Red Faction: Guerrilla

Written by Matt Swider  on May 13, 2009

Hands-On Preview: If I had a hammer...

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Morale
Sam the engineer, as well as every other NPC at the base camp, introduce morale into the gameplay when they talk about missing Daniel, their parents, and things from home. In the beginning of the game, they'll long for everything from produce to whiskey, be openly skeptical about Red Faction's intentions, and fret that, УIf we kill the EDF, they'll just send more,Ф as they walk and mutter to themselves. Some go as far as to predict that they're УGonna die on this rock,Ф so your new rebel friends seem, let's say somewhat suicidal.



This can quickly change, however, when you complete a couple of missions and the tide starts to change in the favor of Red Faction. Morale suddenly starts to pick up, you win some converts to the rebel cause, and more ammo is available in the crates scattered throughout the open world. Best of all, you won't have to put up with anyone's dreaded whining. Of course the morale meter, indicated by a vertical bar on the right side of a screen at all times, can go back down if you, say, return from a successful mission (which increases morale) in a vehicle but proceed to not stop and instead run over a bunch of your guys while crashing into the base camp. Oops.

Vehicles
The game's vehicles range from a massive mech-like loader, seen in the publicly available demo, to what looks like the pickup truck version of a smart carЧit hums along like a small tractor and its glass door opens from the front like Steve Urkel's car. Like the weapons, both have their pros and cons, so it's best to go with the medium-sized vehicle that resembles a monster truck because it's fast and durable. Just remember not to run over NPCs, which, for some odd reason, decreases morale.

Still being worked on
While the Red Faction Guerrilla missions are entertaining and the complex destruction system found in GeoMod 2.0 is a sight to behold, there are a couple of improvements that could be made before the game releases. The physics for buildings seemed flawless from the time we spent with the game, but all of the NPCs walking around flailed around in an overdramatic way whenever you bumped into them. It was strange and unnatural, especially for a game in which every inorganic structure reacted so well. Secondly, enemy reinforcements who are altered to your location sometimes appear on the slope of hills standing flat-footed, leaving one foot in mid-air. I know this is Mars, but I'm pretty sure that this is still impossible.