21 Days Later – Red Faction: Guerrilla

Well, this is beginning of an on-going article for me.  The whole concept behind this is those games that we miss on launch day, because the finances aren’t there or because they just aren’t on the top of our lists, and going back to try them out after the fact.  My wife works at Blockbuster, and I have a 21 day waiting period on renting games after launch, hence the title.  These games won’t be ones that are just 21 days old, but ones that are fairly new, but some of us haven’t gotten around to playing.

I’m going to base the grading on the same scale as our normal reviews (out of $60), just because that is an easy scale that we have been using.  I will also cover some notes about rental and such in the thoughts.

This week, we are going to cover a review of Red Faction: Guerrilla.  This game was developed by Volition, and released by THQ to consoles on June 2, 2009 (with a later release on PC of September 15, 2009).

Expectations Going In:

Coming in, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I had kind of been pressured into renting this by Enfarine, as she picked this game up and was raving about it, saying how much fun it was bashing people with hammers.  Since my game rentals are free, I figured I would give it a shot.

On a side note, I had played the demo and had not been impressed.  It felt very loose and just unpolished.  With this in mind, as alluded to above, I kind of had to be coerced into renting this game because of my initial impressions.

How Expectations Were Met:

As I didn’t have many expectations (besides not really being impressed with the game), there were really none to be met.  Instead, I’ll hit some of the high points of the game for me.

Many of the control complaints I had seem to be polished out.  Movement is responsive (though it can be kind of disorienting if you turn your sensitivity up to the max, as I normally do), gunplay feels pretty good (there are caveats to this, see the next section), and the unlimited sprint is a good thing.

The game looks pretty good.  The little touches of the dust devils on the road as you are driving and the character models look great.  The buildings and walls breaking apart are really where the game’s GeoMod 2 engine shines, with the walls smashing to reveal the steel rebar embedded, and the walls and supports blowing out.  The nano rifle is exceptionally cool as it eats away supports when shot.

Multiplayer is fun, once you get the hang of it.  There are a lot of backpacks and weapons, so many combinations to try out.  It makes it a very customizable experience, and you get to play with some cool toys.  The modes are pretty interesting, too.  You have your normal Anarchy and Team Anarchy (Deathmatch), as well as Capture the Flag.  The other modes is where it gets interesting.

Image courtesy of IGN

First you have Damage Control.  This is basically a territory control game, but with a twist.  You have 3 points on the map, and you team must get to the point and rebuild the target with your Reconstructor to take control of it, then defend it from the enemy.  If the enemy is able to destroy it and rebuild it, then they take control.

Siege is an attack and defend style game.  There is a large structure (or multiple structures) that, as the attackers, you must work on destroying.  Points are awarded on how much you destroy in the time allotted or, if you level the structures, how much time it took.  Then you switch with the other team and they attack while you defend the structures.

Demolition is the final mode.  One person plays as the engineer (the role rotates between all players of the team) and tries to destroy the environment, gaining points, and everyone else is tasked with defending him.  The other team does the same.

How They Were Not Met:

The game gets very repetitive.  In single player, you are working to liberate Mars from the EDF.  You do this by doing missions for the guerrillas, destroying EDF buildings, and doing a variety of actions, such as attacking an EDF-held building or rescuing guerrilla hostages.  The basic pattern is do a few actions, destroy some targets to get salvage and upgrade your weapons, then do the missions and move on to the next area.  It’s not to say that it isn’t fun for the most part, but if you had complaints about Assassin’s Creed being repetitive, you will have the same complaints here.

The multiplayer, for me, is one that I probably will not play without having some friends to form a team.  It was very confusing at first (watch the tutorial videos, it helps), but having a friend who has played explain the different backpacks and weapons, playing a few private matches to get a feel for them, and show you the modes helped tremendously.

Overall Thoughts:

Red Faction: Guerrilla, for me, was a lot more fun than I expected after having played the demo.  When initially coming into this, I would never have seen myself purchasing the game, but if I could get it at a decent price, I would probably purchase.

The single player is a bit limited, and will probably last about 10-15 hours or so for the person who plays right through it without doing every action or destroying every EDF building.  The multiplayer, I think, is where this game shows kind of what it is made of.  It can be confusing at first, but the Damage Control, Siege, and Demolition modes are a lot of fun once you have a basic handle on the weapons and backbacks.

For a rental, I would definitely say it is worth the $9 (Blockbuster, 5-day rental price).  I am keeping it for another week to finish off the single player, for sure.

Grade: $45/60