Is there life on Mars? Disappointingly, yes. Red Faction: Guerilla released in Summer 2009 and was my first game in the series. This series features great destruction physics that let you destroy buildings. Blowing up buildings or smashing them down with your sledgehammer is so fun and satisfying, it saves this game from being a forgettable one.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, it just could be so much better. I think it had huge potential that failed to deliver, too much focus went into the destruction, which is the only thing that's really good in this game. I'm yet to play Armageddon which was released after this, but if RF ever came back with the destruction and a more solid story and characters, I believe it could thrive.
Onto the game, you meet up with your brother on Mars (oh yeah, it's set on planet Mars) and you quickly discover that things aren't too swell. The EDF have pretty much taken over and the Red Faction are the resistance that are trying to liberate Mars from their control. Standard story really, except there are no characters. There's a couple named people, some only feature in cutscenes, in which there are only about five total, some can only be heard and some pretty much just suck. Alec Mason, who you play as is probably the best character. He's not really that good though, he's boring really, but he's the only one you ever see. The story is short and the missions are boring. You have to do around three missions to liberate each sector of Mars. The missions are basically hijack this, destroy that, not very interesting at all.
So, apart from the boring story and bland characters what else do we get? Well, we get the empty, dismal planet Mars to explore. There's literally nothing to look at, just rocky mountains and sandy roads. The driving is good and the amass of unique vehicles to drive makes for variety, but driving around is made even more boring when there's no radio or no music playing, you're literally driving around a deserted place with nothing but the sound of your car. You can get a walker which is a machine you can enter that has legs and arms and are a fun way to destroy buildings and enemies quickly. The graphics are very average, the buildings all look the same and the characters that do barely appear are boring or annoying. A lot of work is needed for character development and more cutscenes and story content is definitely needed.
The gun play wasn't to my liking, I hated getting in gun battles and the EDF had a specific gun that felt over powered as it could send your car flipping as they shot it. Thankfully the sledgehammer saves the day, it's powerful and fun to use. The enemies are annoying though as they're constantly running away, leaving you to chase after them. There is a vast selection of weapons including remote mines that you can tactically use to take down structures and plant a few at once, there's also a rocket launcher and land mines. The nano rifle is the most memorable though, a gun that can disintegrate buildings, vehicles and even enemies. The AI are stupidly annoying as they will get in your way and even run you off the road, they're so annoying and even when they're talking, they're not adding anything but more annoyance. They do join you and help you out when you're in a tough situation against the EDF and they even drive a car over to you when you're running on foot for a certain distance. These were nice touches to an otherwise useless group of friendlies.
However, there is a decent amount of content here, there's plenty of side activities which go from destroying buildings, attacking EDF locations, defending bases from assaults and many more. There's also a multiplayer that seems out of place, but it can actually be pretty fun. It has a bunch of backpacks that give off certain boosters like sprinting or shaking the screen to make shooting difficult. It has a bunch of modes to try out and there's also Wrecking Crew, which lets you destroy buildings in creative ways with some friends.
I hate to diss the game, but after playing it all the way through I have to. If it wasn't for the fun of destroying buildings I probably wouldn't have liked it at all, there is so much potential here but with THQ absent these days, there may never be a chance for this potential to be unleashed. I really hope Armageddon can redeem this as that could be the last we ever get in the series. There is life on Mars, I just wish it was a little more lively... and also green! Where were the little green martians?!
6.8/10
Thursday 8 September 2016
Friday 2 September 2016
The Warriors (PS4)
"Warriors come out to play". I had never heard of The Warriors back when I played this, I was fairly young and never watched the 1979 film until a few years after. My life revolved around this game once I played it. I was addicted, I loved it. Rockstar turned the movie into an amazing game, if you never played it go buy it right now.
For those unfamiliar with the movie, the Warriors go to a meeting with a number of other gangs, something occurs and the Warriors have to "bop" their way home to Coney Island. Sounds easy, but not when every gang and cop in the city is on their tail.
