Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered
Gameplay
I distinctly remember playing Red Faction Guerrilla when it first came out in 2009 (I had to look it up) and I recall that it was fun and dumb. There’s a certain charm to chipping away at a multi-story building with a sledgehammer and then watching physics take over once it comes crumbling down. That experience is fun in a way that isn’t captured in many games now so it’s very welcome in this remaster. A lot of the gameplay reflects this too which is great. The actual missions are pretty straight-forward but some allow a certain degree of freedom with how you handle each objective. The mission that stands out is one where you have to take out some enemy snipers and, as you might expect, the snipers are all on top of buildings. In any other game, you might have to shoot them from the ground or climb up their buildings and fight it out on the roof maybe. Red Faction lets you bring the whole building down and bring the sniper down to your level.
The content around the main campaign also builds upon this sense of chaotic fun. Many of the side-quests are about destroying as much as possible, the Wrecking Crew side mode is different variations on destroying a level, and while the multiplayer does have a regular assortment of deathmatch and capture the flag style modes, there’s also a mode built around competitive destruction. Again, maybe I’m missing out on something really special but from a gameplay standpoint Red Faction Guerrilla is really refreshing and not many games available now are “hit this building with a hammer until the whole thing collapses” fun.
The places where the gameplay is not as fun are obviously when they want you to play a regular third-person shooter. Regular missions where you have to just fight some enemy humans or fight a tank without utilizing the environmental destruction are so plain. While the destruction has aged well and is still fun today, third-person shooters have moved on. For instance, the zoom in to aim is the right stick instead of the left trigger. This is a remaster, though, so there’s not much to complain about. It just is what it is.
Narrative
To be quite honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the story. What I got is that you come to Mars and your brother or something is there and he dies and you become part of the Red Faction who are fighting for Martian independence or something. This whole revolution thing is more told than anything else. You’re fighting for the Red Faction but the Red Faction uprising is just you, the player. When the mission briefing talks about the “Red Faction” taking out an enemy base, they mean you’re going to be taking out an enemy base. I guess some people find this really empowering as a player but I find it be very jarring. Like, if I just decided not to do anything, everything about this whole Red Faction would be so over. Everyone that’s not me comes across as incompetent.
A fun little note about this particular Red Faction is that Ultor makes an appearance in this game and is one of the companies in Saint’s Row so theoretically, both games exist in the same universe. Is that important? No. I’m sure they’ll capitalize on that tie in with a new Red Faction/Saint’s Row game coming out 2019. You heard it here first! E3 2019 Game of the Show, guaranteed.
Aesthetic
Re-Mars-tered, as the name would suggest, is a pretty straight remaster. I don’t remember exactly what the game looked like before but this doesn’t blow me away or anything. I was playing on a standard PS4 but I’m pretty sure my mind would be changed on a PS4 Pro. The one thing that did stand out was that the game actually isn’t as stable as I would expect with a generational jump. Once a lot of destruction starts to happen, the frame rate dives. I don’t want to be a snoot about this kind of thing but Red Faction Guerrilla was originally a PS3 game and I expect it to run well on a PS4. I understand that’s not exactly what the reality of the situation is but it definitely feels like there’s an issue here somewhere.
Thrilling conclusion
What I’m saying is chopping down a building with a sledgehammer is decidedly not awful.
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-stered was played on PS4 with a code provided by the developer. The game is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can find more info on the Playstation Store — https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4389-CUSA09622_00-REDFACTIONGDUS01
