By now you are aware of the forthcoming effort from developer Volition, titled Red Faction: Guerilla. Published by THQ, the full game will debut on June 2^nd for PS3 and 360, and will also be ported to PC by Reactor Zero. A third-person action title with a few lofty goals, the demo shows quite a bit of promise. There are some negatives and these sub-genres are oversaturated with heavy competition, but RF:G sets itself apart with a quality build and a great destruction mechanic, via Volition’s very own game engine, GeoMod 2.0, which lets you literally bring the house down on your enemies.

The story follows the first two Red Faction games, in which the Earth Defense Force helped protect mining colonists on Mars from the Ultor corporation. Gaining tactical control, the efforts of the EDF became corrupted, morphing into an oppressive military presence which reaps profits from their menacing reign over the mining colonies they were once tasked with protecting. That’s where our protagonist  Alec Mason drops into the action, in the year 2120. After the murder of his brother, Mr. Mason is not too fond of the EDF, and joins the rebellion against them. The cinematic intro suggests he will rise to lead the revolting band of colonist rebels, known as Red Faction, in their revolution against the corrupt Earth Defense Force. Now that your up to speed on the stats and story, lets get to it. I got my dirty stinking paws on the PSN demo version, and thought I’d give you a deeper look into what could be a good sum of some cool parts.

PRODUCTION VALUES

As far as demos go, Red Faction: Guerilla is stellar and looks about as solid in its construction as any finished game. While we don’t judge books by their covers over here, it is a good sign when even the demo is professional grade. The game mechanics, collision detection and everything from the destruction down to the menus have a robust feel. That being said, the characters, texures and objects aren’t very remarkable. Explosions are great but this isnt necessarily a game for graphics hounds. There is some breakup and slowdown at times, but some of the lackluster art and minor graphics hiccups are acceptable given the immense size of the game map, and this is a demo after all.Likewise, the sheer amount of gunfire, collapsing structures and exploding hazards will give reprieve to the often uninspired look of the overall environment. You will still catch some cool looking visuals, especially when blowing up anything and everything, and again, things appear more solid than most openworld efforts, indeed.

While it is no exceptional exercise in eye candy so far, the whole build including the graphics feels solid and well put-together. The somewhat vague art direction can be a bit generic, but what the game lacks in charm it makes up for in functionality. Some of the vistas seen on the horizon as you traverse the Martian landscape do have their moments though, I will admit. The music is an orchestral theme typical for the warzoned thematics. You'll swear its the same from another recent game, but it matches the serious subject matter, nonetheless. Sound effects were good, with impacts and explosions bieng the real stars here. Voiceovers were very well done from the NPCs to the radio communications, and the opening cinematic got me pretty dang pumped by turning all of the above into a trailer of epic proportions.

GAMEPLAY

Controls are responsive and feel robust, but you may want to remap them as the default felt a bit counter-intuitive. Weapons selection felt wonky, but that can be worked around by using a quick-swap function. Camera movement is tight, predictable, and not once did I ever feel like I was fighting the cam angle or speed. Your navigation map is in live HUD form with a much-appreciated zoom function, as well as a pause-map via the select button. Running, shooting and cover mechanics all feel proper, although the cover system could use some minor improvements. Since you use a button to take cover but instead use the control stick to break from it, the mechanic was slightly unwieldy. Although shooting from cover worked quite well from fixed points, the hit detection leaves something to be desired. You will certainly spew the old “I know I just headshot that guy!” line a few times during this one.

While you can shoot through fences and the like, the gaps in objects cannot be fired through. For example, at one point I tried stealthing behind a water tower to shoot through the gap underneath it, but my bullets simply bounced off the ‘air’ in between the ground and the object. I felt a bit cheated by this cheesy dynamic, but suffice it to say there is not a lot of precision shooting going on here. You can, however, clip your human targets from quite the draw distance away.

In the demo you start with a couple of weapons and sledgehammer. The Assult Rifle is pretty standard, but I appreciated how the ‘fine aim’ (OTS zoom-up mode) actually changed the firing characteristics. Not the fact that you can simply see and aim better, but rather the width of bullet spray and its effective range, so I’m hoping that carries over to some of the other 20+ weapons in the full game.  Remote charges act as sticky-bombs and you can drop as many as you like before setting the whole series off in a tactically destructive chain reaction. Your sledgehammer is the key to breaking almost any structure apart while on foot, which is not only fun, but useful for more tactical work in breaking a path through structures to navigate. Whether you’re taking down a building with the hammer or simply chipping the top layer of a wall away to jump over it, the sledge is not only mighty but mighty useful.

