Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition Xbox One X Review

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition attempts to revitalize the classic franchise for a new generation. Providing updated visuals and framerate to this classic title but still suffering from some technical issues. Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition's gameplay provides overwhelming issues that only some gamers can endure.

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition has players in control of Alec Mason a miner who has recently relocated to Mars. After losing his brother by the private military group known as the EDF and labeled a terrorist Alec joins Red Faction, a guerrilla organization, to avenge his brother. It's your standard resistance versus corrupt organization story with very little memorable moments. 

The missions are separated into side objectives that help bolster morale and loosen control of the EDF different areas of Mars. There's a lot to do in Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition but many missions repeat the same pattern of rescuing hostages, securing supplies, and destroying high-valued targets. Since the EDF outman and outgun the Red Faction these missions are designed to replicate guerrilla warfare with short but powerful strikes leading up to massive assaults.

The biggest noteworthy accomplishment in Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition is the destruction. Almost everything can be smashed to pieces but swinging mindlessly won't yield the same results. Sometimes the player must target specific weak points to cause the structure to fall, with certain missions providing challenges based on this system such as destroying a structure using a set of explosives within a time limit. This can also lead to frustrating moments when certain routes are destroyed, forcing the player to restart the mission. There's an item called the Reconstructor that can rebuild essential buildings but this takes up a weapon slot and should've been included as a default item.

Players can take into battle 3 weapons including a Sledgehammer. Each tool offers distinct advantages such as improved destruction capabilities or traditional weaponry. Players can alter their equipment only at supply caches, which outside from friendly bases, but can only resupply a specific amount of ammo. This encourages players to use their ammo sparely and take advantage of enemy supplies when needed.

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition is a third-person shooter at heart. The controls and cover system work well enough. With players able to quickly swap between weapons by holding down the right bumper and choosing a face button. Sprinting is infinite which is a nice touch.

The game does have improved graphics and framerate compared to the original game, however, despite playing on an Xbox One X the game would slow down during large battles and has long load times. Most significantly the game crashed several times during my playthrough. This would happen during chaotic events but consider the original released in 2009 this shouldn't be an issue.

This isn't the only issue in Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition. The enemies throughout the game are unfair. They're able to take absurd amounts of damage and spawn indefinitely. It isn't uncommon to see a dozen EDF soldiers appear out of nowhere after eliminating a set. What adds to the vexation is their level of precision when firing. Enemies hit 90% of the time and somehow always know where you are. This will lead to a lot of frequent frustrating deaths especially since the minimap doesn't provide adequate positions of the enemy.

The EDF isn't the only problem, driving in Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition is a chore. Turning is often frustrating as the vehicle drifts constantly unless moving at extremely slow speeds. Hitting the smallest bump will cause your car to leap into the air, even the AI has trouble driving in missions they are required to drive.

Once you finish the 5-7 hour campaign you can continue playing to complete any side objectives the bonus missions. There are prequel stories that center on the events before the core campaign, providing more context into a critical character. It's an excellent extra that provides more of the same gameplay and since the missions are short dying was less frustrating.

Multiplayer is available and offers your traditional set of modes such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, domination, capture the flag and more. Up to 6 players can join matchmaking or create custom matches. Wrecking Crew takes advantage of the game's ambitious destruction system where the player has to destroy as much as possible within a time limit. The multiplayer serves as an adequate distraction for those seeking more Red Faction action with a leveling system and cosmetic unlocks.

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition has a lot of content and promise for a revitalization. There are some necessary changes that should be considered if THQ Nordic hopes to create a new game in the franchise. Despite being an HD remaster technical issues such as crashing and frame rate hiccups are unacceptable issues for 2009 game running on modern hardware. Perhaps in future patches Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition will have these issues hammer. If THQ Nordic creates a new installment hopefully the issues found in this HD remake will be resolved.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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