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"Just act cool, and no one will suspect a thing"

Red Faction’s story was always going to be deeply overshadowed by its insanely fun destruction based gameplay, no matter how good it was. Such was the strength of the gameplay on offer. So I wasn’t really expecting much when it came to the story side of RF: G, nor did I really care (I just wanted to blow buildings up) but surely they could have done better than this lacklustre storyline that you will barely even notice is there.

In any case the game is set in 2128 on a colonised version of Mars, where the planet has been terraformed and the air is now breathable and the landscape half way through being changed to represent that of earth. You will experience the game through the third-person eyes of Alec Mason, a miner with a demolition license. The starting cinematic will see you shipping in from Earth to meet with your brother Dan Mason, in search of new mining opportunities on the Red Planet. However it quickly becomes clear you won’t be spending the entire game mining, as you discover the planet and its inhabitants are policed by the EDF (Earth Defence Force). Originally the saviours of the planet in Red Faction 1 & 2, the EDF have evolved into somewhat dictatorial rulers intent on squeezing every last penny out of the miners for their own profit, using such tactics as forced labour camps, coercion and the extermination of any resistance with extreme prejudice.

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

All is not lost however, as you then find out that your brother is a member of the Red Faction, a group dedicated to freeing Mars from the oppression of the EDF, and he wants you to join in the fight. You brother seems to be a pretty interesting guy and your looking forward to exploring his character further as the game goes on, then Bam! He is killed by the EDF within 5 minutes of you meeting him... signalling the end of the most interesting part of the entire story. Thus, being his brother, you are naturally quite annoyed and thus join the Red Faction to get revenge for your brother by destroying the EDF.

This forms a poor premise for the destruction that follows resulting in a story so uninteresting and linear that you won’t care about the plight of your miner brethren at all, even as you risk life and limb destroying and killing countless EDF structures and personnel for the sake of their freedom. The story line seems to serve only to push the action forward, providing only a sprinkling of character interaction and a few sci-fi plot twists that while interesting, are merely bumps in a straight, predictable story that will end the exact way you expected it to. The major killing point of the story is how it garners no emotional investment in the problems of the miners, which removes the precedence for the action meaning your valiant efforts to free mars have a lot less impact in terms of developing interest.

Fortunately you will be freeing mars because it is incredibly fun to destroy stuff so the failings of the story are a moot point, and are one of few blemishes on a game that is some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on. It’s just disappointing that the story doesn’t live up to the standard of the rest the game, which is brilliant.

"It took me three years to finish the renovations, thanks a lot buddy."

This is popcorn eating, eye candy gaming at its best by virtue of its amazing GeoMod 2.0 destruction engine, which results in the dynamic and realistic destruction of absolutely every object in the game. This new, unparalleled level of destruction will leave you stunned in disbelief of the jaw-dropping, destructive spectacle before you so many times that you will lose count. The game turns destruction into an art form. In a lifetime spent playing games there have been few moments where I have been as blown away as watching a building getting destroyed brick by brick, then collapsing as it should all without the ‘cover-up dust’.

You will spend the majority of the game destroying buildings and all manner of other things and staring in wonder at your handiwork as multiple explosions rock buildings and vehicles. The destruction in this game just looks brilliant, so much so that it is almost as fun to watch as it is to play; you will often stop in your tracks mid-battle just to watch a building explode, or a bridge fall, even if you get killed by pursing troops. The moments of visual spontaneity that this game creates must be seen to be believed. One that comes to mind is when I was attempting to level an EDF structure with about 40 soldiers attacking me in cars and on-foot, with an attack plane flying overheard, I had no explosives left to finish of the building with so I started firing on the plane managing to cripple its wing, sending it into a death spiral with it randomly smashing into the EDF structure and then exploding, obliterating the building in two devastating hits. I had to pause the game to take in how freaking awesome what just happened was, and how blown away I was by the fact that it was totally unscripted and looked more awesome than any scripted event I had ever seen before. The combination of the graphics and the destruction engine make moments like this possible, and an amazing sight to behold, making Red Faction one of the most beautiful games to watch this decade with a visual standard that sets the bar high. Even with so much happening on screen the game maintains a flawless framerate, with silky smooth animation.

Destruction aside however, when you look at textures up close they will look quite blocky, but are still above average and given the visual strength of the destructive side of the game you won’t care much. The game is set in a massive sandbox, separated by several visually distinct areas like the red-dust covered canyons of Parker and the rolling green hills of Oasis. As you play through these areas the red hills and plains that you have to drive across are a pleasure to look at with an impressive draw distance, but can get slightly repetitive visually when travelling between built-up areas. These sections look great but a bunch of big red mountains look the same from whatever angle you look, so can get slightly boring. The weapon effects look great too, like the Arc Welder which shoots electricity which looks on par with the electricity effects in Sony's inFAMOUS.

