Red Sandbox

So last night, I took a break from studying and fired up the free demo for Red Faction: Guerilla. I think it is important to say, before discussing the game, that I was actually a bit disappointed at first. I've been looking forward to this title for more than a year, mostly because I think that the geo-mod concept (I'll explain that shortly) is a long overdue innovation. Obviously, the game wasn't going to live up to a year's worth of being hyped up in my own mind, and it didn't. It did, however, deliver everything it promised and then some, and once I brought my sky-high standards down a bit, I had a darn good time with the demo.


So what's it like? Think GTA. On Mars. With a 100% destructible environment. And the police are always after you. And there are a lot more explosions.

Frankly, I think I need to go into a bit more detail on the 100% destructible environment thing. I’m not sure you’re getting me here. 100%. Everything can be broken. And that's not like every building has a health meter, and if you damage it enough it will come crumbling down, oh no. If struck with enough force (preferably a vehicle collision or a remote charge, but a sledgehammer works just fine in a pinch) absolutely anything in the game will break. Basically, you hit a building’s wall with a sledgehammer or car, and you will eventually bust a hole in that wall. The building stands up in accordance with a physics engine, so if you break enough of the walls on the first floor, there is nothing to support the roof, and it will collapse under its own weight. Bringing the building down is not so much a function of doing "enough" damage, but taking out the support structure and letting science do the real legwork.

Now, at first I thought it was awfully strange how much I had to bust out a building’s support structure to get it to fall over. I mean, I’d say around 50-60% of the first floor of a 1-story building had to be taken out to get the roof to collapse. But I recently realized something that actually helps that make sense. Mars has approximately 38% of Earth’s gravity. The buildings are usually comprised of very thick stone walls with sound structural integrity, and the demo didn’t feature a lot of top-heavy buildings (i.e. buildings with multiple stories). Also, once you hop into your giant walking death machine (fun fact: in Red Faction, mining vehicles are infinitely superior to military vehicles in every way) it’s just plain awesome how quickly things fall down. The way you can swat tanks aside and knock over buildings is reminiscent of Rampage for the old 8-bit.

As much fun as it is, I worry that, eventually, knocking things over and killing lots and lots of people might get old. At some point, I can see myself saying “eh, you’ve seen one skyscraper come tumbling to the ground, you’ve seen them all.” Although, in a couple weeks when the game comes out, I am going to bet $60 that it will take a long time for me to say that.

Another thing about this game is that it looks to be very much a sandbox. If GTA was just plain boring to you, then you might not be totally stoked about this. Alternatively, if you love sandbox titles and destroying things, then this will light your ass on fire, Theo.

I strongly recommend at least giving the demo a whirl. It costs nothing. Do give it some time, because the controls feel quite awkward at first. You get used to them after a while.