Red Faction: Guerilla casts you as Alec Mason, a demolitions expert working a mining gig on Mars courtesy of his brother Dan. His shiny new life on the red planet isn't all he might have hoped for, however, as Dan over-promised a bit. The Earth Defense Force, affectionately knows as the EDF, has transitioned since the early Red Faction peace-keeping days half a century earlier to oppressing the masses like they've never heard of Ultor. Think martial law, prison camps, and executions. Cue the Red Faction, a group of colonists trying to liberate Mars and send the EDF to hell, or at least another planet altogether. Dan is clearly attached to the rebel cause, but Mason is only driven to wield his hammer as a weapon when the EDF goes after dear brother.
Mars is divided into six distinct territories which Mason must liberate by weakening the grip of the EDF while keeping up morale of the civilians. Destroying EDF structures is pretty much the way to freedom so it's a good thing your hammer is so powerful. Your calculated destruction lowers the EDF's "control meter" which is a measure of their influence in the region. To advance the primary mission the control meter must be reduced to null, a tactical effort as different objectives and buildings are assigned individual values.
The morale of the everyman is the balancing force in Guerrilla and have you working to earn the trust of the downtrodden. Guerrilla Actions are missions in which you help these guys and your fellow freedom fighters out, in exchange for morale. From rescuing colonists to disrupting supply lines, as the people begin to trust you they will fight alongside you - an interesting way to indirectly grow your power.
In the demo you fight your way through the EDF forces to a location where you retrieve a mining walker and return to deliver it to the insurgent forces. It gives you a good taste for destroying buildings, fighting troops and mounted defenses, a couple of vehicles and salvage collecting. It is an all too brief taste of the game that barely gives you a chance to realize how much fun you were having.
Your sledgehammer is the trustiest of weapons, and never leaves your side. As you progress you will have access to a wider range of guns as well as detonation charges and rocket launchers, and the game touts a wide array of geo-deforming tools. Mason can carry up to three projectiles or explosives, and can augment weapons with salvage. The demo gives you a hint of collecting salvage but the depth of that currency is not really addressed. Salvage can be collected every time you destroy a structure, and the bigger and better the building, the more salvage you take away with you. Salvage ranges from scrap and pipes to tanks and can be traded in for weapons, weapon upgrades and additions to your skill set. If you are eliminated while collecting all that junk, however, it vanishes - and the cover system seems a little clunky so running for the hills is always an option.
There are over thirty drivable vehicles - though that mining walker I had to pick up wasn't so much "drivable" as patiently navigable. There's no GTA style carjacking but you can assume control of vehicles, all of which act as weapons as much as transportation. Destroying your surroundings is incredibly satisfying - especially since you can get quite a bit done with your hammer. Doesn't hurt that what functions as concrete on Earth crumbles like drywall on Mars. There is fun experimentation to be had, like weakening the building with your hammer and setting off explosions. On the flip side, cover is very destructible and the enemy AI is adept at finding you. I did not get to play the multi-player, but the offline mode "Wrecking Crew" purportedly features four players sharing a controller and playing through four modes trying to cause as much uproar and destruction as possible, and that sounds like an interesting way to make a conventional element into something more.
Red Faction: Guerrilla seems remarkably focused for the array of destruction you have at your fingertips. I'm not fond of direct game comparisons, but in the relatively brief demo of Guerrilla I had more fun plowing through everything in sight than I did in the whole of Mercenaries: World in Flames. No, it is not entirely realistic, but since when has realism gotten in the way of blowing stuff up?
