Red Faction: Guerrilla Review
- Posted June 6th, 2009 at 12:06 EDT by Steven Williamson
- 9,512 views
- 45 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 9.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 7.2
Summary
Red Faction: Guerrilla sets a new benchmark for destruction-based gameplay. It's an absolute blast!
We like
- The rewarding destruction-based gameplay
- The engaging morale system
- The solid multiplayer component
We dislike
- The lack of a decent story
- The monotonous, long distance journeys
- The inconsistent behavior of the A.I.
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
The Red Faction series is all about destruction. When developer Volition created the GeoMod engine back in 2001, it afforded players with the freedom to completely destroy environments with explosive devices and heavy weaponry. Back then, it must have dreamt of the day that it could get its hands on some hardware that would really showcase its technology. Those dreams have now been turned into reality with Red Faction: Guerrilla. Needless to say, the third game in the popular series has evolved dramatically since the last iteration in 2002.
The original Red Faction was a linear, first person shooter. You could punch holes in walls and use powerful weapons to blast through the earth to create caverns. Red Faction: Guerrilla, however, is a third-person, sprawling, open-world action adventure that showcases the powerful GeoMod 2 engine magnificently by delivering destruction on an unprecedented scale. Volition has harnessed the power of the PlayStation 3 to spectacular effect to deliver one of the most impressive games on Sony’s console to date.
In Red Faction: Guerrilla you play as Alec Mason, a mining engineer who joins the Red Faction movement as they battle for freedom against the corrupt Earth Defensive Force (EDF). Ruling the planet by force, the EDF has taken to kidnapping settlers and forcing them into labour camps. With advanced knowledge of explosive devices, it's up to you to boost civilian morale, destroy important EDF buildings, wipe out the oppressing faction and gain territorial control. Typical to many other sandbox games, such as the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Faction: Guerrilla involves completing set missions and objectives across an open world-environment. The difference with this third person shooter is that you have the power to take down huge structures and destroy whole enemy convoys with just one press of your detonator. Kaboom!
Armed with a sledgehammer, Mason begins his journey by learning how to use the tool of his trade, smashing his way through walls, rock and metal in the search for salvage, the game's currency. This is the first indication that Volition weren’t just hyping the game’s destructive values. When it claimed that its Geo Mod engine was “three to five years” more advanced than other industry destruction engines, it wasn’t joking. Walls tumble, wood splinters and glass shatters realistically under the weight of Manson’s hammer -- it’s impressive stuff, and that’s just the first five minutes! It’s not long before you really get to see the power of the GeoMod 2 technology. As you head out across Martian lands armed to the hilt with sticky remote mine charges, machine guns, rocket launchers and proximity mines and you get to blow up your first enemy out-post, it’s a real sight to behold.
Red Faction: Guerrilla gets all of the basics right in terms of creating an enjoyable experience and a smooth control scheme, but it’s the destruction-based gameplay that really takes the genre to the next level. Offering rewards for destroying buildings and structures is a clever feature that encourages you to blow up almost any large object you come across. Each time you bring down an enemy structure you’re awarded with the salvage that it produces, which can then be spent on upgrades. Alternatively, you can head out to designated enemy out-posts and destroy their buildings in return for control points which sway the battle and territorial control in your favor. You can use heavy weaponry to take large chunks out of structures, or use your strategically placed mines to bring them crashing to the ground. Visually, watching a communication tower explode and seeing how it then impacts on the surroundings is nothing short of stunning.
If you place a mine on a specific wall of a building or support girder of a bridge, or toss a sticky mine onto the bonnet of an armored car, it's that exact spot where it landed that will explode. Take out some of the surrounding walls of a building, for example, and the roof will eventually collapse and come crashing down on any enemies caught underneath. Set an explosive up on a particular support column of a tower and you'll be able to send it crashing down at exactly the angle you want it ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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higgos22
- 12:09pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 2
i played the demo and i got to say i was impressed at how much u could destroy i would walk into buildings and think yeh but i wont be able to destroy this and guess what... i could tthey are true to their word it has the most destructible environment of any game
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VintageElise |
VintageElise- 12:25pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 4
Well I wasen't expecting a 9. Was thinking more of an 7-8.
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Kostchtchie
- 2:19pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 8
The solid multiplayer component ? did they fix the mp because last i heard the ps3 demo version and full game had serious connecting issues with there crappy matchmaking system, other than that the sp and the few mp games i was able to enter were really good, glad to see a game getting 9 with
- The lack of a decent story
- The monotonous, long distance journeys
- The inconsistent behavior of the A.I
but hey everyone has there opinion
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draculaboy |
draculaboy99- 2:36pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 10
good review
bought the game 2 days ago
and it is a good game
but not a 9 game
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akiraburn |
akiraburn- 3:50pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 11
Hey PSU mods, just real quick I thought I would let you guys know that this game was released 2 days ago in NA, but you have it down for a different date. I think there are a few other games that need their release dates fixed as well.
