Red Faction Guerrilla

[spyker3292]

So I've never owned any other Red Faction games, but today I downloaded the PS3 demo (via Qore) and wow, I'm impressed.

Remember that little disappointment called Mercenaries 2 and how it promised open world destruction? Well Red Faction manages to do that the right way.

The mission in the demo is pretty simple, you need to retrieve this stolen walker for some miners. You start out with a sledgehammer, some remote blasts, and an automatic weapon. I also found a shotgun and a pistol laying around. Any building came be destroyed; you can break a hole in the wall with the sledgehammer or just lay some explosives around or inside it. Some buildings are targets that count as an optional objective. You can also just ram a truck right into the building. Pieces fly everywhere and it looks pretty impressive. Back to the mission.... you steal the walker, ride it back to a truck (while smashing stuff), and then you have to man the turret on the truck as someone else drives you to escape.

Pretty fun game, and the controls are pretty solid. But I did have trouble taking cover on some objects. The demo seems pretty solid, I just hope that the full game doesn't get boring like some open world games do.

With a quick google search I found this article from last year.

Some quotes:

There are no 3D model swaps here, and you won’t find any kind of script trickery; everything is rendered in real-time with realistic physics, and it makes a huge difference on how the world feels and reacts.

Early on in development, when the engine was first presented to the design team, they were having a frustrating time keeping their buildings standing; simply tossing slabs together was not cutting it, and structures were crumbling to the ground in a matter of seconds because of improper support. The team had to actually go back to the drawing board and learn real-world architecture in order to build structurally sound buildings for the game’s world.

With that in mind, simply firing a rocket at a building won’t make it collapse in a pile of rubble if you’re not hitting the right spots. The key is to figure out what it is that is keeping the building structurally sound and then take those points out.

If the game were nothing more than a “playground of destruction” (a reference to Pandemic’s Mercenaries, which Guerilla makes look antiquated)...

Edit: Gametrailers has some gameplay from the demo: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47646.html
Edit 2: And it comes out the same month as inFamous and Prototype. How many open world games do we need!?

 

[Taustin Powers]

The video on gametrailers looked pretty generic to me.

I bought the first Red Faction cause I was really intrigued by the destructible environments. But I was pretty disappointed cause they didn't use the technology to its potential at all. The few moments where you got to "real time destroy" stuff were way too obviously set up, and almost seemed scripted. Those parts felt like a tech demo, and the rest of the game was just another FPS.

An open world approach with this concept might be interesting. I'll keep an open mind on this one.

 

[spyker3292]

An open world approach with this concept might be interesting. I'll keep an open mind on this one.

Try out the demo (when it's out), it isn't really generic. A good way to test this is to take a sledgehammer and whack a building to bits.

 

[MRU]

So both the 360 / PS3 demo's now available to download freely on their respective stores, I decided to download both for more comparisons.

And guess what!!!


Well the good - both have great stable frame rates YAY ! BUT....

The PS3 version comes off generally worse again but not by much....

NPC character textures are a touch weaker, as are many of the textures on buildings and the landscape have a blurry/muddy surface compared the 360's.

Nasty anti-aliasing issues crop up big time on the PS3 yet again too. This is noticeable even at the menu with the silhouetted character. In game things like the screens dotted around and solar panels are really jagged.

The 360 version does have some jaggies too but its obvious it's AA/SCALER chip is working to alleviate most of them.

Thankfully on the PS3 these are alleviated a little in the car shooting sections where you are going too fast to notice.

Environmental effects are toned down a little on the PS3 seemingly.

The 360's lighting seems more dynamic too, with more subtlety to shadows etc..

 

[capoeirista]

I bought the first Red Faction cause I was really intrigued by the destructible environments. But I was pretty disappointed cause they didn't use the technology to its potential at all. The few moments where you got to "real time destroy" stuff were way too obviously set up, and almost seemed scripted. Those parts felt like a tech demo, and the rest of the game was just another FPS.

I still remember it as a solid shooter for PS2 (they didn't have that many...)

 

[Taustin Powers]

I still remember it as a solid shooter for PS2 (they didn't have that many...)

Yah, it wasn't bad at all. It just didn't deliver the environment/building-destroying fun I had expected. That part of the game wasn't used well.




That said, I played the demo of Guerrilla, and was not blown away. Yeah, it's cool how you can tear everything apart, but other than that it felt generic and lifeless to me.

 

[whooleytoo]

Anyone else playing this?

At first, I wasn't too impressed, the missions seemed a bit bland and repetitive (as is often the problem with free-roaming games). And, to be honest, I wasn't too enamoured with the idea of destroying everything - it leaves you with a very uninteresting world to move around!

But it's really growing on me. The side missions are a bit repetitive, but the main 'quest' is pretty good. In a occupying force scenario, even the destroy-everything "burned ground" strategy makes sense.

It's just a lot of fun. Enemy hiding behind a pillar? Won't help him... knock the top off it, and his head with it. Want a sniping spot? Hide in a pipe, and knock out a shoot-hole. Can't find the door, create your own. Or blow up a building by planting a bomb on the roof and ride it down to the ground.

There can be some problems - the weapons are so wimpy, the EDF turn up faster than you can kill them. So, rather than sensible hide behind cover and fight, you're better off walking through a hail of bullets to a vehicle and waiting for the hostages to do likewise and hop in. And some of the voice talent is a little grating, IMO.

