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From The Entertainment Depot - http://www.entdepot.com Sony
Cut to eight years and one sequel later, and we get the third installment in the series: Red Faction: Guerrilla. Now a third-person action title, Guerrilla does what its predecessors failed to by delivering on the promise of jaw-dropping explosions and reckless destruction. The Earth Defense Force (EDF), former allies of the Martian miners in the original Red Faction, has replaced the Ultor Corporation as the oppressive regime on Mars. As in 2001 our protagonist, Alec Mason, lands on the red planet to start over, to ply his trade as a mining engineer for some cash and get reacquainted with his brother, Daniel. But much like Parker, Mason quickly finds himself being set upon by the EDF and reluctantly becoming the Red Faction’s newest recruit. The Mars of Mason’s time is far different than it was during Parker’s. The planet’s surface is now inhabited after having been terraformed, with small towns dotting a sprawling landscape. The EDF has a heavy presence within most sectors, with regular patrols and checkpoints, ready to quash any dissent. You start out in a safe house within the Parker sector, and your mission is to undermine Earth’s authority by completing a variety of missions for the faction, including raiding areas, hijacking convoys, destroying pertinent facilities, and rescuing arrested allies from house arrest. Once the EDF has been minimized in a sector, a liberation mission is then launched to give them the final shove off. At around 25 hours, there’s quite a bit of liberating going on. Initially, it’s tough to get overly upset about the EDF. Aside from the plot forcing them on you, and their random comments as they pass by, they aren’t all that threatening. Whereas the Combine in Half-Life 2 are menacing, bullying and demeaning, the EDF come across more as jerks. It doesn’t take long to get over any misapprehensions though, thanks to the sheer joy of blowing stuff up and tearing through armor with bullets, blades, missiles... and lightning. The smooth controls and impressive physics modeling go a long way in maintaining an exciting, addictive experience. The pre-liberation missions are good, but they rarely conform to the guerrilla style of fighting and the lack of character keeps them from standing out. While the AI is competent in many respects, as evidenced by the enemy’s evasive maneuvers during combat, it can also bug out, resulting in characters loitering in strange places (e.g. fenced-in areas securing giant canisters of flammable liquid), crashing vehicles into each other, and not following your lead during rescue missions (I blew that hole for the both of us, ma’am – you didn’t need to go to the entrance, where all of the security forces are barging through). While the open-world design encourages a freer philosophy, the side missions could have used a tighter structure; in particular, the home rescue missions could have been absolutely tremendous had the setup and AI followed through. The handful of repeating, sometimes nonsensical, phrases from the colonists actually detract from the immersion. There is a big difference between giving a world some life and actually making it come alive, and while Guerrilla is headed in the right direction, it’s not quite there. I would say that, even with the problems, the side missions fare better here than in other similar titles. The funky handling of vehicles – we’ll blame it on the gravity – causes escort missions and getaways to feel like an arcade racer, while the AI is capable enough so that you can go about your business without worrying about babysitting them. Defending areas and raiding remain eventful. It’s difficult to consistently deliver with side missions, but the number and variety are enough so that most should be satisfied for well into the story. It doesn’t hurt that successfully completing a mission also results in salvage. On Mars, resources are tight, so tight in fact that scrap (salvage) is prized and can be traded in for weapons and upgrades. Fortunately for you, scrap can be earned through missions, found in the wreckage of vehicles and buildings, and mined from destroying one of the hundreds of ore deposits. The deposits are one of several items that the game actually tracks as you destroy them, resulting in a weird compulsion within me to track down anything and everything noted. Salvage is given for all tracked items, so it’s more than satisfying a compulsion, and thrifty rebels can find themselves knee-deep in some swanky gear. Aside from upgrading your ungodly sledgehammer at safe houses, you will also be able to purchase a grinder, arc welder, jet pack, armor, gauss rifle, remote charge, sniper rifle, and on and on, but the star of the show is the nano rifle, whose shots destabilize matter. While most weapons come about with time, the nano rifle requires taking a trip into the Badlands. The Badlands, the game’s requisite Mad Max area, turned out to be more interesting than I had anticipated, and a bit underutilized. Home to the Marauders, a group of older colonists that resemble raiders and slavers from Fallout 3, the sector is a foreign land where strange languages are spoken, spikes adorn everything, and whose inhabitants love to pounce on the unexpected. You’ll meet the Marauders long before you find yourself in their lands, their disconcerting yelps breaking the Martian silence as you look up from smashing an EDF supply crate and seeing a handful hauling off at full speed in your direction, swinging makeshift scythes and firing wildly. Once you get into their territory, though, the game truly becomes eerie: angered mutterings over a loudspeaker is mixed with a chanting and distorted voice. After getting your shotgun at the ready, psyched to unleash a world of hurt on the freaks, the story moves along and progress relegates them to being that weird faction with the overly eloquent leader that’s there to let you know that you’ve been judging a book by its cover. I do find the dynamic of a disgruntled, slightly crazed aboriginal faction going toe-to-toe with another group of rugged and angry colonists to be fascinating. The game continually strikes its own chord throughout. The art style is striking, mixing the futuristic, angled designs found in 2001 and Silent Running with bright colors and the most sterile muck ever to stick onto a vehicle. My only technical, albeit minor, complaint would be the overblown, slightly muddy textures