It’s always interesting to go back to a game with the gift of hindsight, especially if it’s a game that you enjoyed the first time around. Through rose-tinted spectacles, games from 10 years ago can have modern visuals, solid mechanics, and they’re not missing many of the conveniences that more recent releases now feature as standard. With Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-Tered, I experienced a mixed bag of remembering why I enjoyed the game so much when I played it back in 2009, and a whole host of reminders that the game that exists under the revamped surface is now almost ten years old.
The main gameplay appeal of Red Faction Guerrilla, and perhaps the most surprising piece of gaming technology to not have been picked up in the years following, is the ability to destroy buildings, and have them somewhat accurately crumble as you take them apart piece-by-piece. There’s nothing more satisfying than stealing an APC, driving across the map and ramming it through the bottom level of an office building, watching the building collapse around you. Later in the game, you gain a weapon with the ability to remove sections of structures, and taking away support beams and standing walls until the weight of the building is no longer supported sufficiently is one of the greatest joys to be had from the game.
Back in 2009, I didn’t know much about Red Faction when Guerrilla first released, and it was on the strength of reviews and online feedback that I decided to pick it up. I can remember being impressed with the size of the maps, the number of regions available to unlock, and the amount of side activities that were available to take up my time. In 2018, however, the aspects that I enjoyed back then now seem to play against the experience a little more. Mars is still large, but compared to more modern games, it’s a barren wasteland, with little to occupy the eye, and not a huge sense of life. The side activities, while still plentiful, are limited in variety and grow stale reasonably quickly, and the various regions are difficult to tell apart from one another.
The mission structure in Guerrilla plays similarly to this year’s Far Cry 5, in that you’re required to complete a certain number of side missions in order to bring down enemy control of a region, which then unlocks a mission that progresses the story and sometimes unlocks a new region to liberate. In the context of the game’s narrative it makes sense, as you’re attempting to gain support of the populace and weaken the influence of your oppressors before striking at a weakness that you’ve exposed. In reality, though, it feels like padding, as you’re repeatedly rescuing hostages, delivering vehicles and raiding enemy bases, before rinsing and repeating. Admittedly, you often don’t have to perform a whole bunch of the side activities before the next mission opens up, and there are enough spread across the map that you can focus on the kind that you particularly enjoy, but due to their repetitiveness, it feels like unwelcome filler.
Completing the side missions can sometimes rewards you with scrap, which can also be gained by destroying EDF (the main bad guys) property. This scrap is used to unlock and upgrade new weapons and abilities, and in this playthrough, it formed the major driving force for my time with the game. Unlocking the ability to carry and throw more explosives, as well as gaining access to the jetpack and Nano Rifle make a huge difference to how you can play the game, and it’s well worth ignoring the story momentarily to ensure that these items become part of your arsenal. Being able to hover above an enemy base and pick apart their buildings piece by piece is easily a highlight of Red Faction Guerrilla, and this enjoyment isn’t diminished in the Re-Mars-Tered edition.
Unfortunately, the game packaged around the destruction isn’t as great. The story is clunky and forgettable, combat is awkward and often frustrating, and driving is imprecise, to the point where you’ll often find yourself in a spin or catapulting off of a rock for no fault of your own. There’s a lengthy campaign, and plenty of side activities to take part in, but the story is dull and the side missions repetitive. If you view Red Faction Guerrilla as a tech demo for the destructible buildings bundled within a larger experience, then you’ll likely have some fun with it, but don’t go into the game expecting a sci-fi epic or an open-world that rivals some of the best examples of the genre.
It’s strange, because I can’t quite work out how I feel about this Re-Mars-Tered edition of the game, or about the game as a whole. This recent package includes a prettier version of the game, and bundles in the DLC, but doesn’t offer a whole lot more for players who have already experienced what Guerrilla has to offer. For newer players, though, Guerrilla is starting to show it’s age, and doesn’t compare favorably to games that have released since 2009. Despite that, at the moment, Guerrilla is the game that I boot up first, play around with for about half an hour, and then play something else. There isn’t enough within to keep my attention for much longer, but I enjoy my time with it, and look forward to breaking a couple of buildings and finishing off a couple of missions.
This is the kind of experience where the amount of enjoyment you’ll get from it likely depends on the amount of enjoyment that you can provide for yourself. In the period between 2009 and now, I’d forgotten how barebones the experience outside of the destruction is, and how basic and unremarkable the game at the heart of Guerrilla ultimately ends up being. Despite that, the destruction technology presents an experience unlike anything else available, and keeps drawing me back to the game time and time again. Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-Tered is a game that I would recommend with reservations, and while I’m glad that more gamers will now get the chance to experience it, I’m a little concerned that in the context of 2018, the obvious flaws won’t be able to be looked over as much as they were in 2009.
