The Bail-Out: Red Faction Guerrilla

Today's post brought to you by The Letter Shame. I rarely do this, but today I Bail Out of a game. The last time I did this, and the burning shame of it still tears at the corners of my soul to this day, was Gun. It was the final game I played for the original Xbox, if that helps you gauge how long I've been carrying that weight. I made it all the way to the final boss of the game, but just could not put him to bed, somehow. I didn't so much give up, as I put it down to save my marriage, due to my immature tantrums. Coincidentally, today's Bail Out is also over an open-world game.

I had heard, for so long, great things about this Red Faction Guerrilla game. Most specifically about it's destruction physics. Now, I must tell you that the aforementioned physics have nothing to do with my Bail Out. They are, as advertised, top notch. Trouble was, I only got to enjoy them a little bit at a time.

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Red Faction Guerrilla, for me, suffered from what you would expect from an open world game. There are several missions spread out over it's vast landscape. You spend a bit of time preparing for said missions, time driving to said mission, and then time participating in said mission. The problem with Red Faction was that I died. A lot. Rather quickly, as well. In a game like GTA IV, I didn't often feel the pinch of this, because GTA IV was a vibrant world, full of endearing characters and interesting stories. Red Faction (being set on a colonized Mars), unfortunately is a rather barren landscape filled with NPC's you'll never talk to and missions which are all largely based around destroying random property owned by the faceless, oppressive Villain Company.

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Oppressive Villain Company is well staffed and well supplied. When I tried to tackle these missions, Oppressive Villain Company oppressed the ever-living life out of me. Rather quickly, for the most part. This sent me back to home-base and docked me a few loyalty points from the surrounding community. So, I start at square one with the preparation, the driving, and the participation again. The driving, in particular, was what got really old. This is a complaint you hear often with open-world games. Red Faction lost me because there was nothing between the gaps to make me want to keep going. Just brown mountains, NPC's who don't talk to you, repetitive missions, and a protagonist who doesn't really interact with anyone. It just wasn't fun for me anymore.

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So, sorry Red Faction Guerrilla, I just didn't have what it took to endure you. Not going to say you're a bad game, or give you a score at all. For all I know, you're a great piece of work for someone made of sterner stuff. I hope you find them out there Red Faction. Somewhere out where dreams come true.

Splinter Cell: Conviction- Long Overdue Thoughts*

*It should be noted, Super-Early, that I am reviewing the games single-player campaign. The coop campaign remains untouched, and I couldn't really give a squirt about the multiplayer modes.

Man, I let myself get WAY too far past finishing this game. I feel, partly, to blame for not remembering this game particularly well, but I also think some of the blame falls on SC:C's shoulders. Take a wild guess where this review is going. ON TO, The Bad

Done, already? The game feels painfully short. I feel like this is largely due to the games notoriously rocky development. I want to believe that there was a lot that Ubisoft Montreal would have liked to have put in the game. But, after drastically overhauling the look of the game and other such speed bumps, there was a lot that had to be dropped just to get the game out at all. I know that, recently, members of UbiMont stated that being able to move bodies, a staple of the series, was one of the thing they just didn't have time for. That being said, from a purely single-player standpoint, the game just flies by.

Did Sam... Forget something? Something I also assume is because of the stilted production schedule, is Sam's skeleton-crew of abilities. I really miss wall-splits. Gadgets like sticky-cams that make noises and moves like capturing guards and dragging them into the dark are still there, but aren't nearly as useful due to the change in gameplay and tone. I wasn't opposed to the change in tone of the game, but I miss a certain amount of the stealth and precision.

Feeling chatty, Fish-sher?!... Whenever troops are alerted to your presence, the absolutely, positively can-not shut the hell up. Insults upon insults upon questions upon statements are thrown at you. Usually punctuated with a veeeery disgusted "FISH-SHER?!". It's overkill to the point of being distracting and annoying.

A little empty For a story that is supposed to re-jigger and revolutionize the Sam Fisher canon, the game's story ends up being a bit thin and really doesn't drastically change or re-establish Sam as much more than a rogue version of what he was before. A small portion of what Sam's relationship with his daughter must have been over the years was, in my opinion, poorly explored, but a step in the right direction. Would have helped sympathize Sam and maybe help you give a damn about his daughter.

Well, good to get that out of the way. Now, The Good

Run n' Gun I know I just barely said that I miss some of the stealth and precision that previous Splinter Cell games afforded the player, but having the franchises base elements forced into a more action oriented theme was more refreshing than it was a whiff. If nothing else, I can say I never felt bored during the game.

Mark and Execute The idea of being able to mark and terminate multiple targets hands-free, as a bonus for getting a close-up kill was a lot of fun. It also provided a good out in situations that would have, in previous installments, been too sticky to get out of otherwise. It also gave the player a sense of badassedness that I enjoyed a greatly.

Good ol' Sam Some of this may come from running jokes on the Giant Bombcast, but Conviction gave me a good excuse to catch up with a character I've always liked. He's maybe a little off course at times, but Sam Fisher does enough Sam Fishering throughout the story to have satisfied me. You stay Classy, Michael Ironside.

If there were one thing that really tips Conviction over the edge, it's the length. The things that were good about the game really were enjoyable and the bad were all tolerably ignorable. Unfortunately, just as I felt like I was really getting into it, it was over. Keeping in mind that there is a coop campaign, as well as multiplayer modes, I still feel like the story holds the game back from being something great. I still plan on playing the coop campaign at some point, so there is value there. As it stands, however, if a single-player experience is what you're after, Splinter Cell: Conviction is a solid rental. Hard to justify at retail prices, however.

Mandatory Numerical Score? 8.0

Been a while...

So, been a long time. Did everyone miss us? Sure you did. April ended up being a very busy REAL LIFE month and writing just sort of got away from me. Through the course of the following week, I hope to rectify that. Beyond the following wrap up of April's goals, I'll also be pushing out reviews on Splinter Cell: Conviction, Darksiders, and God of War III. Hell, by the time I get done with that, I might be done with Red Faction: Guerrilla. But enough of what I'm going to do. Let's talk about what I tried to do.

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As I had stated, April was Nut up or Shut Up month. For several months... No, it's even more than that. For several years, the Street Fighter franchise has been an open wound to me. It's been something I've always wanted to partake in, even purchased several volumes of, but never been able to penetrate. For April, I challenged myself to finish the game with, at least, 4 characters. I succeeded in finishing the game with Fei Long, Abel, Crimson Viper, and Zangief. In addition to goal-completion, I also finished it with Ryu, Bison, Vega, and Chun-Li... All on the "easiest" difficulty. It's hard not to feel a bit ashamed of having to rely on a difficulty TWO levels below what is termed "easy", but that is where I find myself. After finding myself much more familiar with the games controls, moves, and mechanics, I got a big cocky and tried a little "Normal". Cammy saw fit to teach me harsh lessons about bravado, unfortunately. I will say that I am very happy with my progress, however. At this point, I no longer "fear" the game, and actually look forward to playing it.

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As far as the ongoing goal of S-classing RE5, well, I'm not sure we got around to playing anything online in April. The struggle marches on, I guess.

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Now, goals for May. We're already more than half done with the month, so I'm not eager to push myself too hard. How about finishing Street Fighter IV with a character on Normal? I guess that's something. Let's run with it.