Red Faction: Guerrilla

It's tough to find open world games today, it's even harder to find one that's worth playing. Lucky for you, this is one of the few; proud open-world games worth playing and/or buying. When you look for an open-world game, what do you look for? A large map, interesting environment, side missions, towns, etc... Good, because this game has it all. 
 
STORY: The story of Red Faction: Guerrilla is easy to get into, but seems "run-of-the-mill." Humans have colonized Mars, but Earth has imposed heavy sanctions on what "Martians" can and and can't do. You play as a man, Alec Mason, trying to escape his past on Earth and start a fresh; easy life style on Mars. What he finds is anything, but that. As you play through the campaign, following orders for The Red Faction, you unlock new weapons, armor, and map areas. The ability to have random missions such as "hijack an EDF convoy, or help raid an EDF facility" while you are driving or walking around aimlessly is a fun way to gain points. 
 
AUDIO: This aspect of Guerrilla is where the game loses a bit of its luster to me. In order to hear someone speak, you have to be nearly on top of them to make sense of what they're saying. If you go out more than 10 feet from the person speaking, you hear almost nothing. Most guns in the gane tend to have the same sound, though there are differences, the similarities are noticeable. But to make up for the sound issues I've mentioned, the dev team did a great job on destruction sound effects. When destroying a building, it sounds satisfyingly "crunchy" to hear a building falling apart and finally see the whole structure topple over. 
 
ONLINE: If you thought destruction of your environment would only be in campaign, you thought wrong! All structures in online play are destructible, even when there occupants inside them! One gameplay type is even dedicated to having one team protect a building while the other team does its best to destroy it. The best thing about this games online play is that, every time you level up, you unlock something new. Whether it be new colors for your emblem, new emblems, new hammers, etc... It's definitely rewarding. 
 
CLOSING STATEMENT: Fully destructible environments are what make this game shine, the story and characters take somewhat of a step back to let you fully enjoy this games destructive capabilities. As you progess through the game, the AI will get increasingly stronger and tactful. This in combination with the AI's "superiority in numbers" fighting style will give players a tough challenge, especially in the later missions. Once you beat the game, your allowed to continue playing on the map and complete unfinished missions, or just drive around, definitely a plus. Online play will keep you hooked for a while, but by this point, not many people still play this game online.