Red Faction: Guerrilla

What an awesome game! The final 4-5 missions were just plain epic. Nice satisfying ending too. I was quite surprised with what new mission types they added near the end.

So the ability to destroy any building and vehicles was just plain fun. But what really surprised me were the large variety of mission types. Even if the mission types were the same, the way you approach each one is different. Even the main missions have their own unique missions from time to time that kept things fresh. It was really fun playing all of them. FYI, there are a few different mechs in the game and they're awesome to drive. I won't spoil it for you guys but the demo is just a taste of it. ^_^

The graphics are nice and solid even though some textures may not be the most crisp. There was also some screen-tearing in the early area (Parker). But I didn't find them popping up in the areas after it. The explosions and damage in the buildings were pretty spectacular. The world looks fairly nice even if some locations may seem bare. But dust is constantly flowing around and the various day and night times look very nice.

The music and sound is equally impressive. The creaking and metal/stones getting crushed adds so much weight to the graphics. I was also impressed with the various sound effects the sledgehammer would make depending on what you hit it with and how you hit an object. The devs really put a lot into the audio. The voice acting is quite good too. Everyone was well cast and did their job well. The music was surprisingly good. When you're just roaming around, there's some Blade Runner-esque tracks which add to the sci-fi feel. And when you're in some action-packed missions, the music really revs up and adds to the drama. I really dug the soundtrack.

The story is nowhere near as impressive as inFamous and GTAIV but it's not bad. It's a rather simple story with some simple characters. There may be a few twists here and there but it's not crazy. But what I really like about the game is that the main character, Mason is a really good guy. This may be the FIRST open-world game where you play a REAL good guy. Mason is patriotic and stoic, not arrogant. It's really refreshing when the main character for these types of game is such a stand-up guy fighting for his rights. Thank you Volition.

Anyways, awesome game. It's really fun and destroying stuff never gets old. This is one of my fave games this year. Everyone should definitely check it out. MUST PLAY!

Btw, make sure to set the game to Casual difficulty. This is the best way to play the game. The enemies are overly aggressive in Normal mode and higher so it's not worth it unless you want to torture yourself or want bragging rights. There are no achievements/trophies for self-torture people.