All nine of the original Warriors feature and all are playable (only Fox is not playable during the story, he's only playable in his Flashback mission). Some of the original cast even voiced their likeness, Cleon, Fox, Swan, Cochise and Ajax all reprised their roles. The game takes place before the movie and most of the story leads to the meeting at the start of the film. It shows how the Warriors got to the meeting and the later missions are featured in the film. The Flashback missions show how all nine members joined and even how the gang was formed, this is a nice added bonus and you get to know each member even more, not many got much screen time in the film so this adds more to each individual.
Graphics look great, if you've watched the movie, you can tell who each character is in the game. The Warriors who never reprised their role are well acted by the new voices. The warchief (whoever you're playing as) is given the ability to order fellow members around as they're currently in charge. The orders you get are 'wreck 'em all', 'scatter', 'hold up', 'mayhem', 'watch my back' and 'let's go' which are all pretty much self explanatory. It heavily features tagging, which is spray painting the Warriors' mark, if you're not a fan, it could get frustrating but it's not that bad when you're used to it.
There are new gangs and even a rival gang that come from Coney Island too. This builds on the story more showing how the Warriors act when they're not being chased all the way back to Coney. There's even some new added Warriors. Rockstar did an excellent job with the new gangs, characters and the story. In the game, the Warriors are a new gang and they're trying to build up their reputation so they can get in on Cyrus' big meeting with every gang in the city.
As well as a story and flashback missions, there's Rumble Mode, free roam and Armies of the Night. Rumble Mode is filled with different game modes for you to try and even lets you create your own gang, where you can hand pick your nine favourite characters to one gang. My personal favourite is Battle Royal, there's nothing more entertaining than throwing each other off of a building and watching the slow motion cutscene and the screams as they fly off, it's honestly the funniest thing ever, as harsh as it may sound. Free roam let's you run around Coney and help out the citizens, while Armies of the Night is an arcade-style beat-em-up.
There is tonnes and tonnes of fighting, thankfully the combat is fantastic. There's combos, finishing moves, takedowns, wall finishers, double team moves, throwing and grappling and rage mode which lets you do brutal finishers. There's even weapons you can pick up like batons and knives. You can also give and take weapons from your buddies. Gang wars are made better when your whole gang is with you and you take on another fifteen gang members, the bigger the brawl the better.
There's a lot of cool features too, you can sort of free run, jumping across rooftops and climbing. You can hide in the shadows from cops and rival gangs when there's too many. You can uncuff any Warriors that have been caught by the cops and even uncuff yourself when you've been taken down. Revive any knocked out buddies with flash, which is a drug that acts as health. The levels have a sort of open-world feel to them, they let you explore and you can even stay in the level as long as you want and build your arcade score very high. There's also training exercises that let you increase your stamina. You can even wear any hat that's been knocked off an enemy or even Cowboy's hat, but he's never happy when you've stolen his hat.
The Warriors are often outnumbered, which leads to some great chase scenes and they feature in the game, along with some new ones. It's pretty terrifying when you know there's a bunch a face painted, crazies chasing you armed with baseball bats. The soundtrack is amazing and true to the film, every song I loved and even the music played during the levels is fantastic. You also have the ability to replay levels and try to beat the high score if you were unable to your first time round.
The dreaded part, the bad stuff. The camera can be really awkward to control and give you a poor angle to play from at times. There's also lots of clipping, you're just trying to sprint and you're caught by the smallest corner, it can become incredibly annoying. Like I said earlier, the tagging but that's preference really, I just felt it featured too much. Thankfully there wasn't much wrong with this game.
Thank you Rockstar for making this game. It's one of my favourite games and I never even heard of The Warriors until I played this. I'm just thankful my friend let me borrow it off him and a week later, buy it off him. If you are crazy and missed this, go buy it on PS4 or even the PS3 if you're on that one. The only question that remains is "Can you dig it?"
9.1/10
For those unfamiliar with the movie, the Warriors go to a meeting with a number of other gangs, something occurs and the Warriors have to "bop" their way home to Coney Island. Sounds easy, but not when every gang and cop in the city is on their tail.
