Mars was thought of as a free zone, a place where miners could seek their fortune, and that was the original intent. To that end, the planet was terraformed to support humanity, giving it an atmosphere. Then the Earth Defense Force (or EDF) moved in and the notion of a “Free Mars” became mostly a propaganda ploy to attract colonists.

What they found there, instead of a free society, was martial law, ruled by the EDF, where there were execution squads and sectors of the planet so tightly controlled as to be considered colonies of slaves.

Alec Mason, a mining engineer, travels to Mars to join his brother, Daniel, but within moments of his arrival, he realizes his brother is embroiled in something more than merely mining. His brother is actually a member of the rebel force known as Red Faction. Alec does not wish to be involved, and his just getting his feet wet on a world with salvaged material is like gold. But on their first salvage operation, the Mason brothers are tracked down by an EDF gunship and Daniel is shot and killed.

With the EDF it is strictly guilt by association. Alec is held and ordered executed on the spot. That’s when a Red Faction unit arrives and frees him. Given little other choice, Alec must go with the Red Faction and work on their behalf.

That’s the basic storyline behind THQ’s Red Faction Guerrilla title, a game set 50 years after the events in Red Faction. The game is a combination of pure destructive entertainment with third-person shooter action in a mission-based setting.

You start with a sledgehammer and some explosives but can upgrade dramatically

The whole idea is that the resistance, or rebel forces, are trying to force the EDF from six zones on the planet, and to do that, you – as Alec- must determine what the control value is for each sector and then either destroy EDF structures and/or run missions until the control value is reduced to zero – at which point the EDF will abandon that sector. There are ‘safe houses’ in each location that provides missions as well as updates to the Red Faction handbook – sort of a handy reference tool that gives the player ideas for how to accomplish things within the game’s frame.

(It needs to be noted that the version of the program received was for the PS3 debug unit, and while it was indicated that there was a newer version available during the installation process, attempts to get that newer version resulted in error messages and aborted downloads.)

Finding missions is easy and the whole concept of the salvage system gives the game a somewhat arcade/role-playing feel. The salvage drops from your missions and destruction placement of bombs, glimmering like power-ups in an arcade game. You collect that salvage and then take it back to the base camp where you can exchange it for upgrades to equipment. In this manner, the game rewards players for their efforts.

If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the ... wait, I DO have a hammer ...

Die and the game resets from the last auto-save point. The game has several ways to play including a mini-game that drops players into a zone and allows them unlimited ammunition with which to do as much damage as they can with a one-minute window. The damage is scored with the high score winning the competition.

The user interface allows players to equip up to four items, each attached to the hotkeys that pop up when players hit R2. If you select the charges, R1 will throw the bombs (use the targeting reticle) and then the O button will detonate them. The interface is very user friendly and players should not feel bogged down in it.

The voice work in Red Faction Guerilla is well done. The acting expresses the appropriate amount of emotion and drives the story nicely. The graphics are also well done, with the explosions looking very nice, with peripheral effects (in one of the first missions, you can get an extra bang if you detonate near the gas containers). The animation is good and players can not only move along the ground, but hop into vehicles and drive them.

Red Faction is not a game that requires a huge learning curve. In fact, players will be able to jump into this title relatively quickly and enjoy what it has to offer. While not exactly new or groundbreaking in nature, and the AI at times is a bit suspect, it is still a solid action game that should appeal to those looking for a gaming fix that steps outside the normal shooter variety. This is a bit of a directed experience, but it still manages to be entertaining and the story does a nice job of pulling players along.

Gameplay: 8.2
The camera can be rotated to follow the action, but is not always that intuitive. The user interface is easy to use and players should be able to drop into this without a lot of difficulty. The map can make this game easy to navigate, though increasing the difficulty setting applies a solid challenge to the mission objectives.

Graphics: 8.7
Good explosions, and solid character animations.

Sound: 8.4
A good score and the voice acting is well done.  

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.4
Not a whole lot is brand new here in terms of the way the action plays out, but give the dev team a lot of credit for the way the material is delivered. The maps are easy to read

Multiplayer: NA
There is multiplayer and LAN action, but that was not available with the version received for review.

Overall: 8.4
A nice take on some pretty standard plot elements. The game combines solid ideas in a way that is easy to understand and utilize. And the developer did a very nice job in terms of the game’s presentation and pacing. There are a few missteps here and there that can fluctuate the difficulty within a mission (the AI can be a bit iffy, and if you work through a building demolition fast enough, you can avoid much more trouble than if you dawdle), but overall, this is a game worth checking out.