Back in 2001 Red Faction was a groundbreaking title in more ways than one. Set on Mars and playing as revolutionary miner Parker its Geo Mod game engine allowed you to tunnel through the Martian soil and smash down walls – admittedly only in certain places - but it was impressive stuff nonetheless. I can remember thinking this is the future of games, and they’ll all have to have this now… But hardly any have since, and even the disappointing Red Faction 2 seemed to think destructible scenery was best put in ride-along sections, and should only be used very sparingly elsewhere. Red Faction Guerrilla has dumped the tunnelling in favour of destruction and has also dumped the first person view in favour of a third person perspective, and it suits the open world gameplay perfectly.

Red Faction Guerrilla has a few things in common with another open world blow-stuff-up building–demolisher, Mercenaries 2, but thanks to Volition’s new Geo Mod 2.0 engine it’s a lot more realistic than anything before it as the buildings and structures are made up from literally hundreds of constituent parts. The Geo Mod 2.0 engine is kind of a misnomer, as you don't really "mod" any "geo" at all, just blow man-made stuff up. But oh my what a lot of man-made stuff there is to destroy! Smash or blow a hole in a building and you’ll probably see reinforcing, a substructure and cross-members, and all kinds of other stuff that would get your average civil engineer all hot with excitement. If you’ve played the demo on the Xbox 360 Marketplace you’ll already be familiar with just how complex the physics are, and partially demolished buildings and structures will creak and groan as they decide whether to remain standing or surrender to gravity and collapse. Just like real buildings, sometimes you’ll be amazed at how easily they fall down and on others you’ll wonder what’s keeping them up. Buildings can be smashed down with explosives (rockets, demo charges etc) or even demolished with a vehicle if it’s big and heavy enough.

Alec can carry up to 4 weapons, but one of them always has to be his hammer, so deciding which other three of the excellent weapons selection is best for a particular mission is one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make in the game. This is because the wrong set can definitely make victory tough, if not impossible, although you can swap most weapons at any RF ammo crate. Stealth doesn’t really have much of a place in the game and there is an operable “cover” mode, but I didn’t use it often as many of the EDF’s weapons are so powerful. If Alec took a lot of damage I usually legged it and kept his head ducked until his health recovered - Gears Of War this isn’t.

The vehicle handling is surprisingly convincing, whether it be a speedy dune buggy type or a balloon-tyred garbage truck. The game also features three different walkers (or mechs); a light construction walker, a heavy mining walker and a military one that fires rockets. Several other vehicles have mounted weapons that can be fired with a press of ‘A’ on the move, or you can swap to the turret position in some vehicles with a press of ‘LB’. The EDF have armed Aircraft, heavy vehicles, scout and staff cars and even tanks on patrol at all times, and all you have is mining equipment or colonists’ cast offs. This might seem like an uneven battle but when you find that your garbage truck with roof-mounted cannon will take out a tank it makes you feel much better, and it’s also strangely satisfying. The design of the vehicles is varied and most look good and dirty and show signs of damage. Vehicles leave tyre marks in the Martian dust and your vehicle will kick up a dust cloud behind you – it looks amazing and a lot of rally games could learn a thing or two from this. As I drove around the massive landscape for the first time I felt that the gravity was slightly light and this means that in the faster vehicles you’ll get airborne over bumps and out of control if you’re not careful, and adds a whole new skill requirement to some of the vehicle-based missions and time trials. The terraformed and built-up areas of Mars have a surprising amount of roads and traffic, but a detailed map and GPS route finder system means you’ll never get lost for long. As you explore you’ll also open up a number of RF safe houses that are your store for vehicles and weapons as well as being where you meet up with Sam and get upgrades in exchange for salvage. Out in the desolate and uninhabited areas as I zoomed around the sun rose over the horizon, temporarily blinding me and the game gave me a feeling of freedom and sheer off-road driving joy that I haven’t got from a game since maybe GTA San Andreas, or the criminally-underrated Smuggler’s Run series on PS2.

