Red Faction: Guerrilla Preview

The point where we realised that Red Faction: Guerrilla, Volition's upcoming third person sci-fi open world shooter, has a thoroughly decent multiplayer component in the works, was round about the time we bust through a building wall using the Rhino back pack power-up and took the sledgehammer, Red Faction's classic weapon, to the skull of our astonished victim who, half a second before the event, had thought himself perfectly safe behind his cosy cover. He was not.

We've seen destruction in online shooters before, of course (the solid Battlefield: Bad Company springs to mind), but rarely have we seen destruction that feels so polished, works like you'd think it should and has influenced gameplay so cleverly.

A case in point. One game mode, Damage Control, sees two teams of players battling to destroy and repair three structures dotted about the map. You gain one point for every two seconds that a structure is under your team's control, but to control it you need to first destroy it and then repair it, via a special repair weapon all characters carry as default, up to at least 75%.

Once controlled, your team needs to make a judgement call. Do you defend it or do you head straight to the nearest enemy controlled structure and try to take that? In the end, communication with your team mates will make or break your success - identifying threats, calling them in and dishing out orders is essential for efficient play. Damage Control has an almost World of Warcraft battleground feel to it, and really is a lot of fun.

At first simply smashing through a wall, laying proximity mine traps and sledgehammering an opponent into oblivion are gloriously satisfying acts. But the real depth comes from the back packs, which add variety, and strategy, to the mix.

... if you're feeling particularly sneaky, use the Jetpack to reach rooftops and reign death from above.

Five are in the game at the moment - Firepower (increases damage of standard weapon fire), Concussion (stuns with a sonic blast), Rhino (provides a powerful burst forward that smashes through buildings and sends opponents flying), Fleetfoot (temporary boosts speed) and Jetpack (grants a massive jump boost). You need to find them first before you can use them - the packs are dotted around the maps - and you can only wear one at a time. Apart from the special ability they grant they also have other status effects, some negative. The Rhino backpack, for example, is huge, and slows you down quite considerably.

As we mentioned, the back packs add a much-needed layer of strategy. Equip the sledgehammer and use the Fleetfoot speed boost power to quickly close the gap on enemies and you're an instant melee machine. Combine long range weapons fire support with the Firepower power-up and, if you're accurate enough, you'll drop other players in what feels like a blink of an eye. And, if you're feeling particularly sneaky, use the Jetpack to reach rooftops and reign death from above - although it won't be long before players sniff you out. Guerrilla's multiplayer could almost be Halo 3 in third person. It just feels similar. There's floaty jumping, slow movement and a melee weapon that sends you hurtling toward your enemy for a one hit kill when the targeting reticule turns red. This is no bad thing, of course, since Halo 3 is wicked.

There are differences between how the single-player game works and how the multiplayer works, some of them conscious design decisions, others enforced. Volition deliberately removed the cover system from the multiplayer because during play tests more skilled players would simply smash through cover and kill enemies snapped to it. And the back pack power ups are exclusive to the multiplayer, with one exception - the Jetpack, which Volition said may make an appearance in the single-player game. Volition was forced, however, to remove the impressive physics-based structural stress system. We can't say we noticed any negative impact on the fun factor during our play time, and you can still of course smash the crap out of everything, so this is of little concern.

What we are concerned about is the fact that there are no vehicles in multiplayer, which we reckon would have added real spice to the mix. What that means is that the devastating Mining Walker, Guerrilla's brilliant Aliens-esque mech vehicle, which we had an absolute blast playing with during publisher THQ's Gamers' Day showcase event in San Francisco in April, won't be playable in multiplayer either. That's a terrible shame - imagine how much chaos 16 Walkers all going at it would cause!

Still, despite the lack of vehicles, Guerrilla's multiplayer doesn't feel tacked on. It feels like Volition has actually put some serious time and effort into it. We're not saying that Guerrilla's multiplayer will prove more, or even as popular as, say, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's or Grand Theft Auto IV's. We're saying that it's obvious that Volition has some interesting ideas here, and has actually come up with some fun and fresh game modes that take advantage of the structural destruction technology, and even make it a core part of the gameplay.

And, with the game not due out till early 2009, the multiplayer, which is currently in excellent shape performance wise (bar a few instances of slow down and frame rate drops) should only get better. Although our play test served only eight players (four versus four) the game currently supports up to 16 players, a number Volition is aiming to support when the game is eventually released. While the developer is keeping the exact number of maps the game will ship with under wraps, it promises "a dozen or more". There will be more back packs, too. Volition teases that some of the best ones haven't been revealed, and aren't in the predominately North American beta that's currently keeping 25,000 players busy. We'll have to wait and see.

So, surprisingly, Red Faction: Guerrilla's multiplayer has the potential to provide as much, if not more entertainment than the so far more fleshed out main open world campaign. It's a very different experience of course, given the lack of vehicles and cover system. But both parts of the game share a common base - the destruction - from which everything else is built upon. Kind of ironic, don't you think, for a game which encourages you to smash everything to smithereens with a sledgehammer?

Red Faction Guerrilla is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC early 2009.