Volition returns to the red planet with Red Faction: Guerilla
- Posted April 18th, 2008 at 17:19 EDT by
- 5,410 views
- 13 Comments
For it’s third Red Faction game, THQ and developer Volition have decided to bring the action to the surface and create a third-person perspective, sci-fi-driven action game. A playable demo of the game was on display at THQ’s recent Editor’s Day even and Volition’s Ishmael Vicens, associate producer of Red Faction: Guerilla, was on hand to talk about the new PlayStation 3 game, which is currently slated to ship in the very wide window of Fiscal Year 2009.
PSU: How is this game connected to the original Mars first-person shooter?
Ishmael Vicens: We’ve returned to Mars 50 years after the events of the first game. The Earth Defense Force, which swooped in and saved the miners in the original game, never left Mars. They’ve privatized the planet and the miners have once again lost their freedom. Upset and frustrated, they call up the Red Faction name to rise up once again and fight for their independence. There are a lot of thematic callbacks to the original game in this story.
PSU: Why did you abandon the first-person shooter perspective for this third game?
Vicens: The game is now a third-person perspective open world game set above ground. We’ve focused on physics-based and stress-based destruction. Everything in the game can be destroyed. And the way in which buildings crumble is based on the materials with which they were built. This adds a strategy element to destroying structures, since you can target a particular floor of a building and take that out. It’s all based on where the impact originates and how that structure was erected.
PSU: So these aren’t scripted events but dynamic happenings in the game world?
Vicens: Yes. This part of the gameplay is completely unique. If you have the tools (weapons) to do it, you can go wherever you want. No wall or structure will stand in your way. You simply go through it. You can knock out an entire floor with guys above you in the middle of a battle and then pulverize them. There’s no scripting. They’ll literally fall as the floor crumbles.
PSU: Can you talk about the setting of this desert town demo you’re showing?
Vicens: This is the town of Dust and the demo takes place during an early part of the game. Dust is a corporate mining town on the frontier. It’s essentially a patchwork of buildings. We’ve built in random unscripted events that will occur on their own that can impact the game. A convoy will occasionally drive through town. A raid might happen while you’re there and it’s your choice whether to take part in it or just move on.
PSU: How big is this new Red Faction?
Vicens: The game world is huge. There are dozens of zones to explore. We’re only showing part of one zone in the demo. All of the action takes place on the terraformed surface in this game. We explored underground in the previous games and to really show off the destruction of this engine it was best to have all of the action on the surface.
PSU: What kind of vehicles are in the game?
Vicens: Some of the vehicles we’re showing are pick-up trucks, EDF scout vehicles, heavy APCs. Later in the game you’ll get to drive tanks. Although the enemy will have flying vehicles, the player will be limited to on-ground combat. The walkers are fun to play.
PSU: What weapons are you showing now?
Vicens: The mining charges are just brutal tools of war because you can use them to blow up anything. There are also rocket launchers, assault rifles, and the trusty axe that every miner has. You can take any weapon from dead EDF soldiers lying around the battlefield, so that opens up new, more advanced weapons.
PSU: What separates Red Faction: Guerilla from not only the first games, but from other titles ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 5:43pm BST - April 18th, 2008
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I don't like the way THQ has been treating the PS3 lately but this game looks worth buying. Hopefully not playing the first 2 won't hinder the game.
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PSU, what's been up with your servers today?
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BillMalibu |
BillMalibu- 5:49pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 2
Can't wait to see the transformation to the next gen level. Bring it on! I only played the first one, back in the days, and that been quite some step at that time.
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6toes
- 6:19pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 3
Wow i havn't seen anything on this game since it was announced but this sounds amazing. I loved Red Faction 1 and Red Faction 2 was alright, though much less destructive. Good to hear the destruction has improved vastly, and the free roaming elements are welcome of course.
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RedDragon7 |
Pheonix7- 9:17pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 6
Sounds like it will be a great game and a big step in the Red Faction franchise.
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AclayPS3
- 9:36pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 7
I'm not too sure about THQ as develoopers, because they cancelled the PS3 version of Frontlines Fuel of War.
I played the first Red Faction game and liked it and I own Red Faction 2 and it was O.k. too. I really don't agree with their decision to make the game in 3rd person, but maybe it will turn out pretty good. The thing that I have liked about the Red Faction game is that literally everything in a game is destructable.
I'm definantly not anticipating this game to be a hit, but who knows, maybe it will turn out like Call of Duty 4, there's just no telling.
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BlueRevolvuR |
BlueRevolvuR- 10:42pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 8
^^^
Well actually I'm glad Frontlines didn't come to the PS3 because it was a cr@ppy game, a rippoff of Warhawk. This game looks promising as a possible game to get in 09 maybe.
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caveman7
- 10:57pm BST - April 18th, 2008
- 10
I'm actually getting kinda excited about this game. RFII was a flop, but RFI was not only an awesome game with a story but completely new in concept.
I would guess it's 3rd person because it's massive map style, almost all games with massive free-exploring maps are 3rd person. Personally, I don't really like 3rd person games because the aiming is usaully wierd, but this game could still be great.
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gingo |
gingo- 7:11pm BST - April 19th, 2008
- 12
psn id: gingo...... this sounds actually really good but if theres gonna be framerate slowdown whenever a building collapses on the ps3 version, which seems to be the case with most multiplatform games these days, then they will have ruined a potentially brilliant concept
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