You always wanted to break stuff.... here's a hammer.

Ever since i can remember games either have had either indestructible buildings or slightly damageable ones, but Red Faction: Guerrilla, changed that, hopefully for good, but it suffers from some not too exciting design choices.

It starts putting you right in the action and giving you reason enough to want to fight the EDF ( once heroes, now corrupted by power), the first thing i noticed were the great cutscene graphics, it truly looks marvelous but the in game graphics left me a bit disappointed, everything looks detailed with some nice visual effects but nothing out of the ordinary (plus mars isn't the most exciting environment to look at) ,BUT the physics and the detail of the destruction of buildings makes it worth it. Never have i seen such realistic looking, behaving and sounding buildings (nothing like concrete thumping in the floor and groaning steel wanting to give away and take the whole building with it), whack it with the sledgehammer (badass starting weapon, i never stopped using it) and watch the chunks fall off, place explosives, shoot an rpg at it or my personal favorite, smash a car through it and the building will react to all those, it's a great experience, and that destructibility adds a strategic side to the combat, create a new door for you to flank your enemies (which are smarter than i expected), destroy their cover, or just blow the whole building down, your choice.

Which takes me to the gameplay, which is the usual sandbox game progression, there are main missions, which are varied enough to make them interesting, and there are some epic battles in those, side missions(or guerrilla actions, some which suddenly pop up and allow you to intercept someone, go to a location and defend it and etc), collectibles to destroy, secret stuff to find and the best part about the game, lowering the EDF's control over an area, which is done by destroying EDF buildings, and there's where the game's genius lies,YOU choose how to destroy it, hit and run attack, attack it for a while and retreat or just crash a vehicle through the building and blowing the car with building and all while you escape like an action hero unscathed.... if you're fast enough, whatever you want to do, and there is where the game shines, though after a while it can get a bit repetitive, and it doesn't help that the open world isn't too interesting to explore, except for finding buildings to destroy. Plus the story is forgettable at best, it had some potential but they didn't bother integrating it better and making it more interesting. But the thing is that when you are in the middle of a mission, raid or guerrilla action, you just won't care, the feeling you get from the intense action is great, this is one of those games that are easy to pick up and play but it'll get tiring in a few hours, at least until you stop playing and pick it up later again.

One of the best things about the game are the upgrades which increase your ability to own people and buildings alike, and you'll always have something to buy upgrades for so you don't max out your skills before the game ends. The weapon selection is varied enough and you'll always have to choose carefully for whatever your about to do. And the protagonist is a likeable character, shame that the game didn't have a better plot.

So after all that the game is enjoyable and it'll change how you look at buildings in other games, but it never reaches it's full potential and the repetitive aspect of it can get annoying.

Graphics: boring environment, nothing out of the ordinary, great cutscene graphics, great physics and damage models for the buildings. 4.5

Control: they do their job, and the weapon hotkeys are comfortable enough, though i sometimes selected the wrong weapon, but it was most likely due to the intense fire around me. 4.5

Sound: good voice acting, decent musical score, impressive sound effects. 4.75

Fun Factor: 4.5