 

[2nyRiggz]

I've seen my friends play it on the PS3 and I'm thinking about picking it up. I never gave this game a chance but the more I see it the more interesting it gets.



Bless

 

[spyker3292]

I'm pretty far through the campaign and it's pretty good. I love the number of upgrades for everything. There are a lot of cool weapons and they all have upgrades to make them even better. You can drop up to 12 remote charges with all the upgrades. That's a lot more than I expected, or even need. The one disappointing thing is the singularity bomb. It creates this cool gravity well that sucks stuff in, and then explodes to push it all out. It's cool, but you can't store them! You have to find them to use them....

 

[MRU]

It's good, but driving around from one location to another does get awfully repetitive, not because the driving mechanics are bad, cause they are not. No it gets dull because the locations are pretty bland between places, lets face it red dust / dunes are hardly a match for a thriving city.

 

[Mirror.image]

It's good, but driving around from one location to another does get awfully repetitive, not because the driving mechanics are bad, cause they are not. No it gets dull because the locations are pretty bland between places, lets face it red dust / dunes are hardly a match for a thriving city.

Yeah i agree, but still when you give it a thought...Isn't it some mining facility on Mars? I don't have the story clear but whatever.


A thriving city with destructible environments would be alot more fun i think

 

[whooleytoo]

It's good, but driving around from one location to another does get awfully repetitive, not because the driving mechanics are bad, cause they are not. No it gets dull because the locations are pretty bland between places, lets face it red dust / dunes are hardly a match for a thriving city.

As Mirror.image above says, it is relatively quiet; but I think that's fitting for a Mars settlement. It has a quiet, remote, 'wild west' feel to it, which adds to the ambience. If you do feel lonely, just start shooting some EDF troops, and you'll have company soon enough.

Some of the complaints I've read are valid, mostly all you do is "blow stuff up" - most free-roaming games are quite repetitive. Still better than MGS, where all you do is watch cutscenes! ( )

And sure, taking cover isn't much use when everything is destructible, but that just adds to the realism, IMO.

The collectibles aren't the most interesting, ore which is lying around everywhere, or audio recordings on bodies telling random snippets - if they all formed part of one story it would have been far better, IMO, as you learned more and more as you collect them.

There are some interesting hidden goodies though, I found a heavy walker hidden in one cave, and the Mars Rover in one valley.

I still love those moments of realisation where you think you're trapped, only to realise (again) you can knock a you-shaped hole in that wall and get out at any time.

 

[andrew upstairs]

I had fun in the multiplayer beta. I suppose I'll give the game a go.

 

[whooleytoo]

Ok, I have to ask: how the fracking frack do you complete the 'hijack EDF vehicle' mission in the Badlands?

I'm careful not to even shoot it once but manage to get into it by shooting at the driver. When I get it it's at 25% or so 'health' and with a top speed of 3/4 backwards, I get about 20m before the EDF blow it up. Is there some magic solution to this?

(You don't HAVE to finish this mission, but they'll just keep offering it to you if you don't and it's getting annoying.)

 

[dubs]

use the arc welder to fry the guys inside, then drive away with it.

 

[2nyRiggz]

I gave the game a shot and the game reminded me how much I don't like sandbox games...I don't know I love inFAMOUS and Fallout 3 but games like crackdown, GTA with a boring city setting doing odd "jobs" for people feels very "blah" to me.

I think it has something to do with Fallout/inFAMOUS setting and being able to wielding super powers that makes it fun but I couldn't get into Red Fraction. I'll give it another go but I've played it a couple times and its not catching on with me.



Bless

 

[sikkinixx]

I gave the game a shot and the game reminded me how much I don't like sandbox games...I don't know I love inFAMOUS and Fallout 3 but games like crackdown, GTA with a boring city setting doing odd "jobs" for people feels very "blah" to me.

I think it has something to do with Fallout/inFAMOUS setting and being able to wielding super powers that makes it fun but I couldn't get into Red Fraction. I'll give it another go but I've played it a couple times and its not catching on with me.



Bless

You can mail it to me if you want

 

[whooleytoo]

use the arc welder to fry the guys inside, then drive away with it.

I was able to get the vehicle just by blocking it then shooting the driver and taking it. But the vehicle was a big oil tanker and was far too slow (and could barely make it up hills at all!) to get it back to base without being destroyed.

The secret was simply ambush it when it's passing near a guerilla base, so you don't have far to drive it once you have it. And make sure the base is downhill from where you steal it!

Just finished it last night. Liked the last mission. A nice touch is once you complete the game, you both unlock the hardest difficulty (not that I have much inclination to try it..) and all the missions you didn't complete along the way, plus a few new ones (including the mother of all Transporter missions). I'm still finding new weapons, even after completing the game.

Overall, a good game, not a great one. I didn't mind the bleak, barren landscape; but even the "built-up" areas were very dull. Probably the most interesting areas of the game were at the start, the later sectors were quite bland. The scavengers were good, IMO, meaning you weren't safe just standing around in the open, you had to keep an eye out.

Another nice touch is the character animation, and their interaction with vehicles. If you hijack a bus, the passengers will break the back window and jump out. If you're stuck in a tight space in a vehicle, your character will break the windscreen and hop out. When getting into and out of a (small) taxi, you can see the characters squeezing in and out around the seat, rather than just appearing in it.