Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009)

The original release of RF Guerilla brought a ground-breaking experience in free-roaming action game with destructible structures, for a guy like me who shies away from building games like Minecraft (heh). Now, I just made a 3rd playthrough with the Re-Mars-tered version, which supposedly buffs the graphics quality with modern functions.

Alas, while these may be barely noticeable, the gameplay has gotten worse due to new bugs and altered physics. For the latter, the vehicle driving turned more painful because they are sensitive to uneven roads to the point that a slight bump will get it flying off the road, making timed car retrieval missions much more difficult. Even some other missions were failed where the mission critical NPC driver ended down the cliffs or flipped over on its side and exploded.

It's hard to understand how a graphically remastered version turned out for some worse gameplay experiences. The multiplayer is also quite dead, unless you look up on Discord channels. If you don't care for the outdated graphics and more for the substance of the content, stick with the original.

I have just completed my third playthrough of this game. With every subsequent playthrough its flaws got more grating. After the second time i had had enough, but i was curious to see if the Remarstered Edition fixed anything. Spoiler alert: It doesn't.

The core gameplay of RFG is super-fun. Shooting homing missiles at jets. Incinerating enemy soldiers. Placing 12 mines and detonating them in a glorious display of destruction. It's awesome. The problem is that almost everything else is bad. And the game fails to really play to the strengths of its demolition angle.

So you're a guerrilla right? You use the element of surprise to fight against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. Strike fast where the enemy is weak and withdraw. I dunno about you, but i'd expect some sort of stealth element. With missions that have you destroy stuff with your gathered arsenal.

And what does Volition give you? Escort missions. Vehicle sections. Escort missions in vehicles. Christ. Instead of blowing buildings up you have to protect them. Instead of being sneaky and clever you use clumsy, brute force. There's even two missions where you target weapons from a satellite uplink. You just see vague outlines of enemies and click on them, it's the most boring thing ever.

On top of being bad, many missions are poorly thought out. The infamous final mission puts you in a tank whose turret is so big that you can't see in what direction you're driving. Gunner missions become impossible if you've already blown things up in the area. In one of them i got stuck because the bridge you're supposed to drive over was destroyed and they set no alternative path. It's often also quite easy to miss the mech suits you're supposed to use, about as easy as it is to lose them because they're so frail.

It's embarassing that they ask €20 for a 9 year-old game without fixing any of its flaws. The menu doesn't even have a freaking "continue" option, you have to go into the load menu and click on your save. Seriously, no one thought to add a one-click option? I would definitely recommend playing this if you've never done so before, but don't reward their laziness by paying more than 5 bucks.

I call this game "nearly perfect," and I don't call it that lightly. This game delivers exactly what it says it will: fun destruction. I remember describing it to a friend many years ago: you blow stuff up so that you can collect scrap to upgrade your weapons so that you can blow more stuff up. As shallow as that game loop may sound, it is a TON of fun. There is some minor story and cutscenes, but they are enough to keep you interested and not so overbearing to distract you from the actual gameplay.

About the gameplay: this is an open world sandbox with missions similar to GTA. Almost every man-made structure is destructible, and they give you a lot of tools to aid in that destruction. If you find the game too difficult, just bump down the difficulty. This game isn't about testing your mettle as a gamer, it's about having fun. So go out there and blow some stuff up!