Death Stranding

Kojima Productions’ latest Death Stranding might be light on the combat side of things, but in true Kojima fashion – the game is chock-full of interactive environments. If players get caught by a BT, it causes a voidout which is just a fancy way of saying a big explosion. Of course, when you return back to that location – you will find a crater that’s a souvenir of your past missteps. 

Following a generally (and arguably unfairly) low commercial reception, THQ have announced to shareholders that they will discontinue work on the franchise.

CEO Brian Farrell told investors last night that the publisher has no plans to “carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way” as the series “did not resonate with a sufficiently broad console gaming audience”.

“In today’s hit-driven, core gaming business, even highly-polished titles with a reasonable following like Red Faction face a bar that continues to move higher and higher,” he said.

“Moving forward, our core game titles must meet a very high quality standard with strong creative and product differentiation, appeal to a broad audience, and be marketed aggressively,” Farrell added.

It’s a sad day when even pretty solid series like Red Faction meet an unfortunate demise.

Thanks to Gamasutra for the info.

“The game is a ‘hybrid’ between the first 2 Red Faction titles in the series and Guerrilla.”
“The new games takes [Red Faction] to a whole new place, it kind of goes back to the old Red Faction because about 80% of it is underground,” said Bilson. 

THQ also said that the game’s reveal will be coming at E3 this June. Stay Tuned!

Now the gameplay. Mars has been divided in to six sectors in the game. The intial gameplay will take place in sectors of Dust and Parker. The player has to clear each sector in order to unlock the other sections. Unlocking a sector involves a Red Faction meter where the player has to complete a set of missions to bring down EDF control to zero in each area. This involves player taking various missions. These missions can be accessed by a map accesible through the select button. The player can navigate through the various missions available and set the marker. Mostly the player will be using EDF or Red Faction vehicles. Major mission types include:

• Blowing things Up: Here the player can destroy EDF property in a limited time and limited ammunition. These missions are pretty tough and will require the player to strategize as the player has to hit the weaker parts of the EDF sturcture.
• Rescue Hostages: EDF will bascially be capturing innocent Colonist throughout the game. Your job is to free these people any how and get back them to the respective and the nearest safe house.
• EDF Raid: Here the player will raid EDF structures with the help of a small group of fellow columnist. The aim is to kill all the EDF forces guarding the structure or bring the strucuture down.
• Bring the Vehicles: These type of missions involve the player to steal EDF vehicles from their base and bring them back to the safe house or back to a particular colonist.
• Prevent raid from EDF: Here the Red Faction will be attacked from incoming EDF forces. Your job is to blow them all.
• Blow them all: One of Red Faction’s members, Jenkins will drive Mason around his really cool vehicle. Mason has to destroy all the EDF property which is indicated in terms of dollars before Jenkins takes back Mason back to the safe house.

All of these missions are pretty tense and action oriented. But i must say that after a while these missions get a bit repetitive after a while. Now how would these missions help. The developers have implemented a system known as Morale. The longer and more the missions you complete the more the morale will boost for Red Faction Colonist. More morale means more armory at your disposal, more colonist fighting along with you and more quickly the area will be restored under Red faction command. All of the missions are indicated by the amount of control and amount of salvage one can gain from the mission. Salvage is pretty much central to gameplay in Red Faction. Players will find salvage throughout the world of Mars. These can be obtained from destroyed buidling, debris, from cars , from completing missions and just about anything that Mason can destroy. The amount of destruction that the player can do is just phenomenal. The Geomod 2.0 engine, which allows for buildings and other structures to take damage, fall apart and collapse really looks mind blowing. There are just so many moment in the game where its just very satisfying to blow up things. And to blow them up Mason also need the arsenal. The game has a wide range of ammos and explosives. As you start off the player will be loaded with assault rifle and sticky grenades. The player will also have sledge hammer like weapon which can be used to destroy just about anything in the game. Later on you will be able to buy rocket launchers , proximity mines, weldges and much more.

New weapons get unlocked as you play through the game. You can buy new weapons using salvage so just make sure than you collect as much as salvage you can during the game. One of the most surprising things about the game is how the enemy AI has been implemented. The game should be pretty easy for many gamers since I was able to take on the enemies head on. Also the variety of the enemies in the games are less. There are also Mechs in the game, but too bad they are as good as none. The controls are tight and have been done very well, however the cover system could have been done better. Camera is spot on in the game and i did not found any issues with camera snapping during intense battles.

The graphics of the game are not ground breaking like the one found in games like Mass Effect. But the sense of scale is huge in this game. You will be travelling alot in the game, invading EDF facility and following Marauders base. The environments look stunning and the character models are pretty good for most part. The vehicles feel good and also have been given a very unique and a futuristic look about them. But visuals wise the game really excels at the explosions and the destruction shown is phenomenal. If the visuals are good for the explosions than the sound accompanying them had to be good. But sadly the rest of the sound really is out of place and voice acting is not up to the standards.

Red Faction excels at what the franchise is know for. The developers changed the perspective this time so that players can get a feel of the destruction. It’s at a pretty good length with campaign lasting for about 20 hours. However the game gets a bit repetitive and enemy AI holds it back from being truly epic. Volition could really have really made a great game but instead Red Faction is a good game. For fans who are tired of other genre and are looking to blow stuff up, they need not to go any further than Red Faction: Guerrilla.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Red Faction: Guerilla takes place 50 years after the Original Red Faction. The EDF who were allies are the main antagonist in this game. They have captured Mars planet and are putting people in to slavery for their own benefits. You will take role of Alec Mason who is a miner and is rebelling against the EDF. The demo we played showed us various gameplay aspects and We must say that the Red Faction is growing up into an awesome game. You have just one mission in the demo we played… You have to capture a “Walkers” a walking robot from the EDF which is essential for capturing the area. You will start off with three weapons: l Long axe like weapon, a machine gun and a pistol. Later on you will be able to find powerful shot guns and detonators. The gameplay element is basically pop and shoot just like in Gear of War franchise. Some of things like running while shooting seems like taken directly from the famed game. You will be having radar which is pretty important for open ended games these days indicating the current objectives, enemies and more. The world is vast in the Game and you will be roaming alot.

The enemies are a bit disappointing in the game. They are just too backward in the AI , quit often they will expose themselves completely for fire. More often they will come in APC’s and most often or not you will be facing 20 odd enemies at one time. Things can get a bit tough but you too have vehicles at your disposal. Using vehicles you can crush anything. Enemies, Vehicles  and even the structures can be destroyed. Almost 90% of the environment is destructible in the game which is truly spectucular. After fighting through the enemies , when you finally reach your objective: “The Walker'”, you will have to drive it through enemies and APC once again. What follows is an amazing chase sequence.

Alec Mason will now be equipped with missilie launcher. Cars, Vehicles and APC’s  will now be following you. Nor one or two but tens and twenties of them, It was fun to play through this section as the cars flying , explosions taking place, the EDF soldiers  firing, is a really a treat to watch. Finally you will cross the runaway and the demo ends.

What we played hold alot of promise to the game. Red faction: Guerrilla  is realesing on June 9th, 2009. The developers have promised over 100’s of missions and multiplayer components. Check out for the full review as we approach the launch.

First Impressions : 8/10