Byline: Keegan Dolinar

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Players: 1 (16 online)

If 2001’s Red Faction proved anything, it was that destroying things is fun. At the time in such a simple pleasure was big news, with Volition’s Geo-Mod technology pioneering the idea of destructible environments back when this game released. Nowadays, semi-destructible environments are a staple in almost every game.

Building on their trend-setting tendency, Volition helped usher in today’s sandbox/open world trend with their 2009 follow-up Red Faction: Guerilla’s. the Mars environment is far from the feature-packed worlds of Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, Skyrim or Fallout. The galactic wasteland of Mars is filled to the brim with canyons, craters, sand and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.

The world’s mammoth; a Martian equivalent to Saints Row the third. The world is divided into a variety of districts, each filled with as much nothingness as the last. Nothingness and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. While this might be a realistic vision of the red planet, it’s also a boring one; the only difference between each district being a colour filter that kicks in upon entering each area, painting it a different hue of red, blue or brown.

Volition’s Geo-Mod 2.0 tech was leagues ahead of anything that we’d seen prior to this game, but Guerrilla seems like little more than a tech demo. It’s a ton of fun, do not get me wrong, but unfortunately, it’s also a one-trick pony.