Is there life on Mars? The question has piqued the interest of mankind for generations. Well, I'm happy to inform you that there is indeed life on the Red Planet, humanity actually. And I'm even happier to report that these people on Mars are living absolutely action-packed lives. They're not great lives; they actually
live pretty objectively horrible existences, but there are more explosions and buildings being toppled than we've ever seen here on plain old Earth, and that's interesting at least!
live pretty objectively horrible existences, but there are more explosions and buildings being toppled than we've ever seen here on plain old Earth, and that's interesting at least!
The Red Faction franchise is largely about human inhabitants of Mars, and their never-ending struggle to escape from the oppressive grasp of off-world corporations, as well the government from Earth. The protagonists of most Red Faction titles are miners who are experiencing particularly harsh lives, in horrible working conditions, and find themselves in a struggle to liberate their fellow man and achieve freedom. Red Faction: Guerilla specifically follows the trials and travails of Alec Mason (almost the same name as Alex Mason from the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise) who must take up arms against the antagonistic Earth Defense Force, who were allies in prior Red Faction games. Earth is in the midst of a total resource collapse, and the planet's government has directed the EDF to crack down on Martian workers to harvest the Red Planet's resources, so Alec and the Red Faction must push the EDF off of Mars.
While past Red Faction titles were linear, first-person shooters, Guerilla adapts that gameplay into an open-world, third-person shooter. This title maintains the incredibly satisfying destruction physics that the franchise is known for, and I seriously cannot praise that component enough. The destruction is the combustible, explosive beating heart of this game, and I found myself constantly chasing the next opportunity to blow a building to shambles or create a massive pile-up of vehicles and watch it all go sky high. Guerilla gives you tools to play with in their destructible playground, and it's so fun to just experiment with some of the physics and see what chaos you can create.
Alec's main weapon is a sledgehammer, which tells you everything you need to know about where the developers' heads were at. That hammer can be used to blow the walls out of a building, break beams in half, break apart concrete and otherwise systematically dismantle nearly every inch of the myriad buildings and structures that you encounter across Mars. And when you don't want to or can't use your hammer, you have plenty of firearms and explosives in your arsenal that can bring about just as much, if not more, mayhem. And beyond even that, there are also vehicles, tanks and construction machinery that you can pilot to wreak havoc.
Exploring the open world of Mars is a really cool experience. Given that Mars is obviously an entire planet, our story is set in a specific area - the Tharsis region. It's neat driving around this large alien world and passing by mines, factories, fueling stations, residences, etc. The existence on Mars is incredible spartan, with dirt roads, utilitarian, purely function-based building designs, etc, so while I personally would've loved to see regions that looked more diverse, what we see in-game is appropriate and fits the nature of the game.
The last thing I wanted to touch on is the online multiplayer component of Red Faction: Guerilla. I think the servers for this remastered version of the game have a very low population now, though supposedly folks have luck organizing matches through some fan-made Discord servers. If you're able to find some multiplayer matches, I strongly recommend checking it out. I played a ton of the multiplayer when the game originally released in 2009. In these PvP matches, you can really get a sense of how refined and solid the gunplay is in Guerilla. As you'd expect too, the trademark destruction element is present in these game modes as well, and it is endlessly funny to take a sledgehammer to the foundation of some sniper tower and watch the guy fall to his death.
Red Faction: Guerilla is a rock solid game through and through, and one of my very favorites from the Xbox 360/PS3 generation. This "Re-Mars-tered edition is a great remaster to get some higher quality graphics, and a nice way to enjoy the game on modern consoles. The story wasn't really a standout feature to me, but the gameplay more than makes up for any shortcomings. Guerilla became like a sci-fi Grand Theft Auto for me, where I'd just turn it on for an hour and roam the open world, causing as much mayhem as possible. If you're even remotely interested in this game, I'd recommend checking it out. I'd be surprised if you aren't hooked on the gameplay within a few minutes.
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