Red Faction: Guerrilla

The wall-blasting Red Faction returns, but just how destructible is the environment in Red Faction: Guerrilla?

For the first time in the series, Red Faction is a third-person game.

For the first time in the series, Red Faction is a third-person game.

It was at THQ's recent Gamer's Day event that we got our first hands-on experience with the new Red Faction: Guerrilla for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It's been six years since Red Faction II, which was a first-person shooter that centered on Geo-Mod technology that allowed players to blast holes in the environment. Hence the term, destructible environments. The Geo-Mod tech was impressive for it's time, but didn't work the way players expected. So how does Red Faction: Guerrilla stack up compared to the previous installments?

Suspension and Tension

First off, RF: Guerrilla is a third-person shooter with a cover system that controls very similarly to Gears of War and Resident Evil 4. There were four weapons to choose from in our brief demo, and we tried them all. An anti-personnel assault rifle, grenade launcher, mining hammer, and the return of the trusty satchel charges are all mapped to the directional pad for easy access. We played as a bulky mining rebel placed in the center of a thriving outpost on the planet Mars. A variety of vehicles drove about as if they had business to attend to; pedestrians crowded the dirt roads and looked plenty busy themselves. But most eye-catching were the concrete structures spread about just waiting to meet our mighty hammer.

The hammer can be swung both vertically or horizontally using the left and right triggers, which causes structures to crumble in different ways. We took the horizontal approach and began swiping away at a nearby four-sided building one wall at a time.

The assault rifle is too weak to destroy buildings, but works great against the EDF foot soldiers.

The assault rifle is too weak to destroy buildings, but works great against the EDF foot soldiers.

Tearing into the building revealed steel rebar support and crumbled blocks of concrete. After carving out a gaping smile in two sides of the structure, we stood back anticipating what real physics would consider unsustainable pressure and an impending structural collapse. However, nothing happened. We took out a third wall, and again nothing happened. After all four sides were gone, there was virtually nothing but air between the foundation and remaining roof of the structure, but it still stood for another good three seconds until...crash! The upper half of the building came pummeling down as if lingering built up the anticipation. A heaping cloud of radial smoke approximately 50 feet wide filled the area.

We were a little disappointed in the highly unrealistic physics, but there's something extremely satisfying when buildings collapse in a John-Woo style of suspended belief. We agree that this stylized degree of destruction is more of an opinionated personal experience, so what do you think?

The cover system in Red Faction: Guerrilla feels just like Gears of War.

The cover system in Red Faction: Guerrilla feels just like Gears of War.

Comments [16]

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FURIOUSstyles84

Yeh i hope they need the physics 2b almost perfect, either way its about time they came back and I'm excited 4 it. Hope they bring back all the good weapons (Railgun) and some new ones.

tailgate24

yes, fixing those physics is a definite necessity! but i still can't wait for this game. after reading about it in GameInformer i was stoked. the first two games were great (if only for their time).

NeutralGamer83

I loved the first one for the PS2 it was so silly and fun, unfortunitly they killed the series and my interest in it after the first but i think this one will resurrect it close or hopefully better than the first, cant wait to go mining on mars!

teh2Dgamer

God damnit! I said give me a f***ing sequel to Red Faction not Gears of f***ing War Theft Auto with destructible environments. They screwed the pooch on this one. Fuck this game, and fuck Volition then.[p] Maybe they should just stick to shitty GTA ripoffs instead. *looks at this game* oh they are.

TheTeacher

The mining mech and plane look awesome, I loved the first one, too. But about the physics and that building falling, maybe it's for the best. For example, you're in a heavy fire fight and accidentally knock out that fourth wall, only to be insta-killed by the building collapsing. I don't know, I'll hold judgement on that until I see it in action.

StormKing

teh2Dgamer Posted at: 04/24/08 at 8:46 PM PST God damnit! I said give me a f***ing sequel to Red Faction not Gears of f***ing War Theft Auto with destructible environments. They screwed the pooch on this one. heck this game, and heck Volition then. Maybe they should just stick to shitty GTA ripoffs instead. *looks at this game* oh they are.
Calm the F@#k down man...while i'll agree that they should've kept Red Faction a FPS instead of jumping on the 3rd person shooter bandwagon, there's no reason to be that pissed off about it.

Goofball1

I got the game for the PC and PS system. Great game. Hopefully they fix he physics and the game turns out to be something like Crysis. Red Faction was a great game

donkeykong57

I love Red Faction for the PS2. Before I owned the game I had the demo, which I would spend 3 - 5 hours blowing up holes into the walls, recreating the Underground Railroad. It never seemed to end. Good times

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