Public Service Announcement: You Need To Play Red Faction: Guerilla

I've always been dubious of Red Faction series. The original Red Faction was released on the PC back in 2001. I remember trying the demo and coming away thinking that the Geo-Mod terrain destruction/deformation was a tech demo and nothing more. It seemed like a great idea whose time had not come yet, certainly not in that game anyway. I promptly forgot about it despite the fact that a sequel followed one or two years later. Checking on Mobygames, I guess the PC version didn't have multiplayer support at all? Very stupid.

Let's let bygones be bygones however! Red Faction: Guerilla is a great game that could fly under the radar if more people don't check it out. This particular Red Faction game has been expanded into an open world game, akin to a Grand Theft Auto type of game. The main focus in Guerilla is not destructible terrain, but destructble structures within that terrain: radio towers, office buildings, barracks, security checkpoints, shipping crates, vehicles, chemical tanks, bridges, etc. etc. etc. If it was created by man, you can destroy it... by man.

That's really the focus of the game. It's not going to be the first videogame to make you cry (there's still the countdown to tears, after all) but it may just change the way you think about certain games.

This is a game that now gives you an extra way to interact with your character's world. Granted, it stills centers around the absolute destruction of an object as your primary means of interactivity, but it's nice that we're advancing the depth of that concept. The game forces you to think about the weapons you use in two applications now: efficiency of killing soldiers versus efficiency of destroying buildings. You now can cleverly use your environment besides just taking advantage of the new well-executed cover system. Take out the structural supports on a bridge and watch the army convoy get buried by your maelstrom of wreckage. Need to take out a satellite dish on top of a (seemingly) well guarded military installation? Find the biggest truck you can and drive through the support beams, taking out the dish objective along with a whole mess of troops in the upper floors. Need to lose an army pursuit force? Use a rocket to destroy the bridge the military was about to follow you over.

Another notable design decision that I like is that Red Faction: Guerilla is the first open world game I've played where I actually care about keeping the NPC civilians alive, not just during an escort mission of some kind. It actually makes me feel like I'm part of a rebel uprising. People go from being super pissed at you jacking their vehicles to gladly jumping out and letting you take it for the cause. Then they'll pick up rifles and other weapons and keep the military distracted while you set up elaborate traps of destruction with your explosive devices. I'm really impressed by the fact that their survival not only explicitly rewards me (with more salvage/money and new missions to undertake) but implicitly as well (they go from not wanting to get involved to laying down suppressing fire with their machine guns or grabbing a turret on your truck as you move out). It gets me as a player vested into their cause.

Check Red Faction: Guerilla out. It may just surprise you in its flexibility and interesting aesthetic. I also hear the multiplayer modes are a lot of fun, which I fully intend to check out as some point as well.