Get In, Get Out... And Leave Only Rubble Behind
Red Faction: Guerrilla is amazing. We will now proceed to ramble about why.
Published: June 28, 2009
The discovery of the Nano Forge and the events leading up to its discovery are without question the most cinematic and enthralling of the whole game, and it's a little bit of a shame that it all happens so early. That things slowly start to go downhill, eventually turning into an insanely difficult near-final act at EDF headquarters, was a bit of a bummer, but the "Echoes of Ultor" mission, the subsequent discovery and use of the Nano Rifle and the destructive experimentation that comes from it and the flatter, more open terrain of that part of the game are some of the most deliriously entertaining moments I've had this generation. Being able to hijack a huge, heavy truck and then drive it into and through little EDF fortresses and emplacements after bailing out, then disintegrating the supports for towers to watch it all come crashing down was... magical. I don't know how else to describe it.
Part of the glee that comes from lobbing out a dozen little remote charges then switching to the trusty (and always available) hammer to beat on guys before triggering the explosions and watching a whole building come down is just how damned satisfying it all is. The buildings buckle and crumble realistically, and the first time I took out my hammer and just starting slugging away at the supports for a building only to hear is sloooooowly creaking and crumbling in surround sound was incredible. Left to the inexorable pull of Mars' reduced gravity, buildings with one major support will eventually crumble, and you can actually wait under all that mass and listen to the building groan and creak until it all eventually gives way. The audio is superb during those moments, but I'll gush about the sound in a bit.
Mason's rise from simple miner to the archetype for the resistance is a fairly gradual one, but it happens with direct action. See, there are dozens (hundreds, more likely) of guerilla operations that can be conducted, from freeing hostages to destroying EDF targets of importance like bridges or towers to taking out the various bits of propaganda all raise the morale of the resistance in that sector and weaken the influence of the EDF. More people rallying around Mason means defections even in the middle of missions where common colonists will take up arms and fight with him. If they die, the morale drops a bit (though not as much as if Mason himself dies), but beating on EDF troopers will bring it back up.
When EDF influence is nil, the sector is liberated, and the higher the morale, the more of a given type of ammo will be found in the red crates scattered all over the planet. Help the people, and they'll help you. It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes a big difference later in the game -- even ammo is rarely all that scarce (a nice contrast to the first game's stodgy stores of munitions). Not only does this give you reason to just blow stuff up (and it blows up real good), but it creates a sense that all that destruction is contributing to a greater whole. And stuff blows up real good. Did I mention that yet? It does.
The interplay of information and propaganda is used extensively in the game. News broadcasts are constant, some of it just updates on the situation, some in reaction to a mission you've just finished, but all of it filtered through the EDF news service and turned into ever-present propaganda. The updates to the news broadcasts related to the stuff you're doing are incredibly fast. In fact, the news updates are one of the best sources of atmosphere and information about the whole world found in the game. They paint a fantastic picture of what's happening in the world of RFG in regards to Earth and Mars. Better still, they show how the EDF is warping what actually happens to serve their ends. (e.g. blow up five gunships as part of a mission and they report it as all five gunships having collided in mid-air, and then show the stock of the navigational systems' manufacturer crashing back on Earth).
