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Red Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Released n/a
Details
Gameplay
In Red Faction: Guerrilla, the player takes the role of a guerrilla member, Alec Mason, as he assists the Red Faction to disrupt and overthrow the power of the Earth Defense Force (EDF) on Mars. This is presented to the player in a third person perspective, a departure from the series' previous two games which were first person shooters, a change that Volition claims to help the player see and appreciate the surroundings as they are destroyed. Much of the game centers around the game's Geomod 2.0 engine, which allows for buildings and other structures to take damage, fall apart and collapse. In many cases, destroying buildings will leave behind salvage, the game's form of currency, which can be used along with salvage rewarded by completing missions to unlock new weapons and upgrade existing ones when visiting one of the Red Faction safehouses. During campaign mode, the player is always equipped with a sledgehammer-like weapon to allow for destroying buildings and melee, along with up to 3 other weapons or explosive devices. The player also has the opportunity to control offensive vehicles such as tanks and walkers for more destructive options.

The game plays out in an open world representing a terraformed area of Mars' surface. The world is broken into six distinct areas, and the player must successfully free each area before moving onto the next; should the player wander into as-yet-unlocked areas, they will be shot at freely by the EDF forces. The player can traverse these on foot or through numerous vehicles that travel its surface; the player is provided with both a surface and mini-map and a GPS indicator to direct them to a target location. To free an area, the player must complete a number of specific missions as well as other actions, typically the destruction of key EDF targets, that reduce the EDF's presence in the area. At the same time, the player can complete various side missions—from rescuing hostages, retrieving new vehicles, preventing raids on Red Faction bases, and the like—to increase the morale of civilians in the area as well as rewarding the player. Other actions, such as letting civilians die, may lose morale. Should the player engage EDF forces in an area with high morale, there is a good chance that civilians will join the Red Faction and fight alongside the player. Once the player has worn down the EDF presence to zero, a final mission will be available to completely secure the sector for the Red Faction, allowing the player to traverse it freely without concerns regarding the EDF. However, as the EDF forces are diminished, the player may become the target of the Marauders, a diverse nomadic group that survive by ransacking both Red Faction and EDF structures alike.


Multiplayer
Red Faction: Guerrilla's multiplayer mode uses a similar role-playing elements as introduced in Battlefield 2. As the player engages in more matches, they gain experience points that will grant them bonuses; most of these are primarily superficial and do not affect the game, such as adding more options of the character model the player wishes to use or aspects of their player emblem, but other bonuses allow the player to gain access to additional gameplay modes.

The multiplayer modes continue to use Geomod 2.0 and the same weapons available in the game. An added feature of the game includes special backpacks that grant players a unique temporary and triggered power; such powers include being able to run faster, fly, burst through walls, or send out a concussion wave; each can be used multiple times through a short recharge period exists after each use. An additional device in the multiplayer games is the Reconstructor, a weapon-like object that can be used to rebuild destroyed structures, and is present in game modes which require players to attack or defend specific structures.

There are six game modes, including typical multiplayer modes such as individual and team deathmatches and Capture the flag. Other modes focus on teams attempting to destroy or preventing the destruction of structures; for example, "Siege" requires one team to try to destroy a set of buildings controlled by the other as fast as possible, and then reverses the roles, with the team with the fastest time being declared the winner.

Along with online Multiplayer, there is an offline only multiplayer game mode for two to four players called "Wrecking Crew". Wrecking Crew features several different modes, all of which are based around causing as much damage by oneself with a set amount of resources (such as ammo, time, or both). In each round, the leading player selects one weapon and one backpack to be used, with which each other player then also uses to compete in that round.

. Three DLC packs have been announced with the first one coming August 13, 2009.


Plot
Red Faction: Guerrilla takes place in 2125. The Earth Defense Force (EDF), the allies in the original "Red Faction", has become the main antagonist of Guerrilla. Although initially supportive of the Martian miners, Earth's natural resources have run scarce, and as a result, its global economy has collapsed from rampant speculation of commodities and lack of production. Under pressure by Earth's corporations and leaders to acquire the resources of Mars at any cost and at a pace to meet Earth's high demand, the EDF has forced Martian society into a permanent state of unfree labour. The newly-reformed "Red Faction" arises to rebel against the EDF, drive them off the planet, and begin fairer negotiations with Earth.

Alec Mason, the player character and a mining engineer, arrives on Mars to reunite with brother Daniel and begin a new life, only to learn to his surprise that Daniel is now a member of Red Faction. While on work detail, Daniel testifies about the EDF's cruelty to the Martian people and asks Alec to join their cause; he is soon after gunned down by air support from an EDF assault team. Alec is rescued by Red Faction guerrillas and becomes a reluctant freedom fighter for the group along side inventor "Sam" Samanya, rambling psychotic Jenkins (who believes that Mars should be "purified"), and commander Hugo Davies. Between Davies' command and Alec's skill and bravery, the EDF are quickly driven out of an entire sector, "Parker", for the first time.

While the campaign against the EDF continues in the "Dust" sector, Alec is eventually assigned by Davies to routine surveillance of the "Marauders", a mysterious and violent warrior tribe living in the inhospitable "Badlands", in hopes of recovering stolen weapons. Instead, Alec winds up tracking them to an abandoned Ultor Corporation base that promptly comes under massive assault from the EDF. During the fracas, Alec steals a strange device called the "Nano Forge" and escapes. The EDF responds by pulling out of the Dust Sector and ordering the artillery base in the "Free Fire Zone" to bomb the town of Dust into oblivion. Alec is then tasked with saving key members of Red Faction and vital information on the EDF from the bombardment, which he succeeds in doing.

