Red Faction: Guerrilla is a video game that rewards you marvelously for blowing stuff up and wreaking havoc. The game, which is available for Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3 and PC, provides a unique experience in that just about anything you come across in the unforgiving landscape of Mars is destructible, whether by the simple swing of a sledgehammer or by calculated explosives.
In the plot of Red Faction: Guerrilla, Mars has been explored and colonized by an outfit called the Earth Defense Force (EDF), which started out as a benevolent organization looking to make the planet inhabitable, but has become a brutal occupying force exploiting and terrorizing the civilian population. As Alec Mason in Red Faction: Guerrilla, you're just trying to earn an honest living as a miner, but soon you end up playing a huge role in a worker's rebellion.
Red Faction: Guerrilla certainly isn't a virtual handbook on how to conduct a popular uprising or working-class revolt, but the setting is perfect for the mayhem that ensues almost immediately after your first encounter with the EDF. Anything and everything that belongs to the EDF — be it property or men — is fair game to you.
By destroying property, you can earn "salvage" (scrap metal) for use in purchasing improved weapons. But you also get the added effect of inspiring other workers to take up arms and fight back against the EDF. Before you know it, you're rescuing hostages, destroying supply trucks and liberating entire swaths of territory from the EDF's grip.
The core of the gameplay lies in the simple fact that you can bring down any building or structure through a variety of means. Explosive charges are the most common, but you also get to commandeer monstrous mining robots that can literally walk through any structure and trample whatever is in their way.
But the physics involved also play a role. You could explode a couple of charges on a tower's base, and though it may not fall right away, the strain on the foundation will eventually cause it to collapse. You can even use those explosive charges as roadside bombs to damage enemy vehicles or disrupt convoys. Because they stick to any surface, the charges are a fun weapon to use in just about any scenario.
This also applies to multiplayer games that you can play with others online. As part of a team, you have to handle whatever role helps your side prevail. So, this could be you guarding a certain structure, or moving out solo to assassinate opposing players in a stealthy way.
It's a lot of fun the more you play it, and even seasoned gamers will find something very unique about the experience as well. Just imagine having enemies barricading themselves in a building, only you plant explosives on the outside of every wall. When they blow up, the roof then literally falls on their heads. Or you could find a heavy vehicle and try to drive right through it.
The possibilities are definitely numerous, and you should enjoy it every step of the way. There are some parts of the game that can be very difficult to pull off without having to die and continue many times, but that makes Red Faction: Guerrilla a challenging adventure.