PlayStation 4 Critic Reviews

Though the remaster—or re-Mars-ter, if you can stomach the title pun—doesn't fix the grave injustice that the game never had a true sequel, it's a compelling reminder of what made it a minor classic.

As backhanded as it may sound, Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-Tered Edition is far better than it has any right to be. The mechanics that originally made it heaps of fun still hold true today. Shedding the excessive complexities that accompany modern open-world games is a surprising breath of fresh, albeit dusty, air.

This title is quite enjoyable nowadays, since its destruction-focused action holds up pretty well today. It might get repetitive if you don’t get creative, but it still delivers a good experience.

A great get for those who may have missed it the first time around, or anyone who might want to revisit (and re-destroy) the red planet. It may not add any new content to address the empty open world and bland story, but it does perform well, and everything I loved about Red Faction: Guerrilla is still front and center and looking better than ever.

If you’re a fan of Just Cause or Saint’s Row, then Red Faction Guerrilla might well tickle your fancy. In the days of sprawling open world titles with hundreds of missions tied together with awful stories, the simplicity of this game makes a welcome change. Violence is not big, hard, or clever, but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun. Red Faction Guerrilla Me-Mars-tered is the remaster no one was asking for, but has turned out to be a welcome surprise.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered presents a great opportunity for those who have already played it and those who haven't. For the former, it's a chance to experience its explosive, imperfect glory in a higher framerate and with better visuals. For the latter, it's a chance to play one of the cult classics of last generation at its peak.

There's quite a lot that I like about Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered and some parts, not so much. Particularly, the loading times, the predictable story, and how the later regions aren't much different to the beginning of the game. However, it's still a very fun destruction-based campaign that offers a great variety of missions to take on within its large open world.

I’m fully aware that Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is not a great game — or, possibly, even a very good game. But when it works correctly (which is to say, when you’re focusing purely on how much destruction and havoc you can wreak), I don’t think there are many games that can hold a candle to it in terms of how much fun you can have.

Despite being nine years old, this remaster makes Red Faction Guerrilla look almost new. With its fantastic GeoMod 2.0 engine, the mayhem and destruction hasn’t lost any of its appeal, though its PS4 Pro “high quality” mode is in dire need of optimisation.

Overall, it’s a fun jaunt through the past, and although I’m sure I’ll get tired by the eventual repetitiveness, just like all open-world games, it’s a great experience for what the gameplay provides.