The Red Faction series goes open-world with this tale of Martian liberation.

by Jason Ocampo


April 2008 - Maybe it's the reddish Martian setting or the fact that my character looks like an Ordinary Joe fighting The Man, but there's something about Red Faction: Guerilla that sort of reminds me of the movie Total Recall. To be fair, there's also a healthy bit of open-world action as well, as you can jump in and out of a variety of vehicles and take out soldiers with an arsenal of weapons. Plus, there are the destructible environments that the Red Faction series is known for. Of course, this is only the third Red Faction game, and the first one is five years, so you might not remember the earlier games.



The previous Red Factions were conventional, linear shooters, so the big news in Red Faction: Guerilla is that the series has gotten a massive overhaul, one inspired by Grand Theft Auto and THQ's own Saints Row. It's now an open-world type game, but instead of running around an American city, you're jaunting about Mars. You play as a member of the Red Faction resistance movement trying to overthrow the oppressors of the Earth Defense Force.

The demo I played gave me four weapons, some of which are improvised. For instance, since you start off as a miner, your main weapon is a powerful hammer that can pretty much destroy everything around you. Take a swing and you can carve chunks out of concrete, knock down poles, and destroy pretty much everything in the game. It's also disturbingly satisfying to connect with one of those annoying EDF soldiers. Then there's a rocket launcher, and you know what that's good for. Next up are satchel charges that you can scatter and detonate remotely. Finally, there's an assault rifle, when you need to reach out and kill someone from a distance.

I plopped in the middle of a small Martian outpost, and I presume that a huge amount of terraforming must have happened, because my character could run around outside without a suit on. There's a bustling amount of activity going on as citizens mill about, but there are missions to pursue, as well. Icons on the minimap indicate missions I can pursue, such as taking out a convoy as it passes through the town. Thankfully, the rocket launcher can pump out rounds, so the vehicles weren't much of an issue. Meanwhile, the assault rifle and hammer took care of the infantry. In the middle of the battle, I realized I had picked up an ally, and one of the aspects of the game is that you can inspire fellow Martians to take up weapons and battle the EDF.

Afterwards, I jumped into a nearby truck and drove to an enemy base, which probably wasn't a smart idea because I found myself surrounded by an unlimited number of spawning enemies. At least it gave me a chance to exhaust every weapon at my disposal. Ammunition can become a huge issue, though you can usually pick up ammo for the assault rifle from fallen soldiers. Then there's the trusty hammer, but you need to get close to use it. The hammer came in useful a number of times, too. For instance, a sentry in a bunker might hide out of your line of sight. No problem; just use the hammer to bash a wall down.

There are definitely some cool vehicles in the game. Given that this is the future, there are big robotic walkers that you can pilot. Yes, giant robots. Then there are armored personnel carriers and other nifty machines. I didn't get much of a sense of narrative, though. This was just a first chance to get the hammer in my hands and swing away. And to that effect, the destruction seems cool and less gimmicky than it would in a linear shooter. Since this is basically an open-ended game, you'll probably find a lot of uses for that hammer that the designers didn't envision. We'll all find out sometime in 2009, when Red Faction: Guerilla is expected to ship.