“It’s like GTA on Mars.”

This phrase was uttered regularly during the first couple of hours I spent with Red Faction: Guerrilla. With a third-person perspective, almost entirely open-world design, and easily jacked vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla could be mistaken as the sci-fi brethren of the popular GTA franchise. Where the new THQ game differentiates itself however is in its diverse array of multiplayer offerings — some successful, some … not so much. Yet Red Faction: Guerrilla manages to provide more gameplay successes than failures and produce a very enjoyable gaming experience.

In Guerilla you play Alec Mason, a miner who travels to Mars to work alongside his brother. Mason finds the red planet overrun by a totalitarian regime, the Earth Defense Force (EDF). Challenging the EDF’s control is the rebellious Red Faction, an revolutionary uprising that soon draws Mason into its ranks. Players spend their time boosting morale of the locals by destroying EDF property and carrying out a variety of missions for the Red Faction. The ultimate goal is to liberate a number of zones from the control of the EDF and free Mars from its dictators.

After sloughing through the bland, introductory cutscene and a pointless tutorial (twenty minutes I will never get back…), the single-player campaign really opens up to provide a lot of variety. Players can get right down to business and begin carrying out Red Faction missions, which drive the overall story and must be completed to progress in the game. Or they might choose to participate in a “guerilla action,” a random opportunity to help out the Red Faction and boost morale. Unlike missions, guerilla actions can be ignored, although some of them are quite fun. There are also a number of minigames spread throughout the zones, such as a timed exercise in which the player must blow up a building using only a pistol and propane tanks.

Destruction of property is a big part of Guerrilla and helps give the game some character. Almost everything in the game is destructible, and players start the game equipped with a large mining hammer that packs an enormous wallop. But unlike other third-person shooters like GTA, destruction and demolition actually serve a purpose in Red Faction: Guerrilla. There are objectives marked on the player’s map that represent high-value EDF targets just begging for destruction. These are some of the more difficult objectives to complete, as players must simultaneously destroy the structure(s) and fend off the EDF forces. The demolition side of the game is a lot of fun and can easily distract from completing the single-player campaign.

Combat in Guerrilla is fun, with a couple of pleasant improvements over other games but also a few low points. There are the shooter standards like an assault rifle, pistol, and rocket launcher. But there are also some unique weapons like a rail gun, which can shoot through walls and — when scoped in — see through walls as well. With the mining hammer and some handy explosive charges, the weapon cache in Guerrilla is a lot of fun to play with. Players can enter a permanent scoped-in mode by clicking the right stick, and exit by clicking again. This is helpful when you are fighting multiple enemies. It’s a mechanic I’d like to see in other games. Also, Mason can sprint non-stop, rather than getting tired, something not exactly realistic but comes in handy when trying to escape the bad guys. Unfortunately the weapon choice system is overly complicated, requiring players to hold down a shoulder button then press another, corresponding button for each weapon. A system like Gears of War would be preferable, where players simply press an arrow on the d-pad to pick a weapon. Also, while players can take cover behind low walls, they cannot scope in while in cover for some reason.

Red Faction: Guerrilla’s multiplayer side provides a good deal of variety and customization. Players can choose from and customize a variety of unlockable characters — including several female characters, which is refreshing. You can also customize your player icon and choose from a very extensive array of hammers — including the fan-favorite ostrich hammer. (Yes, it’s an actual ostrich.)

The competitive multiplayer is a unique experience, primarily because of the game’s backpack system. Throughout each map are a number of “kiosks” where players can don a variety of backpacks with different properties. The “Thrust” backpack propels you into the air for a short time. The “Rhino” backpack allows you to bust through walls. And so on. The backpacks can compliment the player’s weapon selection for some very interesting results. For example, my shining moment in competitive multiplayer was combining the “Stealth” backpack — which makes you practically invisible — with the game’s sniper rifle, resulting in a seven-kill streak. The backpacks must recharge after each use, so it is unwise to rely on them too heavily. And when you are killed, your backpack disappears and you must find a new one. At first the backpack system seems like a gimmick, harkening back to games like Tribes 2. But combined with Guerrilla’s unique weapons cache and destructible environments, the backpack system makes the experience quite different.

Guerrilla multiplayer includes a “Spectator” mode that is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of playing, players can choose to observe a game using a variety of camera angles. Ostensibly this allows new players to learn maps and techniques, though I have found that the best way to learn is to play — even against AI opponents. Personally, I would have preferred some kind of bot system over the spectator feature.

Finally there is the Wrecking Crew, a separate multiplayer experience where players compete to see who can destroy the most stuff. The game modes and customizations vary enough so that Wrecking Crew does not bore easily. And Guerrilla’s physics system is realistic enough that the destruction is always entertaining. Wrecking Crew is simply value added and provides a nice break from traditional game modes.

While there are justifiable comparisons between Red Faction: Guerrilla and other third-person, open-world shooters like GTA and Saints Row, Guerrilla manages to offer enough variety and unique content to stand on its own. The graphics and sound quality are high, as is the replay value. Overall, it would be a good addition to most game libraries.