Red Faction: Guerrilla

[Peter McCoy]

Red Faction: Guerrilla is a third-person shooter video game in development by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ, set to be released June 9, 2009[3]. The game is the third installment in the Red Faction series.

Red Faction: Guerrilla will feature a third-person point of view; all previous Red Faction games were played in the first-person perspective.

That's the introduction taken from the wikipedia page for the game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Faction:_Guerrilla

I only found out about this yesterday while browsing the Games for Windows: Live website. Check out the HD trailer below:

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There's also a sort of sneak-peak from an XBOX360 show Live Wire:

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Remembering how great I thought the original was (and still is) I really can't wait to get my hands on this! I just love the bridge parts in that second video!

[Peter McCoy]

I guess I'm the only one interested in this one.

FYI the demo has been made available on XBOX 360 and PS3. I'm 40% downloaded so will check it out when I get back later.

[Peter McCoy]

u]Demo Review[/u]

While the demo was a lot of fun, it's so incredibly short. You get to play a maximum of around 10 minutes.

The situaion is you're just inside the perimeter of an EDF compound and have to steal a walker from the EDF forces based there, and get it back to the rendezvous point where your contact says he'll pick you up in a truck.

Your weapons are a sledgehammer, assault rifle and remote mines. There are two buildings designated as 'detonation objectives' and your minimap shows you how destroyed they are with a percentage of structural integrity/health. The walker is locked up in a garage on the other side of the compound and there are quite a large number of troops in the area.

I started off just messing about, getting used to the controls and I have to say, I didn't like the aiming. I loathe using the analogue stick to aim, it's really awkward compared to a mouse (as usual). Otherwise the controls are pretty standard for a free-roaming game. Analogue sticks to move and look/aim, shoulder buttons for attacking, switching weapons, and sprinting. Holding L3 (pressing the analogue stick down) makes you crouch, while pressing R3 puts you into fine-aiming mode, which offers a more precise, zoomed-in but slower aiming view. The 4 thumb buttons are for reloading, jumping, detonating mines and I can't remember the last one.

While I found the assault rifle really weak, there's an awesome small-arms weapon called the Peacekeeper that I picked up from a fallen guard. It offers more accuracy but slower firing - but it's much more effective than the rifle in my opinion. You can also use L2 for a melee swipe with your gun - this is also the sledgehammer attack button.

The sledgehammer is more than a weapon - it's a tool. At one point I found myself pinned down behind a building with several guards closing in on me and I had no ammo for the rifle (I wasted it all with random shooting when I first started playing). But the building I was behind had a guy inside (I could see him through the window). So I took out the sledgehammer and crashed through, killed him and took the ammo just in time as the troops closed in.

There are also tall explosive (gas/fuel) tanks, as well as what look like smaller propane tanks (Left 4 Dead players will know the sort).

You start with your back to a fence which separates the compound from the open world of Mars. There's traffic making use of a dirt road on the other side. I decided to test the freedom out and so smashed up the fence with the sledgehammer and commandeered a truck. But I drove away from the objective which failed the mission. I assume that's a feature put into the demo to limit the available content - I'd be very surprised if that happened in the full game since it's supposed to be free-roaming.

I had a lot of fun laying mines all over a nearby building and blowing it to kingdom-come :). The destruction effects are fantastic, as anyone whose seen the demo video's will have seen. It's so satisfying to see a structure in ruins and knowing you're responsible for it.

After messing around shooting guards, using buildings for cover (when holding a gun you can tap L2 next to some cover to press against it Metal Gear Solid-style) I decided to attempt the objective. I couldn't manage an on-foot approach due to the number of guards and sub-par aiming mechanism, so decided to cause a bit of a fuss near the start of the demo. I managed to attract the attention of additional troops, who showed up as reinforcements after I'd taken out the local guards. The troops arrived in an APC which I jumped in and made for the garage. After ploughing into the side of the building, I found myself inside, right next to the walker. This thing is quite big (not as huge as I was expecting based on comments by the developers in the 2nd video I posted above) and a lot of fun to drive. All you can really do is walk slowly and use the shoulder buttons to swing and swipe the huge mechanical arms. It's nothing special, but all it's really for is no-frills destruction so there's no issue there. I crashed through the garage doors, massacred the guards outside who were gunning for me, crushed the incoming APC's as I trudged along and made for the entry point. At one point I passed under a walkway. Using the swing attack, both the walkers arms rotated up, forward and down, smashing the walkway to pieces and knocking a crossing guard off in the process.