Home, home on the range...

The sound in this game is of an above average standard. The game has a great ambient soundtrack that will kick in while you are exploring Mars online and off, with scores very similar to Mass Effect. The music always maintains a very sci-fi vibe to it which reinforces and augments the setting of a future Mars. In this way the electronic ambient background music works well in imbuing a sense of wonder with the beautiful alien landscape of mars, and the impressive destructive spectacles that accompany it. The industry standard battle music is there and does well to accompany the chaos, but you will seldom notice it over the action at hand.

The sound effects that go with the destruction and gunfire are superb, you will be able to hear buildings collapse, with each piece of rubble making a sound as it hits the ground, which further accentuates the impact of the destruction in immersing the player. The sound effects for the weapons are great, especially with the more high-tech weapons like the Arc Welder and the Nano Rifle. All the sound effects make full use of a surround sound set, especially when you can hear a building collapsing around you, and a good bass makes the explosions sound even more awesome than they already do on a normal set of speakers.

The voice acting is believable, and whilst not particularly bad, the performances are unlikely to evoke a response in the player when it comes to describing the atrocities committed by the EDF, as most of the talking you will hear in this game will be that of the constantly angry narrator who fills you in before and after missions. The voice acting in the cut-scenes and story elements are the same, believable but forgettable.

"I'm not coming out until I see my lawyer"

Red Faction Guerrilla is a well needed breath of fresh air in a saturated shooter market. This is all thanks to the unprecedented level of destruction that Red Faction brings to the table with its GeoMod 2.0 physics engine, where absolutely every wall, building and object in the game can demolished in real-time into its constituent parts; that is to say you can destroy everything brick by brick, and man it is so fun. The destruction is so fleshed out that you will have to rethink the entire way you play shooters; no longer will you have to conform to the restrictions imposed by traditional shooter gameplay, when you can destroy everything dynamically in real-time a whole world of new strategies are opened to you.

The game is set on the huge open world sandbox surface of Mars, where destruction is the centre of the gameplay, and rightfully so. When you first experience the game in the tutorial, where you have to demolish several buildings using an awesome sledgehammer and a couple of demo packs your mind will be blown away, as you realise the destruction is not just a gimmick, but a realistic and responsive part of the gameplay. The buildings don’t just take a certain amount of hits and then collapse in a scripted manner covered by dust, as hitting them in the right places like vital supports and load bearing walls will collapse them a lot faster. The physics/destruction engine is so realistic that the team at Volition had to actually design the buildings to be architecturally sound, as all the parts of the building have mass and so will collapse with ease if not built to a real-life architectural standard.

The destruction is strategic, realistic and intrinsically tied in with the gameplay, and as a result this game will go down in history as one of the most entertaining and fun games ever made. But this would be nothing without a solid game to back it up, and Red Faction: Guerrilla delivers, with an impressive free-roaming sandbox style single player campaign that is as unique as it is fun. Shot from a 3rd person perspective, using solid shooting and driving controls the main campaign is about 20 missions long, all of which alter the basic mission structure with a destructive twist that results in some unique experiences. This includes one of the most amusing missions ever created; where you drive a construction mech through a town, literally walking straight through multi-level buildings and watching them crumble around you.

These campaign missions are built around an EDF control and a civilian morale system, individual to each of the six sections that make up the game world. Your mission is to liberate a sector of the EDF, by lowering their control level and increasing the morale of the oppressed civilian population. The more you raise the morale the more the civilians will come to your aid in combat. This can be done by doing a variety of "Guerrilla Actions" or destroying high value EDF targets and in general just poo pooing anything with an EDF symbol slapped on it. Buildings can be brought down in a crumbling heap, in any manner you see fit. Whether you simply demolish its base with your sledgehammer or choose to plough into them with trucks rigged with explosives, the limit is your imagination. These targets are always highly guarded and this is where the ‘guerrilla’ aspect comes in; you are outnumbered 20 to 1 so you have to improvise whatever you have at hand, and then try to escape, or stay and fight. You will have to find a balance between these two strategies to succeed. The guerrilla gameplay is extremely fun as your only advantage is the level of destruction you can take out on your enemy. This forces you to take on fun, imaginative tactics to succeed with destruction at the core, like launching a car at a building or making a back door with explosives.

