Red Faction Guerrilla Mars Doesn’t Get Much More Fun Than This!

I have to admit that I am somewhat of a Red Faction virgin. This is my first trip to Mars and so I come to this game with an untainted viewpoint. I did though get a most excellent opportunity a few weekends ago when I was invited down to Sony's London HQ to try out the multiplayer side of Red Faction Guerrilla at a special gamers day, which was wicked! In this review though I'm going to be looking at the single player side of the game, I will look at the MP side of things at a later date

Red Faction Guerrilla is the third in the Red Faction series and in a change to the norm the developers Volition have changed from the 1st person viewpoint of the previous games and opted for the 3rd person. You play Alec Mason who has just arrived on Mars to meet up with his Brother in the hope of making a few quid doing a spot of mining. Fairly quickly you get the message that "something" is not right about Mars, people are pissed off about someone and that someone is the EDF ( The Earth Defense Force ).

Straight away you find out that the EDF are ruling Mars with an iron fist and they treat the general populous like shite. You soon start hearing about the Red Faction a group of pissed off miners that are fighting back and it turns out your brother is heavily involved. As a result of his involvement your brother is a wanted man and when the EDF come calling its the end of the road for Bro Mason. This as you would imagine pisses Alec Mason off mightily and he is drawn headlong into the Red Faction uprising as a Guerrilla Warrior!

Your general mission in Red Faction Guerrilla is to liberate Mars from the EDF for the people. You have to work though areas doing everything you can to irritate, piss off and destroy the EDF so they get the hump and leave the area. The trouble is though, is that the EDF are hard as nails, they have all the guns and their vehicles are all armor plated, you on the other hand have to use what ever the Red Faction can get their hands on. You have to be inventive and you soon realise that you can't take them all on, they just don't stop coming and there are thousands of them.

Red Faction Guerrilla is whats know as a Sand Box type game, you are free to go and do what you wish, you can follow the missions and achieve the objectives or you can just muck about in the sand! Each area has a selection of Missions for you to attempt, some are as simple as just blowing up some EDF buildings, some you have to defend areas or people, some you take down EDF convoys or steal their vehicles. Every thing you do either helps the cause or hampers it. Every time you complete a mission the EDF's hold on the area goes down and the colonists moral rises, but if you kill a colonist then the moral goes down so you have to be careful.

Now one of the best things in Red Faction is the destructibility, when I say they have gone to town with this they really have. The buildings are all 100% destructible and when you hit them with your hammer or a missile launcher they really do behave in a realistic way, small bits fall off and if you break a supporting structure, the whole side of the building caves in, its very satisfying indeed.

Within each area of the map you have a safe house where you will spawn when you die, which you inevitably will. Later in the game you are able to go to the safe house at will by accessing your map and selecting your safe house, this is very useful when you are low on ammo on your last legs and have got half the EDF army breathing down your neck.

The Vehicles of Red Faction Guerrilla are an essential tool in your fight against the EDF, for starters you need one to get from A-B, but some of them are great for causing a bit of mayhem as well. On the Red Faction side you mainly get access to Dune Buggy's, Pickup Trucks, Lorry's and Dumper Trucks, essentially the tools of the the mining trade, some are equipped with machine guns which are handy additions. I personally found though that the EDF vehicles are a much better ride and so I always try to nick one of their amour plated cars whenever the opportunity arises.

Later in the game you have access to a range of walkers that are literally kick ass!! Imagine if you will the walkers from the film Aliens, the ones in Red Faction Guerrilla are very similar and just as devastating! These are great for flattening these pesky EDF buildings in one fell swoop and are great for taking on the droves of EDF foot soldiers. Tanks are also there for that taking occasionally and they are particularly good for causing massive destruction.

In Red Faction Guerrilla, Alec Mason always has access to his trusty and particularly lethal Ostrich Hammer. Having this as your default weapon makes a real change from most other games where you generally get lumped with a rubbish pistol of a knife, the ostrich hammer is fantastic for swatting those EDF numpties out of your way in one swoop. As well as this you have access to remote charges, massess and masses of them, machine guns, shotguns, missile lanunchers and a great selection of different from the norm weapons like the grinder that fires leathal disks at the unsuspecting EDF blokes. All in all you are going to have some fun with all this lot!

The storyline is very engrossing and I feel it has the right amount of cut scenes to keep you interested, but not too many that its all you see. Not only do you have the EDF to deal with but another group inhabits on Mars known as the marauders, they look just like something out of MadMax and they are very hard to tackle, popping up out of nowhere most of the time when you least expect them. I'm only part of the way through myself and I'm really looking forward to finishing of the EDF once and for all! I really like the fact you can choose your own path through the game and all the little side tasks keep the game very fresh and interesting. I had hoped to finish more of the game before writing this review but life with a young Son means not much gaming time for Daddy!

I am thoroughly enjoying playing Red Faction Guerrilla, some days its all I can think about doing all day long, now that's the sign of a great game if all you want to do is s play it! I can't recommend it enough to you I think it has something for everyone and I really think you won't regret it when you get your copy of Red Faction Guerrilla. you can find out more with the links below.

"Red Faction: Guerrilla (PS3)" (THQ)

"Red Faction: Guerrilla (Xbox 360)" (THQ)

"Red Faction: Guerrilla (PC DVD)" (THQ)

THQ Red Faction Guerrilla website

Not sure if you have seen them but the Series 2 Lego Minifigures are seriously wicked!

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