Red Faction: Guerrilla Review

Conclusions

So much focus has gone on the destructible environment in Red Faction: Guerrilla though that it seems that some areas of the game have been utterly neglected, which significantly weakens the whole experience.

The enemy AI is the major falling point for Red Faction: Guerrilla – though the enemies as a whole are pretty bad, to be honest. There’s not a unique design among the lot of them and the ease or difficulty with which they can be defeated changes more than a five year old’s Christmas list. You can detonate mines directly beneath a squad of enemies or knock them off of balconies by collapsing supports beneath them and they’ll still get up and carry on shooting. A quick pistol shot or two in the crotch though...

The vehicles are equally suspect too, both in terms of durability (I can knock down a factory barehanded, but need eight mines to blow up a dune buggy?) and physics. The physics as a whole for the game are occasionally laughable, though it’s not always a bad thing. Charging a dune buggy towards an oncoming dumper is particularly hilarious, as the buggy often manages to inexplicably drive underneath the truck. Fantastic.


The only place where these issues become really problematic though is when you combine the two and put the enemy AI behind the wheel. That’s just a recipe for disaster, with the AI having obvious problems navigating the open world considering the destructible environment. Car chases that would have been tense and exciting as you try to knock down bridges behind you quickly take a turn for the hilarious when you see eight cars all hit the exactly same rock in the road and barrel roll as one lump of machinery into the back of your character as he tries to run away. It’s like being attacked by a drunken Transformer...probably.

Question: if a Transformer ran on an Ethanol fuel-mix then would it get drunk? Answers in the forums.

The difficulty curve for Red Faction: Guerrilla feels like it’s been beaten out of shape too and, while actually destroying the buildings and running away from/after things in the selection of cars is a lot of fun, the actual combat is a lot more disappointing. The cover system feels totally pointless given that the enemy will just reduce your hiding spot to rubble (which does add an extra tactical element to the game until you learn to hide behind rocky outcroppings) and switching weapons mid-fight is a recipe for disaster. The more we played of Red Faction: Guerrilla the more we tried to move away from actual combat and focus on just running around dropping mines.


Perhaps balancing out this weakness though are the multiplayer modes, which come in two different flavours and both of which are delicious, though a little shallow. The first is your standard selection of online game modes, plus a handful of extra modes and weapons exclusive to the multiplayer game – including a selection of backpacks that let you do everything from fly to run through walls.

On top of the online selection, Red Faction: Guerrilla also comes with an offline multiplayer mode that’s mostly built around the pass-the-controller type of gaming event. There’s a selection of variations in this Wrecking Crew mode, but basically they see all players teaming up to cause as much damage as possible in the time limit – and it’s loads of fun.

At the end of the day, that’s really what it comes down to for Red Faction: Guerrilla too – the fun. Sure, the story may be flimsier than a wet Weetabix and the game world is as bland as eating said cereal, but anything that results in comparisons to getting drunk with a Transformer can’t be all that bad. On the contrary; the final product is actually an awful lot of fun despite the flaws and it’s refreshing to see a third person shooter that tries to be more than just a Gears of War clone for once. We also can’t wait to take a look at the PC release when that comes out eventually.

Score Guide