Overview: Welcome to Mars bitches! The latest game from Volition Inc. takes you back to the Red Planet as a member of the resistance (aka the Red Faction). Some of you might be familiar with the two earlier games from the series and thankfully this is nothing like them.

The Good: In this edition the perspective takes a step back into third-person. This really helps the player identify with the character. I find that sometimes first-person games put the player in the shoes of a faceless hero, and there always seems to be something missing. Usually games combat that emptiness with cutscenes, but then they take away from the action. Red faction, with the help of the third-person perspective have managed to create an immersive world, and a likeable character w/o many cutscenes at all. The narrative of the story is told mostly through radio transmissions from the Red Faction, and conversations with NPCs and chatter from the other inhabitants of the planet. This works pretty well, but I'll elaborate on that later on.

This game does a great job of empowering the player. A good example of this is the hammer that our main character has with him at all times. You can smash an entire building to bits with the hammer alone. THIS NEVER GETS OLD. The physics engine in this game should be the model for all open world games to follow from here on out. It just makes sense that if I knock the hell out of every load bearing support beam in a building with my big ass hammer, that the structural integrity of said building will decrease.... Eventually you will hit the sweet spot and feel the building shudder. Then you get the fuck out of Dodge and watch it fall to the ground... awesome.

There is a good assortment of other weaponry believe it or not, and you will find yourself switching out one weapon for another depending on the task/mission at hand. Whenever possible though, a good blow to the face with my trusty sledgehammer always was most satisfying.

The Bad: No game is perfect, and Red Faction: Guerilla is no exception. One of its biggest flaws is the simple lack of story driven missions. I think there are only about 20, but all but 4 or five of them seem unimportant, and no more interesting than the hundreds of side missions available to you. This is where the lack of custscenes kind of hurts Red Faction. Personally I like to have cutscenes in between story missions, it breaks up the action, and gives me a sense of accomplishment. The cutscene is something that I've earned by completing the previous mission, or it is an introduction to a new territory, or enemy. In Red Faction you are simply rewarded with "salvage" (Red Faction currency used for weapon upgrades), and a statistic stating you've beaten a number of story missions.

Another less than perfect aspect  - Good luck driving on the Red Planet... Steering the shitty Marsian vehicles can be a complete pain in the ass. I understand that the terrain on Mars is rough, but if you're going to incorporate time trial missions into your game, make sure that the vehicles you give the players are at least somewhat fun to drive. This was unfortunate because it reduced many of the driving missions to pure annoyances.

Verdict: Red Faction: Guerilla is an excellent game. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys smashing shit up... and also to anyone who likes open world gaming. There are also several modes of multiplayer available, and a DLC pack has been released already as well. The campaign took me a little over 12 hours on the normal difficulty, but there are still many side missions for me to come back to, and hours of multiplayer waiting for me.

An easy 4 out of 5 Rofls