Red Faction's "Guerrilla Actions" are very fun side missions that are scattered across the map that include things like the assault or defence of certain targets with the help of your Red Faction buddies, ambushes, demolition challenges and rescues. My personal favourite is a Guerrilla Action where you ride shotgun on a heavily armed car, firing rockets at pursing EDF and passing by EDF structures, with the aim of causing a certain amount of damage, which really showcases the huge level of destruction to be dealt. These side missions are more than a sideline to the campaign, and some of best moments you will have in this game will be when you are out doing your own thing, destroying targets and helping Red Faction members while exploring the surface of Mars.

There are also 18 weapons to unlock and upgrade, using the games salvage currency which can be gathered from destroyed buildings, finished missions and ore spikes. This gives you yet another reason to destroy, as the more salvage to collect the more devastating weapons you can unlock and upgrade. These weapons range from the Arc Welder which shoots electricity to the Nano Rifle which disintegrates matter in spectacular fashion all the way over to the singularity bomb, which, as its name implies, creates a singularity vortex that absorbs all matter within a certain radius and then releases it in a devastating explosion. The unlock system is very addictive, and you will find yourself destroying everything in sight just so you can afford that next sweet looking weapon or upgrade.

The way destruction is both fun and vital to success in RF:G ensures the game play remains a blast from beginning to end. Escalating in stunning set pieces spontaneous acts of the GeoMod engine, like an EDF car randomly wiping out a windmill which then falls down and wipes out even more EDF. It is the game’s capability to create these insane awe-inspiring moments of destruction infused gameplay that make the game such a treat to play. The only real negative point of the gameplay is the difficulty, which seems to randomly fluctuate between easy and frustratingly difficult. Also the long drives between missions and objectives can become boring and tedious, especially if you find yourself dying a lot and having to respawn all the way back at base, it’s a small issue in a great game but an issue nonetheless.

In addition to this there is the extremely entertaining Wrecking Crew mode where players pass the controller around each taking their turn at racking up the most destruction with a certain weapon in a time limit. The mode is perfect for when you have some mates over as it only requires one controller and most it’s an absolute blast watching the eye-candy destruction at the hands of your mates and then trying to outdo their destructive efforts with your own strategy. However the lack of ability to play this mode online is somewhat puzzling.

Last but not least there is the addictive multiplayer gameplay which carries over all the destructive elements of the single player to make a totally unique and fresh multiplayer experience. RF: G multiplayer plays like no other multiplayer game you have played before, as the destruction and the addition of backpacks which give you special abilities change the gameplay immeasurably. You will discover so many new strategies, like eliminating annoying snipers by levelling the building they are camping on, or smashing through walls to get the jump on your foes. You will also find many backpack specific strategies, like using the stealth backpack to get in close for the sledge hammer kills, getting above your enemies with the jetpack or simply using the Rhino backpack to charge through the enemies cover and kill them. These never before seen options, the destruction based gameplay and 10 unique backpacks, come together to create a multiplayer experience that is fun, lag-free, balanced a must play for any fan of online play.

"Oh man, the EDF went on strike again. Geez."

Red Faction: Guerrilla has impressive replay value with its lengthy single player campaign alone, not to mention the impressive multiplayer component which has 18 weapons, 10 game-changing backpacks, 21 maps, 6 unique modes and an extensive system of unlocks for continued play. The multiplayer keeps on throwing so many unlocks and amazing moments of destruction at you that it will keep you coming back for weeks, if not months.

The single player will take you between 15-25 hours to complete depending on how many side missions you do. All of these missions are totally non-linear for the most part so you will want play through it again at least one more time to see how you could have done it differently, or if you just feel like coming back to blow something up; and you most definitely will. After the completion of the campaign you can go back and finish all the guerrilla actions and side missions you didn’t do, or just go around looking for some of the 700 + hidden objects in the game. Red Faction: Guerrilla is a well rounded package that you will most likely replay at least once, if you can tear your attention from the addictive multiplayer that is.

"Wake up, I think we have company!"

The sheer innovation brought on by the freakishly realistic Geo Mod 2.0 engine in this game make it a must play, this is a level of destruction not achieved before and must be experienced to be believed. The game is let down significantly by an uninteresting and bland story that stops it from achieving its full potential, but it is still an incredibly fun game to play in both single and multiplayer. The sheer scale and calamity that is caused by leveling buildings in this game will create many jaw-dropping moments that will have you screaming for NASA to hurry up and get our arses to Mars already. The game is a must-play for anyone who appreciates console fun in its purest form, and exploits the destructive nature within human kind to it's fullest.

Editors Note: Over Zealots be warned Red Faction is not a recruitment agency for terrorists - well not in real life anyway...lol!