All nine of the original Warriors feature and all are playable (only Fox is not playable during the story, he's only playable in his Flashback mission). Some of the original cast even voiced their likeness, Cleon, Fox, Swan, Cochise and Ajax all reprised their roles. The game takes place before the movie and most of the story leads to the meeting at the start of the film. It shows how the Warriors got to the meeting and the later missions are featured in the film. The Flashback missions show how all nine members joined and even how the gang was formed, this is a nice added bonus and you get to know each member even more, not many got much screen time in the film so this adds more to each individual.
Graphics look great, if you've watched the movie, you can tell who each character is in the game. The Warriors who never reprised their role are well acted by the new voices. The warchief (whoever you're playing as) is given the ability to order fellow members around as they're currently in charge. The orders you get are 'wreck 'em all', 'scatter', 'hold up', 'mayhem', 'watch my back' and 'let's go' which are all pretty much self explanatory. It heavily features tagging, which is spray painting the Warriors' mark, if you're not a fan, it could get frustrating but it's not that bad when you're used to it.
There are new gangs and even a rival gang that come from Coney Island too. This builds on the story more showing how the Warriors act when they're not being chased all the way back to Coney. There's even some new added Warriors. Rockstar did an excellent job with the new gangs, characters and the story. In the game, the Warriors are a new gang and they're trying to build up their reputation so they can get in on Cyrus' big meeting with every gang in the city.
As well as a story and flashback missions, there's Rumble Mode, free roam and Armies of the Night. Rumble Mode is filled with different game modes for you to try and even lets you create your own gang, where you can hand pick your nine favourite characters to one gang. My personal favourite is Battle Royal, there's nothing more entertaining than throwing each other off of a building and watching the slow motion cutscene and the screams as they fly off, it's honestly the funniest thing ever, as harsh as it may sound. Free roam let's you run around Coney and help out the citizens, while Armies of the Night is an arcade-style beat-em-up.
There is tonnes and tonnes of fighting, thankfully the combat is fantastic. There's combos, finishing moves, takedowns, wall finishers, double team moves, throwing and grappling and rage mode which lets you do brutal finishers. There's even weapons you can pick up like batons and knives. You can also give and take weapons from your buddies. Gang wars are made better when your whole gang is with you and you take on another fifteen gang members, the bigger the brawl the better.
There's a lot of cool features too, you can sort of free run, jumping across rooftops and climbing. You can hide in the shadows from cops and rival gangs when there's too many. You can uncuff any Warriors that have been caught by the cops and even uncuff yourself when you've been taken down. Revive any knocked out buddies with flash, which is a drug that acts as health. The levels have a sort of open-world feel to them, they let you explore and you can even stay in the level as long as you want and build your arcade score very high. There's also training exercises that let you increase your stamina. You can even wear any hat that's been knocked off an enemy or even Cowboy's hat, but he's never happy when you've stolen his hat.
The Warriors are often outnumbered, which leads to some great chase scenes and they feature in the game, along with some new ones. It's pretty terrifying when you know there's a bunch a face painted, crazies chasing you armed with baseball bats. The soundtrack is amazing and true to the film, every song I loved and even the music played during the levels is fantastic. You also have the ability to replay levels and try to beat the high score if you were unable to your first time round.
The dreaded part, the bad stuff. The camera can be really awkward to control and give you a poor angle to play from at times. There's also lots of clipping, you're just trying to sprint and you're caught by the smallest corner, it can become incredibly annoying. Like I said earlier, the tagging but that's preference really, I just felt it featured too much. Thankfully there wasn't much wrong with this game.
Thank you Rockstar for making this game. It's one of my favourite games and I never even heard of The Warriors until I played this. I'm just thankful my friend let me borrow it off him and a week later, buy it off him. If you are crazy and missed this, go buy it on PS4 or even the PS3 if you're on that one. The only question that remains is "Can you dig it?"
9.1/10
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