.
Naturally, some maniacal corporation has taken over all the planet’s sectors and must be stopped, leaving Alec to lead the revolution and topple the oppressors building by building.
Red Faction : Guerrilla puts gamers in the third-person driver’s seat this time around, as fans of the two preceding first-person titles in the series will immediately notice.
Travelling around the world either on foot or aboard a variety of vehicles, including a cool jetpack later in the game, various main and side missions must be completed in order to liberate the six main zones. This rallies the peasants aka colonists, who will then fight beside you as you tackle increasingly difficult opposition.
The foundation of all of these missions is the aforementioned demolition aspect of Red Faction : Guerrilla, and we have to admit that it’s probably the most realistic wrecking action we’ve played thus far.
Buildings are structured as in reality, with support beams and various points of weakness that can be exploited. This allows the player a number of creative ways to bring them down: slap some charges on critical points and let ‘em rip, bash through crucial walls with the mighty sledgehammer, or just plow a freshly borrowed vehicle right through either side.
Further expanding on the destructible structures, a clever player will quickly learn how to exploit these engineering accuracies to their own evil means. Trapped inside a building with heavily armed guards on the roof preventing our escape, we tossed a charge onto the ceiling and collapsed the entire roof, dropping the enemies to their deaths and causing maniacal laughter to erupt all round. Major points for cool factor here.
Conversely though the flimsy scenery also proved to work to our disadvantage at times. It doesn’t take long to realise that taking cover behind walls isn’t always the best idea, especially when industrial-grade mining grenades are being flung about.
Live and learn.
The weapon selection is slightly better than average; it’s refreshing to see toys like the nano rifle (which fires thousands of tiny nanites that maul bad guys) or the arc welder (a type of shock weapon that can fry enemies inside their vehicles). Explosives come in various forms including sticky charges and proximity mines, and these are supported by the traditional firearm selection such as the shotgun and pistol. The minor irritation here is that only four weapons can be carried at a time, which can make for slightly restricted killing and destruction.
Upgrading equipment is done through collecting and redeeming salvage, which is essentially just debris from fallen structures. This provides a good system as players will collect salvage as they progress through the missions, but more determined gamers can tackle optional building levelling to earn a bit extra.
The downside to the whole game, though, is that there is little more to Red Faction : Guerrilla than an itchy detonator finger. While the missions attempt to be varied, the game doesn’t quite manage to hide the fact that they evolve around smashing something to pieces almost every time. Some of these are great, like crashing through a series of wind towers while being chased by hordes of foes, but too many rely on simple ‘kaboom’ principles which eventually make one feel like they’re playing “Menial Demolition Simulator” or an extremely one-sided version of Sim City.
There are hostage rescue missions and generic firefights to be had, both of which can be entertaining, but these are interspersed by annoying driving missions or daft tasks like capturing an enemy courier: yawn. These serve as sad realizations that there isn’t really much to Red Faction: Guerrilla when there aren’t any explosions involved.
The visuals are impressive at times, especially (yes, you guess it) the collapsible buildings, but the game world overall is bland to say the least. Sure, it’s the surface of Mars and all, but a bit of variety over stark authenticity would’ve been welcomed.
At times the bleak landscape feels immersive and realistic, but at others we were left longing for the vibrancy of one of GTA’s cities: hell, even the outback areas in San Andreas were more exciting.
In conclusion, it turns out being a demo guy isn’t exactly all it’s blown up to be. The first few hours of RF : Guerrilla are great, especially the very first demolition which hints at great things to come, but ironically there is about as much supporting the game itself as there is supporting the buildings in it.
In fact, it all bears a striking resemblance to another seemingly-awesome job; being a porn star. It may look like loads of fun, but after the first few bangs you’ll more than likely find yourself struggling to ‘keep it up’.
Being a demolitions expert in reality is probably less fun than it sounds. Sure, it’s entertaining the first few times you get to level a skyscraper or flatten an orphanage, but the simplistic nature of such wanton destruction will eventually lose its gimmicky appeal and turn old pretty quick.
Combine this kind of explosive carnage with some mission objectives, a handful of weapons and the traditional ‘fight the evil organization’ storyline, and you end up with Volition’s latest blow-em-up action game, Red Faction: Guerrilla.