Besides that, my personal opinion... I have been running through the game and have put in about 6 to 8 hours, and I really don't think it's all that impressive. The destructability in every object is great and can make it very fun to just run around destroying anything. The problems I see, is that this gets boring after a while, and the fact that when you are in a shootout with the (literally) infinite number of enemies that start attacking (which is also another complaint of mine), all the debris tends to really mess you up with moving around. Even just small pieces of junk can impede your movement often, which will result in you dying from every enemy's near-perfect accuracy. To add, the game's basic objectives are all extremely repetitive, and as was mentioned here, the long distance travels make the game even more tedious.
I was really looking forward to this game, and thought it was going to be a ton of fun, but so far it's been nothing short of lacking and disappointing. It's got the material for a good game, but the overall final product missed on a lot of key areas, and was seriously lacking for me. All aspects considered, I would say it's worth a rent, no more than that though.
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Girugamesh |
Shidousha- 5:08pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 13
Many here are complaining about PSU's '9' on this title, but they're not the only ones, just check Metacritic FFS.
It appears this title just flew under everyone's radar...or reviewers are being far to lenient. Either way, my friend was asking me if it had already come out yesterday because he was going to go out and buy it, I was berating him because he still hasn't gotten Uncharted or any other high profile games out there.
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Smithy2306
- 9:15pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 18
The demo was terrible! Completely put me off getting this.
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radgamer420 |
mistercrow- 10:48pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 19
A huge diffirence between the PSU score and the user review score. What gives?
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coverlord |
Drahgoon- 12:07am BST - June 7th, 2009
- 20
I haven't played the full game, only the 2 demo's on PSN. I think the single player could have alot of flaws but the multiplayer was surprisingly alot of fun. I think I would totally love the multiplayer, not concerned with the single player at all. I also think games these days are totally overrated.
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jello_snake
- 1:08am BST - June 7th, 2009
- 23
this game is fun on multiple levels not just because its a shooter where u can blow stuff up. theres lots of different things to do, like car-like missions and things of that nature. multiplayer is really unique because of all the neat power-ups. the destruction is really part of the gameplay and not just something to admire. all you people who are saying "heres another mediocre shooter that got a better score than it deserved" are f***ing idiots. I hate most shooters, especially military shooters like call of duty, medal of honor, ect (they are all the same, and do nothing new) this game is completely unique. You use guns, so f***ing what. play the game before you disrespect it. For all you idiots saying "the demo sucked!," they arent reviewing the demo are they? The dislike section was pretty much all they could come up with.
lack of a decent story.
the story was great, the saviors become the opressors.
The monotonous, long distance journeys
the journeys are not monotinous or long, there are cars everywhere, just like in grand theft auto. you also get a jet-pack and a super-speed. theres stuff everywhere, and allways something happening on your way to something else.
The inconsistent behavior of the A.I.
sure the AI isnt lifelike, they are crazy and reckless, which makes them awesome. ITS A GAME. They dont need to be tactical to be fun, charging a tank through a building just to get to you is pretty crazy and fun.
This game deserves a 9, its one of the most fun games I have ever played in my life. And i have played a lot of games (lv 8 trophy score, 2 platinums)
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hurricane312 |
NonShalant- 2:46am BST - June 7th, 2009
- 24
I'm getting this.... a couple of months from now lol
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J1gs4w |
d3v1ldr1v3r- 3:47am BST - June 7th, 2009
- 25
While the destruction was impressive, the game felt rushed, and shallow. PSU, its not a matter of if I agree with you or not in this case, but you are being way too generous on this game. I have seen games get lower scores that are much better (i.e. most recently Wolverine, shocked me too)
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radgamer420 |
mistercrow- 12:13am BST - June 8th, 2009
- 30
@27- Well I have the full game and its pretty awesome. Judging a game by a demo is just being ignorant.
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Eskimo630
- 2:33am BST - June 8th, 2009
- 31
i would rate infamous much higher than this game. if you get the game you will find yourself that you will only be playing the single player mode and not much if not at all play the online multiplay. i would rate it so much higher if there was co-op in the single player mode. i would rather blow up stuff with my friends online.
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regissreg |
Zapp- 12:28pm BST - June 8th, 2009
- 33
I got this game last week from GameFly and I do not think it deserves a 9. I would rate it a 7. I do agree that the destruction is very good but thats about it. Everyone has there opinion & taste on games but this game did not grab me at all. I only rate a game 9 or better when I cant put the game down or stop talking about it. Infamous is one of those games.
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paal215
- 10:54pm BST - June 8th, 2009
- 34
When I read all these comments, YES everyone, I got frustrated by some people. Let me clarify, two games (inFamous and Red Faction) that get the same score don't make the game better or worse. The "wrongness" of using a point system to grade games, or movies for that matter, is that people literally believes that if a game gets 9.0 and another 8.0 the game with the highest score is the better game. The rewievers experience with the game is at the end the main factor in the score of it. A hardcore player, as a rewiever, will MAYBE have a totally different experience then what YOU might get. There are many factors in how to rewiev a game, but by using a point system (no wrong with it) people take them too literally. How much time a person uses on the game is also a factor. A rewiever do not use as much time on a game as a normal or as they are called, casual player would.
