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 Red Faction: Guerrilla - Xbox360 Preview
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| GENRE |
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Shooter |
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| PLAYERS |
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1 |
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| PUBLISHER |
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THQ |
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| DEVELOPER |
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Volition Inc. |
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| ESRB |
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RP |
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| CREATED |
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05/12/08 |
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We like the Mars, the Mars that go *BOOM*.
The original Red Faction, with its Geo Mod terrain-deforming innovations, was an oddly cute but ambitious idea when it first appeared—so ambitious, in fact, that it took a while to realize that the scheme basically raised nearly as many freedom-of-environment gameplay problems as it set out to solve. We’ve all heard more than one ‘Dig Dug’ joke in reference to the mineshaft-burrowing antics.
 More to the point, there was always that underlying uncertainty of exactly where, and to what extent, this destructible-terrain business would apply. Six years hence, somebody on the dev team evidently said, “The hell with it—let’s just let ‘em blow up everything. That’s our design manifesto, screw it, it’s Miller Time.” And glory, glory, Hallelujah!, they weren’t kidding. Guerilla represents a bold new step in the arena of Blowing Shit Up.
We got a chance to get our mitts on Guerrilla at THQ’s recent hands-on-o-rama in San Francisco. After a fairly high-security day at the magnificent Pixar compound in Emeryville during which we were actually wanded and searched prior to entering their preview theater (NOTE TO THE PIXAR SECURITY GUYS: In your passion to open and inspect packs of cigarettes, you missed the bottles of vodka, so phhhbbbttt!), we finally got our hands on the forthcoming lineup of games (and some stiff drinks, which we frankly needed by 6 p.m. or so).
If you’ve followed the Red Faction universe, you’re in for a bit of curve ball. Seems the good-guy Earth Defense Forces from the previous game took over well enough… but then they became fat, corrupt, and oppressive. What’s a two-time-loser (re-)oppressed Martian miner to do but rise up and fight?
 This time around, the action takes place in a removed, over-the-shoulder viewpoint, complete with wheeled (and in some cases, bipedal) vehicles. Players take the role of a tough-guy miner who looks a bit like he’s channeling the whole post-9/11 ‘Beefcake Firefighter’, and the new destructible environ scheme applies to every last artificial structure on the planet, enemy, or whatever. So watch where you’re lobbing that RPG.
All structures are designed to be completely destructible by any number of means: explosive shells (obviously), remote mines, grenade launchers, even drive-throughs-gone-wrong with heavy all-terrain vehicles and miscellaneous mining-transport equipment. And if you’re really hard up for ordinance, your strapping on-screen hero can simply start taking a sledgehammer to the nearest load-bearing wall or support-pillar, gouging out real-damage chunks that expose twisted rebar. With enough patience and time, you could quite possibly take out a whole building in this physics-dependant way, piece by piece.
But it’s more fun and a whole hell of lot more quick and impressive to simply plow through some massive barracks facility from end to end while in command of one of the immense, bipedal walker-mech units (like a super-sized strip-mining version of the cargo rig Sigourney Weaver pilots in Aliens).
 Meanwhile, the entire populated surface of Mars is presented in a living, free-form, sandbox-y way, complete with NPC workers roaming around, doing their job… and waiting to see if they should help you out in a fight. Destroying the facilities of the oppressors—and not getting too much collateral damage on miner-friendly buildings—will go a long way toward earning you ‘Resistance Points’ that will not only array the miners on your side, but will also eventually open up new missions (should you choose to accept them).
So far, the physics of buildings breaking, weakening, and toppling look pretty promising, and A.I. enemies will reportedly have a special eye out for new tactical situations that arise from property damage. If you blow a big enough hole in a wall, they’ll do their best to come pouring through it… or at least they’ll be aware of a potential new line-of-sight along which to shoot you. Good stuff.
Red Faction: Guerilla is slated to ship “in 2009”—THQ is keepin’ it vague—and will also feature at least one new multiplayer mode known only as ‘Wrecking Crew’. More on this as GR digs up more intel in the red Martian sands.
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