While building giant monoliths in games like Minecraft might be fun and enjoyable, destroying them also brings a great deal of pleasure. That’s the beauty of Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered where taking your sledgehammer and explosive charges gives you the ability to topple any structure with utter ease. Take back Mars from unruly masters and allow the Red Faction to once more rise up and take back their red planet! Destroy, shoot and destroy in Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered!

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered takes the simplicity of destruction found in the original 2009 version and amplifies it with updated visuals and various gameplay fixes. Assume the role of a young man who has become a new rebel against the EDF forces and must take down their power by inflicting as much damage on their bases and utilities as possible. Arm yourself with a slew of high grade weapons like Rocket Launchers, Remote Charges and your trusty Sledgehammer to destroy buildings and fortifications piece by piece. Can you stop Mars from falling into the enemy’s hands fully? Find out for yourself as you begin your destructive coup on the EDF in Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered.

Mining hopeful Alec Mason lands on Mars with a vision to earn an honest salary and reunite with his brother Dan who has been on Mars for some time now. Unfortunately, Mason quickly learns that Mars is engulfed in a power struggle between the EDF—Earth Defense Force—and guerrilla warriors who wish to change their Martian landscape. After a sudden attack on Dan and himself, Mason ends up joining the Red Faction who wish to stop the turmoil on Mars and create a truly safe and honest work environment. Mason wanted to use his sledgehammer and mining skills for work, but now he must use them as destructive tools to rid Mars of those who wish to hurt and enslave others. The Red Faction begins their push to save Mars in Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered!

The Red Faction series has always been a bit of a niche series but with some pretty large impacts on the gaming world. When Red Faction first released on the PS2, it had a newly themed gameplay system called Geo-Mod that allowed players to literally blow up walls and floors to create new paths and ways of exploring the various location you traveled through. For 2001, this was revolutionary as players had never fully experienced the beauty of destroying a hallway and having it stay destroyed. Many years later, Red Faction: Guerrilla would release and expand upon the destruction seen in its predecessor but with ten times the system capabilities. Red Faction: Guerrilla returns as Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered and we returned to our explosive past to see if things were any better than before. Time to see if the Red Faction series has some life in it still in our review of Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered!

In Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered players control forced-to-be-hero Alex Mason who has found himself going from miner to rebel. Mason’s job is simple but tough. The EDF has expanded their control to several sectors of Mars and Mason must use his destructive set of skills to remove the EDF’s power from each area. This is the meat and potatoes of Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered. Your goal is to blow stuff up and repeat it a couple hundred times. Earn salvage as you blow stuff up and gain more weapons and upgrades to continue your carnage and destroy the enemy threat.

Each area of Mars is controlled by the EDF and has a number associated to it as well as tokens that show the level of strength in that area. Players must destroy various landscapes and buildings as well as take on missions to reduce the EDF’s power and ultimately win that area back for the Red Faction. It’s a very simple format seen in a lot of open-world games like Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered, but the enjoyment that others games can’t mimic is in the fact that you’re going to enjoy blowing stuff up and doing as much destruction as humanly possible. Every large story mission delighted us here at Honey’s Anime as we reveled in blowing up caravans and various research bases brick by brick. However, that is where Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered becomes a testament to the player’s attention span.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is very simple and is only enjoyable in its destruction elements. Regular missions that have players engage in shootout—which aren’t fun thanks to Mason kind of sucking with guns—and saving hostages aren’t that great and often feel extremely repetitive. You can run enemies over with cars and try to use the dozens of weapons to kill them but it always feels shallow and tedious. The story missions—and even the destroy certain building ones—offer up variety in how to approach them and how much destruction you can do.

If you do grow tired of the single player, there’s are a multitude of extra modes to take on that feature various challenges to test the player in their demolition skills. For example, players can participate in modes where explosive resources are limited and must make the most damage happen given what they have. These modes aren’t fun forever, but they do give you a nice freedom from the single player mode. Multiplayer wise, we really couldn’t tell you how Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered runs or plays. We tried multiple days and times to find games but the multiplayer lobbies were ghost towns. If Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered mirrors the original’s multiplayer though we could assume it would be similar to the extra modes.

Graphically, Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered has been upscaled but in a surprisingly strong way. The color of Mars won’t lead to amazing looking vistas or areas but the explosive scenes of a tower crashing into a building below or some other area look awesome and never have slow down effects like the original 2009 version of Red Faction: Guerrilla had. Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered won’t wow people with next level visuals and such. However, we were impressed as Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered aged pretty well and looks pretty darn good still.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered might not be perfect and suffers from several very noticeable flaws, but the amount of fun it can provide—especially for the cost—is pretty substantial. Taking backs Mars by literally destroying buildings and enemies constantly provides excitement and the little extra modes are pretty fun, too. While the story and repetitive gameplay structure hold back Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered just like it did when it was originally released, we still find this an easy game to recommend to those who missed out on Red Faction: Guerrilla’s original release and want a game that is relaxing due to the destructive nature it provides. Even if you have played the original Red Faction: Guerrilla, we think Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered still can provide some pleasure even now in 2018.

There are moments where Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered will annoy you, but the destructive abilities you have and the various ways to blow everything up make for one fun game overall. Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered has a lifespan as it will eventually feel repetitive and get tedious—which isn’t helped due to the mission structure—but for the price of entry, we didn’t mind going back to Mars and we recommend those who haven’t played the original 2009 version to try out Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered as it does provide enough bang for its buck. Are you ready to take back Mars with brute—and destructive—force? Tell us in the comments below and if you have played Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered tell us if you agree with our review! Remember to stick around our hive for more game reviews and gaming related articles curtsey of us writers here at Honey’s Anime!