Red Faction: Guerrilla - Re-Mars-tered

The Good
The third person perspective is mighty interesting change from the first two games. Hiding behind walls and climbing ladders keep the camera angles even without any obscurity from walls. The camera always give you that sweet panoramic view, where you can see everything well enough. In fact it would have been interesting to see Parker and Alias played in that way.

Lots of detail that capture Mars' atmosphere including the textures, lighting, weather and shadows. Variety of missions and locations retain entertainment. The game is fairly long, since there's so much to do. Although the map and its route guidance is helpful, sometimes its fun to plan your own routes.

It's hilarious how the sledgehammer can smash and break almost anything - imagine if Alex Mason played Jack Torrance from "The Shining". Next to smashing things, blowing up lots of stuff including barrels, fuel tanks, vehicles and buildings seems satisfying. You also get the kick out of vaporising things with the Nano Rifle. Red Faction games were designed for destruction.

The Bad
Some of the physics are pretty broken and ruin the flow of the game. When hit by a vehicle, debris or explosion you'll find yourself downed with no control to crawl away to safety. The sledgehammer can be pretty clunky without any way of changing its course while you're thrusting it, bringing your guard down and not managing to kill an enemy before your shot. The occasional problem is a bug that causes you to fly upwards as well as single falling pieces of debris that kill you instantly. Any guerrillas that join you are more like cannon fodder since their deaths jeopardise Martians' morale.

What comes as disappointing throughout the game is the lack of variety. Firstly the enemies which mainly consist of two types of soldiers and no mercenaries. Secondly the weapons lack not just variety but versatility as well, as they seem kind of primitive compared to every gun you've used in the prequels, that you'll be wishing for a MK/SG1 Precision Rifle. And besides good weapons like the Sniper Rifle appear pretty late in the game, that you can't do as much stealth as you want. And of course you can't switch your Sledgehammer for another melee weapon, so having two melee weapons is pointless.

All those annoyance combined together means, you're going to die a lot. Then there's the music, which sounds more like a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game and nowhere near the Martian mood Dan Wentz's original soundtrack delivers. And finally the ending feels incomplete, like the game starts all over again instead a plot to bridge this game to the Armageddon game.

The Bottom Line
A worthy sequel to play next to Red Faction 1 and 2 put together. Each mission, guerrilla side mission and target of opportunity prompts you to progress some more. This game is worth months of entertainment. Every fault in the game however, you can withstand in favour of a large open Martian world you can relate to and save from Terran tyranny. Harness your action-packing skills to fight your way through each and every sector and make your mark. I certainly can recommend this title.