Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Review for Xbox One

THQ and Volition’s Red Faction: Guerrilla has one of the coolest radiant destruction and physics systems I’ve ever seen. It’s a game that embraces the simple joy of knocking down a LEGO building, or a sand castle at the beach, and translates that experience into video game form. What’s more impressive is that Red Faction: Guerrilla is nearly a decade old game at this point, but the tech powering its destruction and physics systems functions more smoothly than in some newer games that attempt similar things. This is the shining achievement of the game, still a lot of fun to play with years later, and demonstrates how Volition was ahead of their time in 2009. Unfortunately, little else in Red Faction: Guerrilla feels ahead of its time nowadays, which makes this remastered edition by THQ Nordic and Kaiko Games a mixed bag. When a game receives a remastering treatment one would hope that it makes the old experience feel more fresh than not. But Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered carries the weight of its years a bit too heavily.

The crux of the game’s story is that a mining engineer named Alec Mason transfers to the growing colony on Mars to find work. His brother Dan meets him and soon begins telling Alec about the tyrannical Earth Defense Force (EDF) that forces the Martian citizens to labor for precious resources. Dan alludes to his allegiance with the Red Faction, a group of freedom fighters trying to drive the EDF from Mars and liberate the colonists. Alec is reluctant to get involved until Dan is killed by the EDF, who then attack Alec on the suspicion that he’s also part of Red Faction. The rebels save Alec and he realizes that he must now ally himself with them in order to survive. The story mostly exists as an excuse to get the player out on Mars to destroy things. A deep and thoughtful drama this game is not.

Alec’s campaign with the Red Faction takes him across several Martian sectors. The player is given free rein to assist Red Faction with various missions, including rescuing hostages, returning acquired vehicles to allied bases, and destroying EDF buildings and installations. Alec starts off with an assault rifle, demolition charges, and an impressive sledgehammer with which to smash and blast his way through opposition. As the player creates more destruction and havoc, resources are collected to upgrade Alec’s arsenal, and Red Faction’s control over the various Martian sectors grows.

The “Geo-Mod 2.0” destruction system in Red Faction: Guerrilla’s game engine is its greatest accomplishment. While the terrain of Mars cannot be harmed, every building and manmade structure can be leveled in a variety of ways by a creative player. Outside of using weapons like rocket launchers and the demolition charges to drop buildings, there are several vehicles Alec can drive that can be rammed through walls and used to cause mayhem just as effectively. Perhaps the most satisfying, if not slowest method, is to break the support beams of buildings with Alec’s hammer until the whole structure gives way and collapses. The greatest enjoyment of the game comes from simply driving around Mars until you see a nice big building, bridge, or other enemy installation and then going to work reducing it to rubble however you see fit. Since progression is closely tied to how much destruction you cause, the core gameplay loop is pretty satisfying, if somewhat repetitive, and the player gets rewarded for running around breaking things.

The open world is fairly expansive, but there isn’t a whole lot to see. Mars is a predictably barren place, but given the terraforming and colonization project you would hope to see more than just scattered mining and military facilities for the majority of the game. Technically, such places do exist, but they’re almost indistinguishable from everything else Alec runs around destroying so they might as well be called EDF Facility XYZ. Since the natural environment of Mars is mostly deserts, badlands, and rocky hills you know what to expect visually for the entirety of the game within about 10 minutes of play. Perhaps authenticity is what Volition was aiming for with the art direction, but unfortunately it also leaves the game visually dull, and Kaiko Games doesn’t attempt to change this for the remaster.

Gameplay outside of destroying things is also underwhelming. The third-person shooting and cover system of Red Faction: Guerrilla is serviceable at best and janky at worst. Alec doesn’t snap to cover so much as slightly turn into it so you can’t always be sure he’s using whatever he’s standing against until you try moving him again. Once in cover aiming becomes much more limited, so you’re often better off shooting on the go and you move from one piece of would-be cover to another–if you bother with the shooting much at all.

Red Faction: Guerrilla shares some DNA with the Just Cause series. The best comparison is Just Cause 2, which launched the following year after the original Red Faction: Guerrilla release. Both games involve copious amounts of wanton destruction, generating chaos for the benefit of insurgent factions, and toppling oppressive local governments. Both provide a variety of weapons and vehicles for the player to make use of, and allow for increasingly creative ways to destroy targets. Red Faction: Guerrilla focuses on its radiant destruction system that allows players to collapse buildings in real time with bombs, hammers, missiles, and more. Just Cause has a grappling hook that allows from unprecedented mobility, but the destruction system isn’t quite as dynamic as Red Faction: Guerrilla’s. The comparison is important because in 2018 you could choose to buy into Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered or go for Just Cause 3. In both cases you’re getting a theoretically similar experience, but there’s a major polish and visual appeal to consider. Just Cause 3 is a vibrant, colorful game running on newer technology while Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered looks glum and underwhelming even with upgrades. Part of this is due to the aforementioned tech disadvantage, but the dull art direction and somewhat empty feeling of Red Faction: Guerrilla are also to blame.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered seems to have mostly benefited from a resolution upgrade and improved frame rate. There’s some improvement to detail on land and vehicle textures, and more work on the lighting and shadows, but it’s still disappointingly slight. You would be forgiven for thinking that most, if not all, of the 2009 textures have traveled from the last decade to say hello to everybody in 2018. The improved resolution stretches the limits of these textures and immediately makes the experience feel dated. The new framerate is variable but aims for 60 FPS. As the explosions and destruction kick in the frames get blasted away, too, and can drop dramatically for several seconds if Alec is close to a large, collapsing building. The frame rate will likely be more stable on stronger platforms, but the visual presentation is still going to suffer from the overall drabness of the environments compared to games of recent years. There are also some painfully long loading times upon dying and fast-traveling to allied bases, at least on the standard Xbox One.

A variety of multiplayer modes are included in the game, and a few have had minor adjustments since the original 2009 release. Most of the multiplayer modes allow players to strap a jetpack onto their character for limited flight or charging through walls and other players. It’s not the quickest method of traveling around, though, which is unfortunate because a faster jetpack would add a lot of excitement and satisfaction to using it. The main game’s clever physics system extends into multiplayer, and many of the modes revolve around defending, rebuilding, assaulting, and destroying buildings and other structures either as part of a team or as an individual.

Who is Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered for, then? Primarily for longtime fans of the original release who want a modestly improved version of the game. The most impressive aspect of the game is its Geo-Mod 2.0 physics and destruction system, which manages to hold up in some respects in 2018, but everything else still feels frozen in the last generation. Owners of the original release on Steam will get the remastered version for free, which is a nice perk. All other potential buyers will have to look past the eyesores and dated feel of the game to justify a purchase. A generous budget price tag suits this one well. It’s still a fun game to mess around in, but it doesn’t shine nearly as bright as it did in 2009.

7/10

Watch the Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition Trailer:

You can head on over to the official website for more information.