To make another thing perfectly clear, the demo or as here demoes does not represent the full entirity of the game. You cannot say that a game is good or bad because of the demo. Fear 2: Project Origin was a great demo because they showcased and highlited different parts of the game, so that the player would get a a good varied experience, where different elements of the finished game was shown. The game therefore was as I think both repetetive and boring. You may differ on my meaning of the game but the demo did not showcase the game. The guys at Monolith knows how to make a demo, someone else don't (HINT HINT).
To all players that complain about the "overfocus" on the multiplayer, I say to them: Please do not pick on the game because they MAYBE did not work as much on single player as with online. I say this because this game is one of few that actually work on online integration and that the player have a FUN online experience. The creators did not just push an online multiplayer in the game because as people actually believes they have to have. Fear 2's online play was a rushed, horrible multiplayer, and one might debate on the singleplayer. That is just one example. A game does not need Co-op to be good, as many people complained about for Killzone 2. Listen to Adam Sessler at G4TV so you might get some sence in you, or listen to podcasts at iTunes. Let's say 1upfm or Giant Bombcast or Joystiq. Many good ones.
Just so everyone know this game is about pure fun, but offcourse people have different opinnions then what you do. I can see that many here gets that.
The three We dislike points do not have to drag down more then one. The developer focused more on the online multiplayer, all three dislikes of it were in singleplayer who also were good but not as good.
As a conclusion I say don't jude a game about the demo and yes maybe they were a little generous about it but at the end the experience that you got is the ending factor.
As I end this long boring text, yes I am aware that I wrote every review word like this: rewiev, I nearly fall asleep, and please do not pick on my bad english, vocabulary or poor misspellings.
Also please don't send back some retarded fanboy message. Come with good arguments for your opinion.
The End
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Snowspader |
Snowspader- 3:21am BST - June 9th, 2009
- 35
i actually have this game and they pretty much summed it up exactly
the destruction has been refined since hte demo, the buildings creak and groan and then fall down on one side which knocks the rest down
the story is basically about setting up cool moments and thats why the game is so awesome
i am yet to play an online game with lag less than abominable, but it hardly matters when u can drive your car straight through heaps of baricades and enemies into teh 2nd floor of an important building, get out and fight downstairs, then hammer your way throught the back of the building and detonate the car, and watch as all teh peices fly and crush the hordes of enemies and even as sum peices fly into nearby guard towers and cause them to lean over dramatically and crush the armoured jeeps now armed with enemies on their turrets.
and thats one of the targets that have no mission behind them, i just felt like blowing it up :D
what is a game if not a collaboration of really cool moments
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SON_OF_KRATOS
- 7:18pm BST - June 9th, 2009
- 37
i bought it, i loved it, my GF dumped me because i played it to much, my eyes burn from playing the multiplayer all night.........my rating......9!
i immediatly started on the multiplayer which to be honest, with a couple more wepaons and maps could be its very own game, i just now started the single player which so far is great, the reason it got a 9 not a 10 is because, the civilian behavior could have been more tuned up, for instance, if i point a thermo-rocket at someones face, i want them to run away, over all awesome game
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akiraburn |
akiraburn- 9:14pm BST - June 13th, 2009
- 40
Alright, so now I've completely finished the game, and here's my opinion. I never want to play this game again. By the time you finish single player, you've been cheated by the rediculously broken AI, overrun (and sometimes run over) by the unlimited number of enemies and enemy vehicles in nearly every mission, and just plain old fed up with the awful controls, the terrible camera angles, lack of story, repetitive missions, and lack of variety in nearly everything.
Sadly, this game is one of the most not fun games I have played this year. I was hoping for a lot with this, but there is so much that is wrong, I could go on for pages. And for everything right they're able to do, they seem to manage to do something wrong inside there that corrupts that potentially cool of fun aspect. I couldn't recommend this for any more than a rent to anyone, and that's if you really don't have anything else to play.
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headstrong24 |
headstrong24- 4:55pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 42
i played the demo and i thought it was okay but nothing worth buying for me so I don't agree with the score, i would give it aobut a 7 or 7.5
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SuPeR-67 |
SuPeR-67- 2:31pm BST - August 30th, 2009
- 44
Wow, here the deal. So many people are saying “9? 9? What? I played the demo and it was terrible!” Guess what!? The demo did suck the game isn’t worth 9, but the game is fantastic! Straight up fun! I don’t have to say much about the game play. Yeah its kind of repetitive and driving for 4 minutes to get somewhere is no kind of boring, but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with a huge map other than no radio when inside vehicles. The game is amazing, going inside a building to the top floor when you put C4 at the bottom level then hitting the detonator and seeing if you survive is truly fun. People are complaining about endless enemies? Your fighting in a war! Earth sent 40,000 EDF to mars to “protect” it. If you were any good you would realize they aren’t that hard. Unless your playing on hard or insane, because yeah that can be pretty hard. Its called running away. Also when you kill 5 in a row people come to help you plus you can build that up 5, 10, 15 come to help and so on, and do a good job at it. Straight up game is worth 8.8 of 10 and its hard to get a score that high from me.
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