Unfortunately though, like a misguided suicide bomber, you’ll find that despite the initial appeal of causing large scale demolition there’s a fairly short-lived amount of fun to be had in pushing that detonator.
The story follows Alec Mason, a sledgehammer-wielding miner who’s just trying to make ends meet as he takes up new employment at a mining colony on Mars.
Naturally, some maniacal corporation has taken over all the planet’s sectors and must be stopped, leaving Alec to lead the revolution and topple the oppressors building by building.
Red Faction : Guerrilla puts gamers in the third-person driver’s seat this time around, as fans of the two preceding first-person titles in the series will immediately notice.
Travelling around the world either on foot or aboard a variety of vehicles, including a cool jetpack later in the game, various main and side missions must be completed in order to liberate the six main zones. This rallies the peasants aka colonists, who will then fight beside you as you tackle increasingly difficult opposition.
The foundation of all of these missions is the aforementioned demolition aspect of Red Faction : Guerrilla, and we have to admit that it’s probably the most realistic wrecking action we’ve played thus far.
Buildings are structured as in reality, with support beams and various points of weakness that can be exploited. This allows the player a number of creative ways to bring them down: slap some charges on critical points and let ‘em rip, bash through crucial walls with the mighty sledgehammer, or just plow a freshly borrowed vehicle right through either side.
Further expanding on the destructible structures, a clever player will quickly learn how to exploit these engineering accuracies to their own evil means. Trapped inside a building with heavily armed guards on the roof preventing our escape, we tossed a charge onto the ceiling and collapsed the entire roof, dropping the enemies to their deaths and causing maniacal laughter to erupt all round. Major points for cool factor here.
Conversely though the flimsy scenery also proved to work to our disadvantage at times. It doesn’t take long to realise that taking cover behind walls isn’t always the best idea, especially when industrial-grade mining grenades are being flung about.
Live and learn.
The weapon selection is slightly better than average; it’s refreshing to see toys like the nano rifle (which fires thousands of tiny nanites that maul bad guys) or the arc welder (a type of shock weapon that can fry enemies inside their vehicles). Explosives come in various forms including sticky charges and proximity mines, and these are supported by the traditional firearm selection such as the shotgun and pistol. The minor irritation here is that only four weapons can be carried at a time, which can make for slightly restricted killing and destruction.
Upgrading equipment is done through collecting and redeeming salvage, which is essentially just debris from fallen structures. This provides a good system as players will collect salvage as they progress through the missions, but more determined gamers can tackle optional building levelling to earn a bit extra.
The downside to the whole game, though, is that there is little more to Red Faction : Guerrilla than an itchy detonator finger. While the missions attempt to be varied, the game doesn’t quite manage to hide the fact that they evolve around smashing something to pieces almost every time. Some of these are great, like crashing through a series of wind towers while being chased by hordes of foes, but too many rely on simple ‘kaboom’ principles which eventually make one feel like they’re playing “Menial Demolition Simulator” or an extremely one-sided version of Sim City.
There are hostage rescue missions and generic firefights to be had, both of which can be entertaining, but these are interspersed by annoying driving missions or daft tasks like capturing an enemy courier: yawn. These serve as sad realizations that there isn’t really much to Red Faction: Guerrilla when there aren’t any explosions involved.
The visuals are impressive at times, especially (yes, you guess it) the collapsible buildings, but the game world overall is bland to say the least. Sure, it’s the surface of Mars and all, but a bit of variety over stark authenticity would’ve been welcomed.
At times the bleak landscape feels immersive and realistic, but at others we were left longing for the vibrancy of one of GTA’s cities: hell, even the outback areas in San Andreas were more exciting.
In conclusion, it turns out being a demo guy isn’t exactly all it’s blown up to be. The first few hours of RF : Guerrilla are great, especially the very first demolition which hints at great things to come, but ironically there is about as much supporting the game itself as there is supporting the buildings in it.
In fact, it all bears a striking resemblance to another seemingly-awesome job; being a porn star. It may look like loads of fun, but after the first few bangs you’ll more than likely find yourself struggling to ‘keep it up’.