As you can imagine, it is satisfying to break things in the game. This was tough to do on foot though, as there were so many enemies about that I didn’t have much time to romp at will with the sledgehammer…at least not while actually trying to accomplish the mission. Call me newb, but it was harder than I expected. The A.I. of your attackers is aggressive, and although they don’t seem brilliant or work together very well, they are numerous and will flank and maneuver at a speed and intensity you will have to take seriously.

Vehicles are plentiful, and there are a few in the demo you will use, out of the 34+ trucks, tanks and others in the full game. Small vehicles are okay to get around on, but if you get trapped against a wall in one of these, you’ll find yourself owned. To reach a nav point without a prolonged shootout or methodic tactics, you’ll do much better in a vehicle with a good combo of speed and durability, such as the monster-truck style terrain rover near the start point. Dodging fire and running EDF soldiers over in this was fun and at times seemed rather necessary to stay alive. However, if you want less auto in your shooter, you can opt for lengthy gunfights that were somwhat arduous, at times. Of course, if you dont play tactically and get blasted out of you vehicle, you'll have to stand and fight regardles.

Later you’ll jump in a bipedal mining mech (creatively called a ‘Walker’) to romp strait through buildings at your whim, as you swing the mech’s arms around to take out structures and flip enemy vehicles over. Just as on foot though, blowing things up by bashing them can lead to exploding-main-character-syndrome, so pick your battles wisely. Vehicle physics feel totally unrealistic in all cases, but this yields some added fun when you careen off a hill and land on a building full of enemies. Toward the end of the demo, a rail sequence has you firing explosive rounds from a getaway truck’s mounted canon, as you take out the tons of enemy vehicles giving chase. If this mechanic gets overused it could get monotonous, but in small doses this on-rails set piece was fun as hell.

Multiplayer was not present in the PSN demo at the time of this writing, but it will likely add depth to the experience with its backpack power-ups and unique ‘Damage Control’ mode, where players defend structures from demolition by the other team. Instead of a simple bomb defusing, you’ll be protecting buildings from multiple forms of destruction by the enemy team even repairing them with the Reconstructor, a tool that lets you literally put structures back together. The backpacks will feature jetpacks, stealth accessories and others, including the Rhino pack which allows for running through walls and other structures. Add vehicles like mechs and other trinkets to that mix and you’ve got a deep multiplayer experience with the makings of greatness, as long as it’s presented in a balanced manner.

THE VERDICT

'Verdict', you say? Its just a demo, after all. Well, if you've read this far, you care as much as I do about this sort of stuff. You will find I'm very picky when it comes to what has been done before, as there is so much to compare it to. I did in fact have to give the RF:G demo a fair chance before it grew on me (and grow it did!)

Aside from the destruction mechanic, I can’t say this is the most unique feeling game out there. You’ve used weapons and driven vehicles, perhaps better iterations than you will find here, in an open-world game before this. You have seen better environmental effects and visuals, in a lot of games prior to this. The uninspired artwork was slightly lacking as were some of the textures, and the cover mechanic is barebones (albeit functional). Yet, what Red Faction: Guerilla does, it does very well. To be fair, when I loaded the demo up and played the first couple of tries, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of slogging through yet another OTS cover-shooter, in yet-another sandbox game...

However, I urge you to go back the next day and give it another try if you have these inclinations. First impressions are usually not the strength of this style of game play, and I feel the solid mechanics and variable ways to tactically destroy your enemy and their property will make for great entertainment. The story also intrigues me and the quality of the game’s components is a really good sign of what’s in store.

I am hoping the exploration of the Red Planet fondly known as Mars holds more intriguing locations and environments than the ones we see in the demo. Hopefully Volition has avoided a repeating string of simple "go here, do this" rinse/repeaters, as seen in some of our least favorite open-world titles in days past. The action in Red Faction: Guerilla is intense and fun, so if it is balanced by what we find on the map and a cohesive story, it’ll be a keeper for sure. Find out June 2^nd but  meanwhile, download the demo and pull out the sledge, because …(wait for it)…it’s hammer time!