Get your ass to mars!
I haven’t had enough time with the single player of Red Faction guerilla to honestly review it, but I feel the multiplayer is so good that I didn’t want to wait to talk about it.
Volition has a long history of making innovative and exciting games, including the Descent and Freespace series, as well as Saints row. One of their often overlooked games was the original Red Faction on PS2. At the time the ability to deform terrain and destroy parts of levels was quite innovative and well done, but the internet community as it is wont to do backlashed with bitter complaints that the game did not deliver all that was promised. Personally I think Red faction was great. Feel that the single player experience stood in good company with the great PC shooters of the period including Half-Life, and that The Geo mod technology made for many interesting and thrilling split screen deathmatches. Sadly the sequel Red faction II was completely forgettable.
When I heared that a new Red faction game was coming from volition, and that it would be an open world game similar to their other franchise Saint’s Row, I was intrigued. I was even more excited as I started reading about the multiplayer. The multiplayer in Saints Row 1-2 was very good and very underated, to imagine a similar third person experience was exciting. What has been delivered is even better than what I had hoped for.
It's hammer time!
Red Faction Guerilla’s multiplater combines elements of a lot of classic PC and console shooters and mods. The gameplay most reminds me of Unreal Championship 2, Tribes, Chaos deathmatch, Saints Row, and of course Red faction.
The stategies provided by Red faction guerilla’s supremely destructible environments is enhanced by the numerous backpacks that can be found throughout the levels. They allow for such things as boosting through a wall unharmed in order to ambush the enemy, flight, stealth, improved attack or defense, and by far my favorite, the ability to burst through the roof in order to give that pesky sniper a really bad head day with your Hammer.
Instruments of destruction
The Hammer being just one of a very nice arsenal of weapons, with which to wreak your terror. In addition to the usual selection of guns and rockets there are also more unusual items such as a Tribes style disk launcher, and a Painkeep/Chaos deathmatch inspired singularity bomb that can bring down the house on your foes.
And what a beautiful sight it is when all that accurately physics modelled debris is flying. Unlike most games there is no fakery hear when you tear a building apart what you see is what you get. Even more amazing I have never once seen even the slightest hint of slowdown or lag due to this (at least on the Playstation 3 which is the version I have)
The really impressive part of this multiplayer package is that it in no way feels tacked on. Everything is well balanced and thought out. all the bells and whistles in terms of server options and a call of duty style XP system are in place. Personally I would have paid $60 for just the Multiplayer in this game.
Bottom line, If you miss the days when multiplayer shooters where fun and chaotic, but also like a healthy dose of thoughtful tactical play, this should satisfy you completely.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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Oh man. I haven’t really touched MP untill i finished the SP which was quite enjoyable, and offcourse you can expect a review of that portion later.
But now that i’ve played the MP for two nights in a row I can wholeheartedly support Brett’s bold claim of just blowing 60$ for the MP itself.
It’s just that good !
As is mentioned before the game is incredibly well balanced and it all feels and seems fair no matter what equipment you pit against eachother.
Speaking of equipment, there’s alot of that ! Optional backpacks you can find scattered troughout the level provide you with abilities.
The SP only went as far as giving you a jetpack, but there’s so much more to run a muck with in MP.
Tremor pack, creates earthquakes around you that causes buildings to crumble, the rhino pack allows you to smash trough objects and other players
whilst the vision pack allows you to spot those annoying campers.
Where as COD4 MP had the XP craxck going for it, in RFG every battle will be completly different and unique in the way the players cause havoc with the enviroment
creating new places to hide or depending on the strategy all out destroying any chance of cover you may have had.
So I totally couldn’t care less about the XP system in the RFG MP but hey for those crackheads it’s there along with a ton of trophy’s to be earned.
For those of you lucky enough to live in America, just go out and rent it i’m sure you wouldn’t be dissapointed.