I got back to the entry point, crashed through the fence and the flatbed truck was waiting for me. I clambered onto it just as reinforcements were arriving in APC's and buggies. As my contact drove us away to meet up with the resistance, I got the opportunity to use some heavy firepower - a cannon mounted at the back of the truck. Blowing up the enemy vehicles was so much fun. Missing them was more devastating than hitting them full-on. Nearby explosions close to the wheels caused them to topple over and veer off the road out of control. Shooting gas tanks along the way was also quite effective. The demo ends as you cross a bridge - I managed to blow the bridge with the cannon just as we crossed, cutting off our pursuers. I heard someone say they were going to blow the bridge so I'm not sure if my actions did the trick (it was a pretty impressive explosion so I guess it was probably rigged).

Overall, very enjoyable. Graphics are great but not brilliant (I'd say Crysis is better), the gameplay is fun. However I'm certain I'll get the PC version based on the aiming issue - mouse ftw. Unless my USB mouse works - then I'd just need a USB keyboard I guess.

If you have an XBOX 360 or PS3, give it a try, it's available for free download right now.

[Travis North]

Awesome. I watched the vids and just finished reading the review.

Hopefully I can snag a copy sometime after launch. I was a big fan of Mercs: Playground of Destruction and the original Red Faction, Guerrilla seems to wrap both up into a nice bundle. It'll be interesting to see how multiplayer works out.

[Peter McCoy]

I pre-ordered the PC version on Monday in GAME - I get a free Walker figurine with it :)

[Peter McCoy]

So I pre-ordered the PS3 version the other day - the PC version isn't out until August.

Bought the game today.

I have to say I'm having a lot of fun with this so far. The destruction is just beautiful, and the missions are fun too. As withy my review of the demo, my only qualm is the aim. I will definitely be getting the PC version, but for now I'm thrilled to have it for the PS3.

There are main story missions which need to be completed, as well as extra ones which help you along the way. You can lower EDF control in a sector by destroying key installations such as supply depots and factories. Or you can ambush convoys by setting traps for them. Occasionally the EDF launch an assault on your own territory, and you'll get contacted to go help defend the area. There are also missions where a civilian will ask you to go help out some Red Faction members who have been captured - you need to get to them, free them and get the back to safety. Then you've got your interception missions, where an EDF courier will be transporting a delivery which you can steal. Oh yeah, you can also join other Red Faction members in raids on EDF installations too. There may be more types, they're just the ones I've encountered so far.

I have to agree with IGN in that the structure design is quite bland and could have been much more involved, complicated, imaginative and varied. I hope there's an editor released for the PC version - perhaps even the ability to alter the terrain (though it's not destructible as with the first two installments).

I've yet to try any multiplayer but reading about what's available has grabbed my attention si I'll try it this weekend.

[Khendon Sevon]

There are probably reasons for the structures being bland and not too varied.

For one, the more structures you have that are dissimilar, the more art assets you have to create and, of course, eventually load into memory. Since they shipped on PS3 and 360, they probably have a smaller budget (in the performance sense) for the quantity of textures and static meshes.

The other issue is in the destruction of buildings. The most efficient way to generate destroyable buildings is with pre-computation of the elements composing said buildings. Basically, you already know how everything will break apart, what it will look like after, etc.

Dynamically generating this data is a huuuuge performance hog in cycles and memory. It's fine if you're not creating a real-time, 30 fps simulation; but, as soon as those requirements are thrown in, dynamic destruction is out the window.

[Peter McCoy]

Point well made and taken mate. Like I said, it's my only (not to mention minor) gripe with a thoroughly entertaining game.

Though it really does get me excited to wonder whast we'll be playing in 5 years time. :)

[Khendon Sevon]

Expect massively parallel and asynchronous computing with extremely detailed textures :)

I think most games right now for console are 780p? Or whatever that particular resolution is (I forget). It'll go well beyond that with the next generation of consoles.

I can't wait :)

We've already maxed out the PS3 and 360 tech-wise.

[Dasquian Belargic]

This game is the subject of the latest Zero Punctuation review:

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:lol

[Xavier Synik]

I think he liked it :lol