I'm really running out of things to write about. Therefore, I'm gonna review something. However, not a book - since the ones I've read recently are all non-fiction, which are exceptionally boring to review. Not just boring, but really boring. So, I'm going to review a game.
Right, I lied. It's not a game, it's a game demo. Much less to write about that way, you see. Well anyway, I'll get started.
Red Faction: Guerrilla. A lot of people say it has a lot to live up to, with its predecessors being pioneers of destructive environment open-world gameplay. I'd agree with them on that, even though I haven't actually played RF1 or RF2. In fact, I only heard of this game because my friend Andrew told me about it at school. In fact, before the review I'll give you a little background info about what goes on in our friendship group:
Me, Salem, Ben and George all own an Xbox 360, and play together a lot. However, Andrew only owns a Vista PC to play COD5 on. Hence, me, Salem, George and Ben always mock him for not having one. Harsh? Maybe. Maybe it would be, if he was actually too poor to afford one. But no, he's got like £600 in his bank account, would it hurt so much to invest and join the craze? I don't think so. And yeah, I know we should let him use his money how we wants, but the thing is that he isn't using it for anything. Since the computer, he hasn't used his money in like a year. Anyway, the reason he introduced RF:G was because it's cross-platform. Yes, PC players can play against 360 players in a rare type of Live system. I'd go into detail but I'm too lazy, so... yeah. For a brief period Andrew was bragging to us, all like "Haha, Windows Live users don't have to pay to play online but Xbox users do." So I checked the Microsoft website, and funnily enough, yes. You DO have to pay Andrew, you stupid little cock.
Anyway, back to RF:G. You play as Alec Mason, a member of the Red Faction. You came to Mars in the year 20somthing because you thought you'd get filthy rich by mining, and head back home, get a supermodel wife and five kids, buy a mansion and a Ferrari, and spend the rest of your life in a jacuzzi with various beautiful women who are only half-dressed whilst your wife looks after the kids. Instead, you arrive to find the EDF, or Earth Defence Force, slaughtering and butchering civilians "for their own good". I'm guessing George Bush was behind the game's logic and designed the EDF. Anyway, since you're furious with the crap the EDF are going through with, you join a rebellion called the Red Faction, who have been battling against the EDF ever since they starting pwning the n00bs, somewhere between RF2 and RF:G.
Well, anyhoosier, you don't get much storyline from the demo. The mission is to run into an EDF base, steal a mining walker for the Red Faction and escape on the back of a truck with a grenade-launching turret on the back of it. I wish I had one. To start with, Alec is equipped with a sledgehammer, an assault rifle and some remote charges. All of these come in handy in some way - by far the most fun, for me, being the sledgehammer. It's awesome. Alec Mason must have been some butch bodybuilding guy for him to raze as much stuff as he does with one blow of the hammer. RT performs a horizontal swing whilst LT performs a downward smash - perfect for crushing EDF skull, hell yeah. As well as armour, the sledgehammer also excels at destroying walls, knocking them down in one or two smashes at most. It's really useful, particularly in the Geomod environment (I'll get to that later) and allows new tactical options like never before - get a floor above your enemies, smash a hole in the floor, drop a remote charge through and make it go boom, drop down and get a full house with one swing of your hammer, it's up to you. The way the developers have done it is brilliant. The other two weapons are handy too, but not quite as cool. Well, I suppose the charges are. You can place four at a time, though you carry 16 to start. Once you've placed up to four charges, you can detonate them as you see fit by pressing B. They make quite nice bangs, courtesy of the brilliant explosion graphics, and are a more noticeable but equally fun way of getting through a building as the sledgehammer. You can also stick them to the EDF troopers, upon which they run around in panic until you blow 'em up. It makes really good fun if you've stuck three of them at the same time, all running around like chickens, then all blowing up at the same time. And the assault rifle is for shooting the EDF. Nothing more, nothing less.
The environment is NOT fully destructable. Sure, the structures and all are, but the terrain is set in stone, quite literally. Of course, I don't really give a crap, since the Geomod 2.0 engine does such a good job with building stress systems that you completely forget about that tiny flaw. The way that a piece of metal will break according to where you hit/blow it up is just amazing and will never cease to impress me. I've seen more realistic wood damage, from the Force Unleashed, but it's still not bad at all. Anyway, thanks to this great damage engine there are endless possibilites. Run through a level with a rocket launcher, blowing up anything that moves, drive a car towards the enemy base loaded with charges and bail out at the last moment to detonate once it's inside the building, run through walls which enemies are hiding behind - really, I can't think of when to stop. It's a fantastic fresh breath of air from Halo 3, which is a good game but gets a little annoying when no buildings fall over after ten or so Spartan laser shots. Oh god, I'd love to see the Spartan laser in RF:G. Wow. That'd kick some juicy ass.
And the AI. Well, I'll say it's not exactly amazing. If you catch one out in the middle of an open area for instance, and open fire at it, it'll just stop running for cover and sit and crouch, opening fire at you. How dumb can you get? Seriously - think about it. You're running towards cover, you're almost there - when you feel a bullet hit your armour. You're a few steps away from cover, where you can fire from while feeling a lot safer, or you can stop in the goddamned open and commence shooting from there. Hell, if you chose option B you're Gordon Brown. Congratulations.
The graphics - fantastic. The Geomod 2.0 engine seriously boosts the graphics, with the beautifully detailed explosions added to by flying debris. You can't not love blowing the same building up over and over again, just because it causes you a spontaneous orgasm every time you see it happen. Especially when you blow up a gas tank and there's a green tinge to the huge orange explosion, it just looks, ugh. AMAZING.
In conclusion - the scores.
Gameplay - 9/10
Story - 7/10
Graphics - 9/10
AI - 4/10
Overall - 7.25/10
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