Video Game Vintage Title: Red Faction: Guerrilla

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open world third-person shooter video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June 2009 and for Microsoft Windows in September 2009. The game is the third installment in the Red Faction series.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Plot

Alec Mason, a mining engineer, arrives on Mars Tharsis Region to reunite with his brother Dan and begin a new life. While on work detail, Dan testifies about the Earth Defense Force's (EDF) cruelty to the Martian people and asks Alec to join the Red Faction, of which Dan is a member. Dan is soon after gunned down by air support from an EDF assault team. Alec is rescued by Red Faction guerrillas and reluctantly becomes a freedom fighter for the group alongside avid inventor "Sam" Samanya, rambling psychotic Randy Jenkins, and commander Hugo Davies. Between Davies' command and Alec's skill and bravery, the EDF are quickly driven out of the sector known as Parker.

The campaign against the EDF continues in the Dust sector, and Alec is eventually assigned to routine surveillance of the Marauders, a mysterious and violent warrior tribe living in the inhospitable Badlands, in hopes of recovering stolen weapons. Alec tracks them to an abandoned Ultor base that promptly comes under massive assault from the EDF. During the fracas, Alec escapes with a device called the Nano Forge. This brings attention to Admiral Kobel, commander of a powerful warship called the Hydra, along with General Roth, commander of the EDF forces on Mars, who declares Alec Mason an outlaw. General Roth turns his attention to Dust and the EDF responds by pulling out of the sector and ordering the artillery base in the Free Fire Zone to bomb Dust into oblivion. Alec is tasked with saving members of the Red Faction and intel on the EDF from the bombardment, which he succeeds in doing.

Alec temporarily loses faith in the movement, citing that no matter how determined their efforts are, the EDF will simply bomb them to submission. However, Sam analyzes the Nano Forge and discovers it can create catastrophic nanites that can disintegrate any object. She builds a prototype rifle from the device and entrusts it to Alec's care.

After determining a series of blind spots in its coverage a successful run against an EDF artillery base commences, allowing the group to begin take the fight to EDF territories. As the Red Faction prepares to launch a massive coordinated offensive against the EDF, they are betrayed by Jenkins. Consequently, the EDF stages an assault against the Red Faction, resulting in the abortion of the offensive, the annihilation of the Badlands camp and the death of Commander Davies. Only Sam, Alec and a handful of other fighters survive the assault. They learn afterward that the Hydra is nearing Mars, with Kobel intending to use its firepower to put an end to the Red Faction and, if necessary, all planetary life. Sam declares that they need support from the Marauders if their campaign is to continue. When Alec remains dubious, she reveals that she was a Marauder herself. The pair head to a Marauder stronghold to meet with their ruler, Vasha, Sam's sister. Sam requests the usage of the Marauders' particle accelerator technology, with plans to combine it with the Nano Forge, creating a weapon capable of destroying the Hydra. Vasha agrees to let the Red Faction use their technology in exchange for possession of the Nano Forge once the war is finished.

After capturing a broadcasting station and using it to regroup the Red Faction, Sam and Alec lead the remaining Red Faction and Marauders on a final assault on EDF Central Command. The two groups converge on Mt. Vogel to assemble the machine, however a surprise EDF blitzkrieg led by General Roth wipes out the Marauders guarding the summit end of the accelerator and Vasha along with them. Alec storms the mountain with a modified missile-pod tank, defeating General Roth's army and killing Roth. Sam's plan succeeds and the accelerated Nano Forge is successful in vaporizing the Hydra. As the survivors of Mars celebrate, Sam declares the war over, but Alec responds that the EDF will return, stating "We'll be ready for 'em". Alec and Sam approach the crowds of civilians gathered, and Alec raises his hammer in the air, showing the sign of the Red Faction and their long-waited victory.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Gameplay

The player takes the role of Alec Mason as he assists the Red Faction to overthrow the oppressive Earth Defense Force (EDF) on Mars. This is presented to the player from a third-person perspective. Developer Volition changed the camera perspective to help the player see and appreciate the surroundings as they are destroyed.

Unlike the previous Red Faction game, which used the Geomod engine, Guerrilla does not allow for the destruction of terrain. However the game's Geomod 2.0 engine, allows for buildings, cover, and other structures to be destroyed. This allows a degree of creativity in approaching a given objective, such as breaking or crashing through structures, or leveling multi-story buildings and large bridges or catwalks to thwart the enemy. In many cases, destroying buildings will leave behind salvage, the game's form of currency, which can be used along with salvage rewarded by completing missions to unlock and upgrade weaponry and technology at safehouses. During the campaign, the player is always equipped with a sledgehammer-like weapon, along with three slots for other weapons and explosives, selected out of a choice of almost twenty items. The player also has the opportunity to control armed vehicles ranging from retrofitted civilian vehicles up to tanks and large walkers for more destructive options against the EDF.

The game plays in an open world representing a terraformed area of Mars' surface. The world is divided into six distinct areas and the player must successfully free each area from EDF control before moving onto the next. As the player travels through as-yet-unfreed areas, they will be attacked by EDF forces if they are spotted by patrols or commit aggressive actions. Each area also contains one or more safehouses staffed with Red Faction guerrillas, where a player can rearm or change his weapon loadout, and spend salvage to purchase upgrades to his weaponry and equipment. The player can traverse the world on foot or by appropriating one of the numerous vehicles. Navigation is provided by a mini-map with GPS indicator which can be set to direct a player to a location of his choice using a zoomable full-screen map mode. In order to liberate any given area the player must complete a variety of missions to reduce the EDF's presence, referred to as "EDF control". At the same time, the player can complete various side missions, such as rescuing hostages, destroying enemy-held facilities, defending locations from attack, and delivering vehicles. Rewards for tasks come in the form of salvage, reduction of EDF control, or increase in the morale of the populace to resist EDF domination. Other actions, such as letting civilians die, will lower morale, while actively killing civilians will lower morale faster. Should the player engage EDF forces in a sector with high morale, teams of Red Faction guerrillas will likely arrive to fight alongside the player. Once the player has worn down the EDF presence in a sector to zero, a plot mission will become available in which success will drive the EDF out and allow the player to secure the sector. Once this has been completed for a sector it will be freely traversable, with little danger of EDF conflict. Meanwhile, the story of the game progresses along with the liberation of successive sectors.

Reception
Red Faction: Guerrilla received mostly positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 86.73% and 85/100, the Xbox 360 version 85.33% and 85/100. and the Microsoft Windows version 82.45% and 82/100. On July 28, 2009 at the Q1 earnings conference call, THQ Director Brian Farrell confirmed that Red Faction: Guerrilla has now sold more than 1 million units.

The game received some criticism for its "weak story". GameSpot reviewer Randolph Ramsey praised the physics and realism of the game but also criticized its repetitiveness and plotline. GameTrailers criticized the game's pace, environment, and difficulty particularly in the later missions: "you'll be lucky to get out of the most heated battles alive. Often to its detriment, Guerrilla imparts the desperate feeling of being one man struggling to rip apart an army at its foundations. ... Maybe the point was to make you feel like a fragile, puny man staring Goliath in the maw. In any case, don't feel ashamed if you have to tune the difficulty down for a particularly brutal mission." IGN reviewer Charles Onyett rated the game an 8 out of 10, citing the fun gameplay, but saying that the storyline, graphics, and voice acting were weak. 1UP.com reviewer Justin Haywald graded it an A- noting the weak storyline but lauding the "degree to which you can destroy environments."