Review

This new entry into the Red Faction series takes place several years after the earlier games, and yet again takes place on a somewhat desolate Mars. New to the red planet is the games hero, Alec Mason, who has travelled to the planet to work with his brother Dan. Soon into the game the true state of the planet comes into view; the Earth Defence Force have overrun the planet and are forcing a fascist regime on the worlds various inhabitants. To no surprise Alec quickly gains reason to exact revenge on the enemy and from this point the game unfolds with one simple goal, eradicate the EDF from Mars. 

Thankfully ridding the planet of the enemy is a fun task to be challenged with, as doing so includes clobbering enemies and buildings with your sledgehammer, blowing fuel tanks with explosives and so on. The task of destruction, admittedly is a shallow one, but one that brings a simple joy in terms of gameplay. Put simply, blowing things up is fun, and destruction is one thing Red Faction: Guerrilla has definitely gotten right. The way buildings deteriorate as you smash them is believable and gives a tactile response and the freedom to smash pretty much anything is refreshing. The visual enjoyment to be gained from seeing buildings topple is a memorable one.  

Gamers begin their destructive challenge in the region of Parker, just one of the six zones that require liberating. To free the zone of EDF enforcement Alec must travel around either by foot, or through a pleasingly large variety of vehicles, and destroy both buildings, propaganda advertisements and of course EDF soldiers. Over time as you weaken the EDF threat more rebels will join your cause and help you out in certain situations, further aiding in clearing the zone. Simply destroying the same buildings with the same weapons you start out with would tire quickly and to combat this an effective upgrade system is in place. As you destroy buildings you can collect scrap, which can then be used to upgrade and purchase new weapons. These new weapons then assist in eradicating the enemy threat more quickly and effectively. Unfortunately it is only so long until destroying yet another generic building becomes tiresome and the amusement of demolition fades, even with an enhanced or new arsenal to assist you. 

Beyond the main goal of abolishing the EDF's various strongholds, a variety of sub missions can also be found within the vast, yet seemingly empty, sandbox world. These include convoy missions which see you taking out a specific vehicle, ambush missions which see you helping civilians fight off an enemy attack and so on. These missions pop up from time to time, and are completely optional to the main campaign, yet do assist in advancing quicker through the campaign. Although these supplementary goals may seem like a welcome addition to the somewhat repetitive nature of the principal task at hand, they offer very little in terms of true variety, it's all just destruction. For gamers who can look beyond the repetitive nature of the titles core gameplay a large world with plenty to do is on offer. 

In credit to the games developer Volition, Inc. they have created a visually appealing title. As you traverse the baron environment the sun burns in the distance and a sense of what the red planet may look like is convincingly conveyed, but sadly the world feels far from alive as very little interesting structures and environments can be found. An attractive yet empty planet. 

Thankfully to complement the single player campaign a multiplayer mode is also available, and it's here where the destructive gameplay really comes into it's own. Working as a team to take down the enemy, by whatever means necessary, really does present some fun and engaging multiplayer moments, and the unscripted and unpredictability of real world opponents makes the multiplayer something that really does add value to an otherwise repetitive title, and makes Guerrilla's multiplayer compenent stand out in comparison to other similar offerings.  

Red Faction: Guerrilla offers plenty of gameplay, yet sadly the poor storyline and the lack of variety within the game world brings the overall experience down and fails to truly engage beyond the first few hours. A fun experience at first, that soon becomes a chore. The real enjoyment is to be found in the multiplayer modes, which really are explosive pure fun.