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| Red Faction Guerrilla Game |
Red Faction:
Guerrilla is an open world action-adventure 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. Several years after release, Destructoid listed
the game as one of THQ's ten best.
Gameplay
The player takes the role of
Alec Mason as he assists the Red Faction to overthrow the oppressive Earth
Defense Force (EDF) onMars. 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.
Multiplayer
As the player engages in more matches, they
gain experience points that
will grant them bonuses; most of which take the form of superficial bonuses
such as the option to add more features to character
models or altering aspects of their player emblem, and have no impact on the
game. Other bonuses grant players access to additional gameplay modes.
The multiplayer modes also use Geomod 2.0 and the same
weapons available in the game. An added feature exclusive to the multiplayer
mode however, are special backpacks that grant players a unique, temporary
power. Such powers include the ability to run faster, fly, burst through walls,
or send out a concussion wave. Another additional device in the multiplayer
games is the Reconstructor, a weapon-like object that uses nano-technology to
rebuild destroyed structures. It is a key device in game modes which require
players to attack or defend specific structures. There are six game modes,
including typical multiplayer modes such as individual and team Deathmatch and Capture the flag. Other modes focus on attempting to destroy
or preventing the destruction of structures. "Siege" for example
requires one team to try to destroy buildings controlled by the other as fast
as possible. After a set period of time, or once all targets are destroyed, the
roles are reversed, and a new round begins. The team that manages to destroy
all targets the fastest wins the round.
Along with online multiplayer, there is an offline only
"pass the controller" multiplayer game mode for one to four players
called "Wrecking Crew". Wrecking Crew features several different
modes, all of which are based around causing as much damage by oneself in each
round with a set amount of resources
