Developer: Volition, KAIKO
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Tested on: PC
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-mars-tered – Review
Almost 9 years ago Red Faction Guerrilla was released to the public. This was a game changer due to destructiveness of every building, utility and other human-made items in the massive open world. Now THQ has released a remastered version, smartly called ‘Re-mars-tered’. This version is free for people who already bought the Steam version of Red Faction Guerrilla, or comes together with the old one when you buy it.
Story
The year is 2125 and you, Alec Mason, are a mining engineer who has just arrived at Mars. Your brother Dan awaits you, and while he’s supposedly driving you to your resting place he talks about the cruelty of the EDF, an large organisation focussed on profits. He explains that he is part of the Red Faction, a group of people who have suffered from EDF attacks and are fighting for survival. Some moments later you get ambushed by an EDF scout plane and your brother dies. Returning back to your brother’s base you’re ambushed by the EDF. Other Red Faction members rescue you and you reluctantly join them. So your path begins.
This paths brings you to several regions that you’ll need to free from EDF control. After successfully removing EDF forces from the region Dust, you encounter a third mysterious party, the Marauders. They are on the brink of discovering a powerful artefact which surely will provoke a huge EDF response…
The story is brought to you with cut scenes or as communications over your radio. You can’t skip these cut scenes, which is rather annoying if you die and have to hear the same again. The story itself is good enough for a game, with some complex characters and a few plot twists to keep it interesting.
Graphics
The remastered edition promises several upgrades that were introduced with the console version, like 4K support and improved graphics. Alas, even though our test system met all recommended requirements it lagged and stuttered horribly, even on the lowest settings. This makes it hard to form an opinion on the new graphics, but from what we’ve seen the improvements are focussed on the cut scenes, the particles and the lighting effects. The characters and the vehicles also look better though, as with the structures itself. The complexity of the world was unchanged however.
The world itself is rather diverse between regions, and the regions themselves are filled with different installations and facilities that you might expect on a terraformed Mars. Things like solar panel farms and large pipelines, bridges and military facilities are abundant. Best of all, everything is smash-able to pieces. This is done quite realistically with real physics and help from a team of architects. The story goes that the first few prototype buildings always collapsed because the developers got the general structure wrong.
A lot of the map will be explored while driving, and there are a lot of vehicle types available to choose from. From slow and lumbering mining machines to fast and armoured rebel or military tanks. The latter can have mounted machine guns or energy weapons, turning you or the enemy in deadly unstoppable forces. Several of these guns, like the miniature black hole and the electro gun, delivery a extolling spectacle on screen.
Sound
The voice acting is on point. A lot of story-involved characters have a unique voice and you can really feel the emotion and the commitment the actors placed in their acting. The people responsible for side quests, like freeing prisoners or defending rebel strong-points, all sound alike however. Sound wise, the overall quality doesn’t seem to have improved much between the original and the remastered edition.
The sound effects are somewhat hollow. Especially weapon sounds and explosions are just too low. When a building falls you would be expecting metal screeching and the rumble of concrete. Similarly, when you hit a piece of metal with your hammer or when shooting machine guns the sound is just too soft. As background music they’ve chosen for low industrial noises, which fit perfectly with this game. It is nothing you’ll remember this game by however.
Gameplay
Red Faction Guerrilla is a 3rd person open world RPG. Your mission is to liberate regions by destroying EDF property and by rising morale under the rebels. This can be done by completing defence missions, destroying EDF forces, conveys and buildings and other missions. This in turn earns you Scrap, the currency on Mars. With Scrap you may purchase new weapons, personal and bag upgrades, ammo and more. There are also campaign missions, which often require you to destroy a specific target, and let you advance in the story by unlocking new regions and missions.
Combat is also in 3rd person. You have several different weapon types, from your standard issue hammer to basic machine guns to more interesting items such as experimental weapons and explosives. Some are better suited for killing enemies in vehicles, others are better at long range killing. You can carry up to three additional weapons apart from your hammer. You don’t have armour, but you can increase your health bar with upgrades. You always have at least one vehicle available in your base camp, and there are plenty driving around Mars as well. Even the ones from neutral people can be ‘lent’ and used for hit ’n run attacks. EDF targets are increasingly better protected with road blocks and mounted guns, and the amount of enemy soldiers is ever increasing as well. You can take a lot of hits, but you might still get outgunned fast if you end up in a cross fire.
Conclusion
Even after nine long years, Red Faction Guerrilla is still a wonderful game to play. Since you get the original edition for free, gamers with older setups can perfectly enjoy this pearl as well. The default key mapping is a bit strange, and the 4K version is tailored for console gaming, but this is nothing you can’t fix in the settings. Overall, still a strong game and still a recommendation for players looking to let off some steam!
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-mars-tered - Review,
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