Review - Red Faction: Guerilla

I discovered this little gem while downloading random demos from the PS3 home, and liked how destructive the environments were alone that I decided to pick it up, then immediately returned it after beating it within a week. Yes, a week, I know, I had tons of other stuff too do that's why. Anyway, here is the review:

The Good:

Graphics = Destruction!: The main sell of the game is that you can virtually demolish everything you see and can interact with, with the variety of awesome weapons or vehicles. This also helps in situations and when I got into a tight spot. I would often find myself, if pinned down by enemy troops, breaking through the unoccupied wall, escaping to safety. Or if a building needs to be taking down, ramming the vehicle into the bottom floor, using the jet-pack (oh yes, there is a jet-pack) to get up to the second and third floors, and blow up the building form the inside with carefully places mines. Or find a sniper, and break the floor from under them - these are only a couple of scenarios I used in my experience of the game. Despite the building and character models being a tad lackluster in overall detail (i.e. looked a little fuzzy or bland) you have to look at the whole picture, which means you are able to use a couple vehicles with carefully placed mines or rockets to blow up an ENTIRE BRIDGE.

Controls - Familiar and simple, very good. Although sometimes I hit the wrong button, they seem to take from the MGS setup, which I am very familiar with, so I have little learning curve.

On the Fence:

A.I. - Sometimes they would be dumb as rocks, and other times they would just kill you five times over. Their intelligence, and numbers, can very and for the most part can be overwhelming, giving the game a reputation of being very hard. I think I died 25 times because of this.

Side Missions: I like side missions even though I tend to bash them, and there are a good variety, but I think it falls in line with the A.I., sometimes just picking up and dropping off a couple guys on house arrest can be a chore.

The Bad:

Story: The major drawback is that not a lot happens. It's about a revolution on Mars, and you're leading it. Oh, and there are these marauders or something who the game hints are from the previous game that pick on you too, who get thrown in, who seem utterly paranormal and mysterious who are really only just off kilter enough to be dangerous and yet beautiful.

Verdict: If you like destructive 3rd person shooter action games, get it! Don't don't expect something deep from this game though. Enjoy the experience, not necessarily getting to the end.