Havok engine in full effectFirst off, let me say that I don’t know much about Red Faction at all. I think I remember playing the original version a long time ago, but I thought it was a first person shooter? So I’m a bit thrown off that the new Red Faction is a third person shooter instead. Anyway, the demo starts off feeling very much like a Hollywood production, which I can’t decide if I like or not. Once the quick video introduction was over with, I got to walk around the environment, I automatically felt like this was an open world game. (Turns out it is, go figure!) You can steal cars right off the road just like the rest of them. Red Faction: Guerrilla takes place on Mars and basically you’re in a battle for freedom from the occupying powers. Towns and innocent citizens are being wiped out and the entire planet may be next, so this is where your journey begins.
Walking to my first destination, huge ass hammer in hand, there were characters walking all over the place, often saying amusing things as you walk by. This environment definitely felt alive to me. There was an easy to navigate map to my first destination, so I found it simple to move from point A to point B. The movement for this third person game was fluid and felt similar to other recent games. Mass Effect jumped into my head immediately. Especially when I realized I had picked up an automatic weapon off a now bloodied enemy. (Running up on enemies to swing a hammer at them as they shoot you in the abdomen is not a good idea, at all.) The firing of the weapons reminded me of Mass Effect, which isn’t really a bad thing. The hammer you start off with does plenty of damage and just about every aspect of the environment seemed to be destructible with this bad boy.
I did notice the AI was really weak for a next gen title like this. It was quite simple to sneak up from behind on an enemy and shoot him in the back. I also witnessed enemy AI running into walls like they just got standbyed in Halo. This is a major negative for me as it takes the immersiveness away from the the player. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they will have fixed this issue after releasing the demo. If this outdated AI makes it into the retail version, it could hurt future reviews and possibly sales. The game doesn’t come out until June so they have plenty of time to tweak the settings.
Get your barrel on!
With the negative out of the way, the fun finally began when I reached my destination. Once there, you break into a small hangar and commandeer what they call a “Walker”. (No relation to Chuck Norris) The Walker is basically a mech, no guns or anything, just strong powerful arms that will crush enemies and armored vehicles. I immediately went after the armored vehicles once I got in the Walker and found it pretty satisfying to watch explode under my power. I was going after each and every object I could crush and destroy at first but found it a lot funner to just barrel through anything that gets in your path.
Following the marker on the map takes you to a truck waiting for you to load the Walker onto. You basically jack these guys for this mech and well, it ends up pissing a lot of them off. Soon after you load the Walker onto the truck, you hop on a ridiculously powerful cannon of some sort on the back of the truck as you make your getaway. I loved it, which is why I recorded it for you all to see these guys chasing me down. This is where the demo shined the most for me. In all, the demo is relatively short but it gives me a good enough grasp on where Volition is taking this new Red Faction adventure. The demo says we’ll get up to 16 players for online play, 120 full missions, 34 different vehicles and dozens of weapons which is a good sign. If they are smart, they will also implement a multiplayer party system similar to what Bungie has done with Halo. *hint hint*
One more thing that I absolutely must share with you is this, and this may be a make it or break it reason for you to purchase or not purchase this game. In Red Faction Guerrilla, one of the weapons at your disposal is the most damaging, the most powerful, the most hardcore weapon of all time… and it’s covered in feathers. Yes my friends, I am talking about the often feared, always respected, extremely dependable… mighty, mighty Ostrich. Take that Chainsaw gun! Suck it Gravity gun! There’s a new number one game weapon of all time threatening to take your spotlight. Watch your back. The Ostrich is coming… punks.
Can’t wait to hear what this weapon sounds like
The Gamer Report 