The Lamer Gamer

I still suffer from crappy broadband syndrome, but RFG’s multiplayer is still a good time.  Coming with a pool of game types that center more around objective style competition rather than deathmatch, RFG provides a well balanced multiplayer experience.  Siege is a great, unique mode where you take turns attempting to demolish a series of buildings and this really caries forward the carnage fiesta of the single player experience.  Other popular game types like Capture the Flag and Territories style matches are there too, but Siege is a fave of mine.

To my knowledge no other developer has matched COD4s rather forgiving bandwidth requirements, and RFG isn’t so different.  I curse the game frequently for deaths I feel were lag based, and I’m clearly more productive when hosting, but they did take a cue from Halo 3 and the simultaneous beat downs work for me.  Speaking of which, melee is a bit odd.  Your sledgehammer is an instant kill, but other weapons are pretty lame for melee, and there’s no apparent bonus for a sneaky hit from behind.  I wish there was some quick switchtosledgeandswingit button.

One other small gripe.  The muliplayer achievements are pretty bad.

• Play 250 Games
• Win 250 Games
• Kill 5000
• Gain a Kazillion XP in Multiplayer

They don’t ruin it or anything, but why even have them?

I’ve only rented it from GameFly but, thinking about keeping it.  The DLC was just released in last week or so, and might be worth it.  Then again, I could also grab the new and old DLC for Mass Effect for the same price.  Hmm, not to mention a copy of ME is about $12 right now.

Before I overstate how much I like Red Faction: Guerrilla, the  ’roids comment was meant to imply how impossibly strong the player is, not that Red Faction is a better game than GTA IV per se.  That said, I never really fell for the GTA series, and I do like Guerrilla more than GTA IV.  And what’s not to like?  RF:G is incredibly satisfying in providing a playground of demolitions waiting to happen.   And happen they do, in all sorts of amusing ways.  Try taking down a building with a handful of mining charges, hit one with a rocket or two, maybe move on to my personal favorite, drive a tank through it and watch the structure crumble all around you.  Oddly the only ridiculous bit in all of this is that you can take down whole buildings with a few swings of your sledgehammer, hence the ‘roids.

The general gameplay follows the GTA style.  Jump in random cars, complete missions in an open world with a less than entirely linear story line.  You, a recent arrival on Mars join the Red Faction in a Guerrilla campaign (shocker, right?) where you are pitted against limitless numbers of Earth Defense Force troops and challenged with completing missions in a get-in/get-out style.  Pick up a vehicle, drive somewhere, demolish/defend/rescue something/someone, that’s pretty much it.  There’s essentially no sense in standing around trying to kill all the EDF troops as they just keep respawning right in from of you, literally.  That is one of the few technical failings of the title, enemy spawns are not concealed in any way, they just show up 10 feet in front of you when the alert condition is high enough.  Also, the demolition physics is a little lacking.  Despite your juiced sledge, buildings tend to keep standing on 1 of 4 of their original walls, but you can of course just smack that one too.  It doesn’t really detract from the experience unless you’re nitpicking.   The missions, various weapons  and generally well structured gameplay make up for that, and let me have a ton of fun.   BUT… The campaign is pretty short, I’m guessing less than half of GTA IV or less.  Multiplayer, however, eases the pain via its own breadth of match types.

Supposedly some good DLC is around the corner too.  August 15th to be precise.  Hopefully they can do better than BioWare did with Mass Effect DLC, one add-on is kinda lame when you talk it up as a feature.  It’s a great time sink, and if multiplayer holds its appeal, it’s  decent purchase.