Games of the Year: Red Faction: Guerrilla

By Andy Johnson

Just two more to go in our Games of the Year 2009 ramblings.  Next up: features editor Andy Johnson has a blast while smashing up the barren surface of Mars in this 9/10-scoring open-world action game…

Volition didn’t make things easy for themselves with Guerrilla. They waited a whole seven years to add a third game to the Red Faction series, and they then decided to make that third game third-person in its perspective – risky stuff indeed. When screenshots were first released, many responded with scepticism with regards to the series’ new direction. Which is understandable. It’s a testament to Volition’s ability, though, that they stood up to the challenge they set themselves and created a valuable sequel that stands shoulder to shoulder with the best games released in 2009.

The one thing about Guerrilla that mildly ruptures my love for it is its lack of narrative ambition. But I wouldn’t have any oppurtunity to care about its failure to try hard to tell a proper story if it weren’t for the fact that its mechanics and atmosphere are all pretty much spot on. This game is about blowing stuff up – its arsenal of amusingly over-the-top weapons and gorgeous GeoMod 2.0 physics technology make it among the purest sources of daft and ultraviolent entertainment released to any platform for a long time.

Guerilla presents to us an entire Martian colony in which we can (relatively) freely move around and strike successive blows against a greedy and brutal regime. Following very much in the footsteps of other post-GTA destruction-focused sandbox games like Mercenaries and Just Cause, Guerrilla focuses less on size of explorable area and more on sheer depth to which that area can be unmade. In one area, there’s a little building on the crest of a sand dune on a route between two key areas of the Martian colony. Each time you drive through the area, you can gleefully race up the hill and bash a bit more masonry (no pun intended) off the structure just for the fun of it. Destruction is the player’s legacy, his or her consistent impact on the world. Guerrilla is a game based almost solely around a single gimmick, but so fun and multifaceted is that gimmick that it succeeds nonetheless.

Given how reliant the game is on the fluid nature of its action, we’re fortunate that the PC port is so well put together – Volition even saw fit to bestow upon us PC gamers the first of the game’s DLC packs in the boxed version for the princely sum of naff all. While I initially thought that preserving the hotseat multiplayer mode from the console versions would be pointless upon the game’s transition to PC, I’ve actually had lots of fun with the Wrecking Crew mode since the port appeared, and it’s not just because I’ve not played any online games for some time.

Guerilla is one of those precious few games of recent years which, imbued with modern technology, is actually able to let us live out our action film fantasies. From the first time I saw a Schwarzenegger film, I wanted a game that would let me do things like jump off a building as it exploded and collapsed, and for years I was frustrated. High art it may not be, but then again neither is Total Recall, and Guerilla often feels like a slightly more serious version of that cinematic classic of Martian murder. It is a triumph of fun over seriousness, facilitated by some mightily impressive physics code – which, if there’s any justice in the world, will become increasingly commonplace. Sometimes games are accused of being excessively focused on technology, and not enough on communicating emotions and ideas. While I think there’s sometimes some truth to that, Guerrilla, like Total Recall, is a vindication of the idea that sometimes, dumb is best – provided it’s done with intelligence.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

//Cryostasis (Review – 7/10)
This intriguing horror shooter was undoubtedly flawed, but also definitely among the most interesting games I’ve played in 2009. Clunky it may have been, but its combat was often rather impressive in its execution, conveying a real sense of threat as you moved through a thoroughly spooky Soviet icebreaker. It’s nice to see a shooter try some new things, especially if they are things like Cryostasis’ convoluted and shattered narrative. For making such a concerted effort at innovation, I can forgive the failure to completely get the basics right.

//Spelunky (Review – 10/10)
I can’t help but feel that some of the things said about Spelunky have been hilariously over-the-top, but at the same time I can’t deny that I love it. In fact, it’s probably absorbed very nearly as much of my gaming time as Red Faction: Guerrilla. Consistently refined over several months, this addictive indie game is an example of what can happen when a simple, retro concept is polished as throroughly as it can be. There came a point when I was completely exhausted by Spelunky’s repitition – and that came before I ever completed it – but I had a ball while I was hooked.

//Men of War (Review – 8/10)
Another rough-around-the-edges Eastern European game, Men of War is the latest in a long line of confusingly-retitled strategy games released by the same publisher as Cryostasis, Russia’s 1C Company. Despite its clumsy HUD and poor cutscenes, Men of War is a gripping game that proves there’s some life in the old WWII strategy dog yet – especially in the form of a few brilliantly epic and challenging missions that pit you against overwhelming odds while commanding just a tiny number of crack troops, resulting in a combat experience that would make the Green Beret cack his pants.