Red Faction: Guerrilla

It might sound like crazy talk, but I have enjoyed playing Red Faction: Guerilla more than GTA4. Red Faction doesn't give you radio stations in your cars, it doesn't give you long cinematic cut scenes and all the other flashy stuff you get in GTA - but, Red Faction is just plain good fun.

As other reviews have said the destructible environment is one of the big technical acheivements with this game - I've never played anything like it. While smashing holes in any wall with your trusty sledgehammer (or heat seeking rocket launcher) never gets old, the critical point is that the destructible environments are tightly coupled to the game play objectives.

Graphics are pretty good, so are sound, replay value, story and any of the other standard game review metrics that get used - you might not see this game with 5 star reviews on all the game websites because like I said, it doesn't have everything a game like GTA has, but in terms of core gameplay and enjoyment its definitely a 5-star game.

Just purchased this title and im glad I did.
It reminds me of Mercs 2, doesnt take itself too seriously, and just aims at being fun. The story is pretty weak and some of the voice acting is soapy at best. However, there is alot of game to be played so you get your moneys worth.
The gameplay is pretty simple and makes negotiating the huge map easy to do. Most the mission's invlove just blowing up buildings, which with the Geo-Mod2.0 engine is ok by me!
The visuals are nothing to write home about, but, for such a large game they are still good with some very pretty explosions and breath taking mars sunsets.
The only thing I will suggest is playing the game on the easiest setting. On the more difficult settings once your about 1/4 of the way through the game, on a level 3 alert, the enemies will wash over you like a tsunami making the game more frustrating than fun. On casual setting the AI is the same and the weapons do only slightly less damage. The number of enemies just decreases slowing down the pace and making the combat more enjoyable as you get to watch stray grenades blast down walls etc.
There is a fair bit of variation to the terrain on the red planet, including grassland, and even ice caps. This is also enhanced by dust storms and a day/night cycle. Also the upgrades bought by "salvaging" scrap metal gives you a reason to destroy that lonely building you just stumbled across in the wastelands. Even the side missions reward you with new weapons and armour, thus giving a purpose to play through them as well.

I just picked this game up upon it's release and was very impressed with the quality of the game throughout.
I'm predicting this to be the big sleeper hit of the summer.

This game is made by the developer called Volition who are makers of the Saints Row series ... another title I love to play on 360.
Unfortunatly even though I love the Saints Row games , they are riddled with numerous bugs/glitches and freeze ups and I was wondering if this game would suffer from such poor quality testing.

Luckily the quality of this game overall is much more superior than those games. I haven't found any bugs/glitches so far and the game hasn't froze up on me once yet. It runs at a very smooth frame rate too even with all the chaos going on. ( Sure it doesn't have the prettiest graphics ..... and character models look kinda plain/basic/generic and landscape kinda looks boring .... but even after those criticisms aside .... i still think the visuals in this game still look great especially as it maintains such a steady and smooth framerate throughout the chaotic carnage.)

The single player campaign is a big open world and I see myself having fun over the next few weeks/months exploring the surface of Mars playing my part in the Rebellion. This is a sandbox game where destruction is it's selling feature ... so if you like blowing up stuff , this is the game for you. Anything man-made in this game can be destroyed into dozens of pieces , which is great fun and never gets old. It will wake up the little vandal in you , and I'm just amused just thinking about the target buildings I will demolish later in the week ... heh ...

Besides the fun and mindless destruction .....there are missions, activities and side quests that can be undertaken just like other open world game. Although the activities themselves aren't as varied or intersting as say other sandbox games like saints row and GTA, it's still nice to give them a try.
Overall I'd like to say the single player experience is a lot like if you were to cross Crackdown with Saints Row 1/2.

Well I knew the single player experience was going to be great regardless since I was familiar with the companies work beforehand ..... but the multiplayer is a nice suprise because it is indeed very decent.

Nowadays you get alot of really great games that excel in having a great single player experience and a mediocre/ sub-par multiplayer distraction. ( Example GTA4 and Saints Row )
I thought Red Faction would be one of these games .... but I was very suprised to find that Red Faction's multiplayer was indeed actually decent and worthy of regular play.

All your regular game types are there from your usual kind of shooters , presented in different ways suited to this style of game. What really makes the multiplayer fun is that alongside your regular weapons , you can equip backbacks that each have their own special ability. So creating weapon and ability combos in this game is especially satisfying.

The selling feature of the games destructible enviroments makes multiplayer a lot more thought provoking aswell.
Numerous examples of free thinking to improves your chances of surivial and obtaining your objectives come to mind !
For example breaking into a base ..... you can make any wall into a door way for quick entrance/escape.
Also don't rely on cover too long .... a few minutes later the battlefield will go from looking brand new to looking like a dump / ruins.
Snipers can't keep high ground for long on buildings , if you decide to bring the building down beneath them !!
Destroy a bridge can be a strategic advantage in controlling territory or a chase.
Destruction isn't the only way of improving odds too ... with the instant repairing nano gun , you can repair your damaged structures and even repair destroyed bridges to help you make shortcuts to your targets.
So play smart in multiplayer with the destructible and repairable enviroment ! Being good at fighting and shooting is just half the battle.

Also I do the find some of the game types in this game encourages strong teamwork and strategic thought, that's very easy to get to grips with. I hope the pool of players/community in this game stays strong and grows. I know it can't stand up to the big boys like COD4, Halo 3 and GOW2 ... but I think this Multiplayer still deserves some worthy attention.

This game has to be applauded for value for money too .... not only having a huge open world to explore full of missions and activities ..... the multiplayer has a great number of playlists/gametypes too, just like the big name shooters. Except in this game all the game types seem worthy of your attention. ( None of them I don't enjoy playing ..... in most shooters there's usually one or a few gametypes I don't particularly like playing ... this game .. I don't seem to mind playing any type. )
Multiplayer does seem to do a good job of tracking stats and has loads of leaderboards also, which alot of online games seem to just give brief details. This game seems to keep track about everything .... so if you want to check your leaderboard progress , experience , bonus rewards achievement stats , weapon kills ,... etc ..... you can look it all up !

So there you have it. A suprise hit for me this year and great value for money. I admit it wasn't on my most anticipated , but even so , it's ended up making a big impression on me. I've ended up loving this game , give this game a try too and you might like it too.
Any gamer who likes big open worlds and shooters should at least give it a go. There's definitely lots of fun to be had.