Alec seems to temporarily lose faith in the movement, citing that no matter how determined their efforts the EDF will simply bomb them to submission. However, Sam analyzes the Nano Forge and discovers it can create catastrophic nanites that can disintegrate any object. A prototype "Nano Rifle" is built from the device, which Alec uses to liberate other sectors, while Davies declares it a vital bargaining chip against the EDF. A successful suicide run against an EDF artillery base is commenced, allowing the group to begin hostilities against the EDF in their own central territories. Unfortunately, Jenkins' obsession with the "purification" of Mars deludes him into betraying the group, resulting in the annihilation of the Red Faction's command center and the death of Davies (Alec kills Jenkins later on but it is a side-mission only in Eos, but regardless the player can still play the activity "collateral damage"). Only Sam and Alec survive the assault; they learn afterwards that the star ship Hydra under the command of Admiral Kobel is arriving to Mars to put an end to the Red Faction once and for all. They also plan to elminate all life on the planet, as said by Kobel himself, calling the civilians "Expendable".

Sam declares that they will need support from the Marauders if the campaign against the EDF is to continue; when Alec remains dubious, she reveals that she is a former Marauder herself, joining the Red Faction because the Marauders were consumed with anger and hate, and did not want to be a part of the lifestyle they endure. The pair head to a Marauder stronghold to meet with their ruler, Vasha, Sam's sister. Sam requests the usage of the Marauders' particle accelerator technology, with plans on combining it with the Nano Forge to create a superweapon capable of destroying the Hydra. Vasha agrees in exchange for possession of the Nano Forge once the war is finished. While inside the Marauder stronghold, the player can also discover a "radio tag" found on an old corpse that implies the Marauders are the descendants of former Ultor Corporation scientists.

After capturing a broadcasting station and using it to regroup the Red Faction, Sam and Alec lead a successful final assault on the EDF's central command alongside teams of Red Faction and the Marauders, driving the EDF out of their own territory. The two groups converge on Mt. Vogel to begin utilizing the Marauder's accelerator; however, a surprise EDF blitzkrieg lead by a General Roth wipes out the Marauder crew guarding the summit end of the accelerator and Vasha along with them. Alec single-handedly storms the mountain, defeating Roth's entire army and personally killing Roth. Sam's plan succeeds and the accelerated Nano Forge is successful in vaporizing the Hydra in space. As the surviving people of Mars celebrate, Sam says the war is over, but Alec knows that the EDF will come back. While Sam says that will be awhile, Alec responds with "We'll be ready for 'em". Alec and Sam approach the crowds of civilians who cheer for them, and Alec raises his sledgehammer in the air, showing the sign of the Red Faction and their long-waited victory.


Development
In February 2008, it was announced the third installment of the Red Faction series was coming to multiple platforms, only basic details were revealed. On July 15, 2008, Rick White, a producer at Volition, debuted a demo at the E3 gaming expo in California (see below). The title was confirmed at the 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC '08), and in mid-2008, a private multiplayer beta was released on Xbox Live.

Among the details revealed at (GDC '08), were a new and fully upgraded Geo-mod system (Geo-Mod 2.0). It was also confirmed that the game would take place in an open world environment.

A live demo of the game debuted at E3 2008, with narration by Volition producer Rick White. Many of the game's features were presented during the demo. These features include: multiplayer, the upgraded Geo-mod system, new weapons, vehicles, a brief plot preview, among others.

At the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, a demo of the multiplayer element of the game was shown. The demo showed off the game mode "Team Anarchy", and "Damage Control", as well as some backpacks that the player can equip for certain powers.

In mid-2008, Volition opened a private multiplayer beta to Microsoft to see what needed to be fixed or added. Friends and family codes were sent to survey participants on July 30, 2008. Volition confirmed that IGN had distributed up to 25,000 codes to expand the beta further via paid public membership. Public keys for the Xbox 360 version were released through Fileplanet.

On August 25, 2008, Volition's Community Manager, J Goldberg (V-Singular) announced on the official Red Faction community forums that he was giving away the last few remaining beta keys in his possession. On August 26, 2008, the last Red Faction: Guerrilla Xbox 360 Beta activation key was given away.

The Red Faction: Guerrilla Beta on Xbox Live came to an end on August 29 at 3AM EST.

In February 2008, preview screenshots of Liran were leaked to the Internet, causing members at various game forums to come to consider one weapon shown to be an "Ostrich Hammer" based on its shape. Over one year later, on April Fools Day 2009, Volition released a video commenting on the forum posts, and jokingly implied that the Ostrich Hammer would be a weapon in the game. However, due to the positive response to that video, Volition has announced that there will really be an Ostrich Hammer weapon present in the game.

On April 23, a single player demo was released on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Network.A multiplayer demo was released on May 21 on both platforms Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Network.The multiplayer demo was removed from the Playstation Network soon after it was made available due to problems connecting to games. As of Friday, June 5, it still has not been re-released for download. There has been no official communication from Sony or THQ to let consumers know that it was removed, only comments about the demo's non-functionality.