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Red Faction: Guerrilla screenshot

You might think of Red Faction Guerrilla as a primarily single-player open world shooter, but there's more to it than that. At a post-E3, pre-Leipzig hands-on event in London, publisher THQ invited us down to go hands on with the sci-fi smash-em-up, and to have a chat with associate producer Ismael Vicens. He gave us the low down on what could prove to be one of the surprise online shooter experiences of 2009.

VideoGamer.com: Is development being led on the Xbox 360?

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Ismael Vicens: Initially development was led on the Xbox. At E3 we showed the PS3 build and to be honest if you didn't look at the controller that was in the hands of the person demoing it you would not be able to tell the difference. They're completely on parity with each other right now. Feature for feature they're identical. Visually they're pretty much identical. That's really what we're striving for, that you'll have an identical play experience on PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC version. That the game will be functionally and visually identical. Right now, like I said, on the 360 and the PS3 we've hit that goal. If you walk into my office unless you look at my hands you won't be able to tell from looking at the game which version is running.

VideoGamer.com: How difficult was that to achieve?

IV: Initially when we got the PS3 and we started working on that we thought it was going to be, oh my gosh! But we got some really talented programmers that basically ported over the game in a fairly short amount of time and from then we've progressed with simultaneous development on both of them, and because of that we're able to integrate any features that go into one or the other, apply that to all the platforms. Once we got it put on to the PS3 and we started that simultaneous development on them, really since then they've been neck and neck. Like I said they've been identical since then. Really. I don't think it's been too much of a burden for us. We always planned to go multiplatform and we got some really talented guys that were able to make that happen and make it painless for our development.

VideoGamer.com: There are obviously differences in the architecture of both consoles. Red Faction Guerrilla looks like a massively physics intensive game. Does any particular architecture of either console better suit this kind of game?

IV: Our game is very heavily technologically based. Because we have very sophisticated AI and physics going on we already had been looking at very sophisticated multi threading, using these multi core CPUs. Getting that to work on the PS3 when we got the PS3s in was our top priority. By this point we've got a programmer that really understands Havok, so he was able to do that fairly quickly because we've got also a couple of guys who really understand, because we've done Saints Row, we had all of that experience from Saints Row, we understood multi threaded architecture so well that getting it to work with the PS3, even though it's a different set up, the way Havok runs is fairly basic to get it to port over to that architecture. It really, again it was something that wasn't super difficult for us. I'd say that each console while they have strengths and its weaknesses depending on what area, if you really are developing a game that can take advantage of multiple cores, if you design your systems in a fairly good manner, it shouldn't really present a problem.

VideoGamer.com: But some developers do clearly struggle because some games aren't as good on one console compared with the other.

IV: I think that might have to do with the time frame in which they decide to go multi platform or tart involving multi platform. We knew early on that we were going to be multi platform and so we got a lot of tools in place that really assisted us in figuring out how to develop and hit targets on both platforms equally.

VideoGamer.com: The PS3 comes as standard with a hard drive and 360 games have to be made as if there isn't one. Does that provide the PS3 version with any advantage?

IV: No. We designed our streaming system in such a manner that really we don't have to worry about that. I would say the lack of a hard drive isn't significantly hurting us in any real way. We'd already developed a streaming system that, like I said, you can destroy a building, come back 10 hours later and it's still destroyed in the same way. And there's no loads. Once you hit new game or load game the only time we load anything is like, load a cut scene or if you die or something like that. You don't really see load screens in our game. Lack of a hard drive I wouldn't say it's something that we're too concerned with.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of PS3 install are we looking at?

IV: We've got an install right now on the PS3 version. It's an in-game installer, you pop the disc and it starts an installation process. If we're going to do anything neat like Metal Gear Solid 4 did, I mean we just haven't done that yet! I mean who knows, right, we'll see! Installing it, basically one thread is gone and that's it. So maybe you can do something interesting, we'll see.

VideoGamer.com: Will the gameplay be any better because of the install?

IV: No. Once you do the install it should just be a one time install. And the same as 360 you hit new game and no loads ever again.

VideoGamer.com: Once you've destroyed a building in Red Faction Guerrilla is that it, it's gone forever?

IV: We can control that, and the way we decided to control that was essentially this. If the building has a critical mission or story or activity relevance then we can bring it back when you participate in those missions and everything else. If it does not then we destroy them. We can also make the call that if a certain building, if it's realistic that over time it would be rebuilt, we can even do that. Every 10 minutes it gets X percentage rebuild, so you'll go back and see it being rebuilt over time. So we can do whatever we want with that. We designed the system in such a way that we can do that if we want. It makes it very interesting. It's really something that you can play for so long and come back and see the building the same way you left it. It really gives you ownership over your experience.

You can finish any other open world game and what the hell's the difference other than maybe you have different clothes on or you own a new crib? In RFG when you're done with the game you drive round and that wreckage is only all because of me. You fundamentally change the landscape you're playing in. It's not just a difference of less bad guys or anything like that. It looks different. It's totally uniquely based on your actions throughout the game. I think that gives people a lot of ownership over their particular RFG experience.

VideoGamer.com: Do you consider yourselves to be competing with other open world games like GTA, even Saints Row, or will people think it's a third person sci-fi shooter with open world elements?

IV: I think we see it more like an action third-person game. There's open world, it's set in an open world but I think that's a benefit. It's a win for us. Having destruction, it's the same thing, it's a benefit, it's a win for us. It's something our game does. But we consider ourselves just an action game, you know? We tried to make it play like an action game and feel like an action game. We want people to really enjoy the gun play element of it, the destruction and everything like that and really have a lot of fun coming up with tactics. That's how we approached it. We wanted to do an action game where you use these guerrilla tactics. The enemy can always provide overwhelming force so you've got to play it in a very smart manner and a very creative manner. The longer you play it the more creative you get. And so open world just services that. It allows you to get as creative as you want.

Weaken a bridge and as the convoy comes over it blow the last support and suddenly the weight of the convoy collapses the bridge and kills them all. And that's something you gain through experience. You couldn't do that in a non-open world game. But it's not something another open world game's ever done. We're in a unique spot in a way.

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