The Game Boy: Show Me A Gimmick And I’ll Show You Red Faction’s Giant Hammer

Posted 06/24/2009 at 11:00am | by Nathan Grayson

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“Never bring a knife to a gunfight” – a wise saying that’s kept Cowboy duels the world over interesting for years. That cardinal rule doesn’t say anything about stone-shattering mining hammers, though, and there’s a very good reason for that. To quote an enemy from Red Faction: Guerrilla: “Snap! Crack! Sounds of brain splattering like wet spaghetti against a wall.” Hey, I never said I was quoting something that came from the poor guy’s mouth.

Battering EDF goons into Mars-flavored space-paste isn’t the only thing my hulking steel hammer does, either. It can render years of architectural progress futile in a few powerful blows, taking chunk after chunk out of buildings until all that remains is splintered scrap. As you can imagine, the practical applications for this futuristic form of Building Neutralization are endless. Wall in my way? Knock it down. Gun emplacement in my way? Knock it down. EDF fortress in my way? Well, you get the idea. But aside from the novelty of being able to run through walls screaming, “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch,” the ability to homerun-swing the entire environment around me into chalky dust – to never be impeded or have to take “the long way around” – is incredibly liberating. In fact, other shooters now feel limited and strange to me because they lack that feature.
 
Clearly, Red Faction developer Volition is onto something here. Completely destroyable structures give me all kinds of new options, keeping missions endlessly fresh. What Volition created, then, is a good, well-implemented game mechanic. It brings me endless amounts of joy and – even more importantly – I can’t imagine playing other games of its variety without it. As much as the game’s destructible environments have been pushed and marketed, they aren’t some big gimmick. In fact, interestingly enough, Red Faction: Guerrilla’s also a perfect example of how to both define and avoid cheap gimmicks – lessons that, if cranky, keyboard-bound gamers are to be believed, are quite important.

Usually, I dread the very beginning of a new game. Blah, blah, blah long-winded story intro blah, blah, blah tutorial that you have to gulp two Monsters to stay awake through blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. Red Faction, however, doesn’t make that mistake. The rundown: You’re on Mars. Your brother gets killed by the EDF. You have motivation. You also have a big hammer. And that’s it. The game immediately introduces you to its central gameplay conceit (destroying everything) and turns you loose. No muss, no fuss, no convoluted cut-scene.

Fortunately, the game proceeds along that same minimalistic path. Missions are introduced through quick, entirely optional briefings and cut-scenes are kept to a minimum. Or, if you’d rather not bear the heavy yoke of commitment, you can simply choose to rampage about, kicking down EDF buildings like a bully in the big red sandbox this is Mars.