when zoomed up and sometimes strange model damage. Riding along a winding highway with nothing but a few lampposts lighting the way and a sandstorm above, it really sets a proper mood – very reminiscent of Night Meeting from The Martian Chronicles. I’ve read complaints from people that the game is bland, and I can certainly see why they say that: it is. There was only a haphazard building phase, with most structures being for the sole purpose of mining and processing minerals for shipment back to Earth. Aside from an area towards the end, there isn’t much to see. I think one aspect where the bland complaint rings true is that there is too little for the world to be convincing. Aside from a slightly large living area in a later sector and the EDF’s barracks, there aren’t many places that resemble habitable areas. A small town here and there is really just a handful of barren buildings with no life to them. I know the people are downtrodden, but they would at least build places to live and relax – the only bar is a small room with a few shelves. The allure of fighting for freedom would be stronger if there was more to fight for. Once completed, the game continues on with the idea that the leftover missions from the campaign are there to finish off the EDF. A few assignments do open up in an effort to slightly progress the story – ‘We heard they are now gathering here - take them out.’ – and are noticeably harder; the later-game snipers and gunships support the grenade-tossing shielded infantry with gusto. The ability to continue also allows for you to get the rest of the weapons and max out those you already have, which is appreciated. Cheats opened up throughout the game can be turned on at any time while the game is paused, but it’s better to do it after the store as they disable trophies and achievements. An insane difficulty mode is also opened up, but I found the rest of the missions to be enough to keep me entertained. Multiplayer is composed of LAN, online, and offline modes. Wrecking Crew is the pass-the-controller offline mode that pits you against up to three friends on the same console, trying to cause as much destruction as possible. Be it on barrels or buildings, different rule sets – unlimited ammo, using ammo costs time, etc. – it’s just you and your friends going all out. Multiplayer also introduces several packs, in addition to the jet pack, that enhance health, speed, allow you to ram obstacles, cloak, and generally cause all sorts of destruction. A good example of the variety the packs add came from my last game: as the flag-carrier I used the speed pack to zip around holes in a bridge while avoiding the enemy’s fire and the concussion pack to blow back two enemies that suddenly appeared in front of me, shot them both, then ran the flag back for another point. In anarchy, a free for all, the combination of a rhino and a shotgun comes in handy: the rhino pack allows you to slam through walls and the shotgun finishes them off if they weren’t killed by the initial impact. It’s one thing to read this, but it’s another thing to charge through a set of pipes and two walls to bash someone outside of a house – it’s awesome. There are the more traditional modes – deathmatch and capture the flag – as well as siege modes, which require you to protect and assault buildings. There is also a rudimentary leveling system, with experience going towards new icons, models, and weapons. I have to say, I am genuinely surprised at just how much I enjoyed Guerrilla. There are some smaller things I would like to see tweaked in addition to the aforementioned items, but they are minor in that they aren’t necessary: while a locking system would be nice, I rarely had a hard time aiming, and the ability change the controls would be nice so I didn’t have to hold a button down to duck, but I didn’t duck much anyway. The exhilaration of taking down a tower with a less-than-rudimentary knowledge of engineering was fantastic. It’s surprising how things simply work like you would expect: knocking a leg out from a windmill causes it to come crashing down and felling a tube follows the same principle as felling a tree – only with explosives. Weakening a building and hearing it creak and moan before a sudden crash, it’s what you want. Debris hurts you as well, so dropping that bridge will not only require the careful placement of remote charges but some fast feet. The sheer potential the destructibility presents cannot be understated, and I often found myself forgetting just what is possible. A sniper on the roof above you, but no stairs to get up there? Whale away on the ceiling with your sledgehammer and watch them tumble down to your feet. Being cornered in a building? Detonate a charge on a wall and jump out the back. Running out of ammo? Weaken your vehicle, place some remote charges on it, then jump out as it rams into a barracks and detonate the charges. The copious amounts of flammable barrels and gas canisters often lead to some surprising and screen-shaking explosions. And when weapons won’t do, step inside a mechanical walker and toss EDF troops aside, blow up their tanks with missiles, or simply walk through a building. Now flesh out the towns and really let me rip. Volition has another Descent: Freespace – The Great War on their hands. It’s a fantastic game that reinvigorates the genre and is absolutely worth your time, but it has a few lingering issues. Here’s hoping the follow-up is the series’ FreeSpace 2. Overall: 9/10 Red Faction: Guerrilla is fantastic. From the traditional rocket launcher to the old world sledgehammer to the sci-fi nano rifle, it’s action of a variety and level largely unseen. Unlike the previous Red Faction titles, there weren’t specific spots that were destructible; nearly everything is. Think of blocking pathways with rubble, ambushing a convey with lightning and landmines, or going a more traditional route of utilizing the cover system for some classic gunfights – there is plenty to do, and a lot to do it with. It is far from perfect – the missions could be more focused, the AI more varied, habitats more realistic – but to say I found myself seriously turned away by those things would be an exaggeration. There is way too much to enjoy here to pass it up. Highly recommended. © Copyright 1999-2005 by EntDepot.com |
Volition has quite a history. While they are predominantly known for the Saint’s Row series these days, I recognize them as the company behind two of gaming’s greatest series: Descent and Descent: Freespace.