And then when things start to settle down once again into a routine of similar missions the game lifts off again (excuse the crappy pun) and gives you a jet pack to play with; pressing the jump button ‘A’ again when Alec is in mid air fires up the jet pack and allows him to climb 30 feet or so in one boost, or fly a surprising distance horizontally with prudent dabs of the jets. This once again alters the way missions can be approached, and also opens up previously inaccessible areas for exploration. If you think “jet pack, what a naff idea” then so did I initially, but once you have one and get proficient with it you’ll soon change your mind.

Collateral Damage – You ride along in rebel Jenkins’ marauder jalopy and cause as much damage as possible to the highlighted targets during a trip along a set route.

Guerrilla Raid – Join up with other RF and hit EDF targets.

Convoy – Destroy a convoy of EDF vehicles, or sometimes steal one particular one from within the convoy.

Interception – Stop a courier from delivering important documents; lose the EDF and upload the info.

House Arrest – rescue hostages and get them to a safe house.

EDF Assault – defend an area against an EDF attack.

Transporter – Basically a race against the clock, certain vehicles are wanted by Sam and you have to drive them to a particular safe house with a time limit.

Demolitions Master – blow or smash a building/structure within a set time limit with the equipment provided.

All these side missions add greatly to the game and I found that getting the Transporter and particularly some of the more deviously designed Demolitions Master “pro” times to be some of the most addictive sub games I’ve played in a long time. Some of the Transporter times require careful route planning, some are impossible-looking and may even require you to clear a shortcut with explosives or the Nano rifle. Several of the Demolitions Masters had me completely stumped, as you simply don’t seem to have the equipment or the time to demolish the structure, but there’s always a way… Volition, I’d like more of these with the inevitable DLC please.

Sadly there’s no co-op mode but RFG has two distinct multiplayer modes; the first is an offline game for 1-4 players called Wrecking Crew; this is basically a “party game” of RFG in which you create as much devastation as possible in a set time limit on any one of six purpose-built maps. There are four different modes in Wrecking Crew; Total Chaos gives you unlimited ammo; Escalation limits the ammo and increases it every round you play; in Barrel Dash you have to blow as many red and blue explosive barrels up as possible, and in Rampage every shot you fire and every time you use your backpack time is reduced from the stopwatch. They’re all great fun and a good way to introduce new players to the game, as well as polishing up your own demolition skills, but even as a party game, could have done with the option to make rounds longer.

RFG also features a remarkably comprehensive online multiplayer component, with most modes unsurprisingly focusing on destruction-based gameplay objectives on 15 varied maps. Everything you can think of (and some things you can’t) is changeable in the lobby menu; friendly fire, score/time limit, enemy icons on/off or only on when you’ve seen them, handicapping for n00bs, even the time of day…

The modes include Anarchy (straight deathmatch); Team Anarchy; Siege (attack & defend key structures); Damage Control (fight for control of 3 targets on the map); Demolition (each team has a nominated “destroyer” who is the only one who can demolish buildings; you have to protect yours and try to kill the other team’s).

One of the RFG multiplayer game’s most original features is a set of backpacks. You pick these up from clearly visible consoles dotted throughout the maps. There’s not only the standard jet pack from the campaign to spice the game up, but also several others that radically change the way you play a game. Most of them allow you a short period of use before they shut down and need to recharge; the Thrust pack will blast you in the air, but also blast you down through a building’s roof and floors too. The Rhino pack allows you to charge through walls. Fleetfoot gives you a sprint ability. Tremor will shake a building to pieces. Stealth gives you a Halo-style active camouflage. Vision lets you see enemies through walls. Firepower doubles the damage your selected weapon does. Concussion creates a blast radius that will knock an enemy down or even kill him. And finally Health turns you into a medic, healing all team mates within a radius.

Red Faction Guerrilla has a lot of things that I really like about it; the excellent selection of weapons; the game engine that allows levels of devastation we could only previously dream about; the storyline that keeps you involved, encourages progress without nagging you too much, and reaches a satisfying conclusion; the addictive and relevant set of side missions that actually help make you better at the game; the feeling of loneliness that you get when you’re out in the uninhabited areas; the mysterious Marauders who are terrifying the first time you get caught unawares by them; and finally the way the colonists join in and help you fight. This is one of the best games of 2009 so far, and regardless of the swanky new Geo Mod 2.0 game engine, the Nano rifle and the jetpack are worth the price of admission alone.