Playing A Game Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered PC

Red Faction: Guerrilla and I are well-acquainted; nothing in its Re-Mars-tered edition will be a surprise to me. Nevertheless, three minutes of Dunkey was enough to make me yearn once more for the joy of demolition and some screwball physics.

Guerrilla is getting on in years, though, and it shows. This Re-Mars-tering helps the game look modern - it really does! - and even the controls and mechanical depth feel contemporary enough. But the muted color palette and dull level design, not to mention a 90s B-movie plot, become more immersion-breaking with each passing year.

Then again, I haven't even gotten the Rocket Launcher yet. That should distract me from the red-brown desert.

Nine years later, it's funny to me that some of RFG's most distinctive features still haven't been copied into more games. Not just Geo-Mod destructibility -- but its discoverable, dynamic-feeling "Guerrilla Missions," and how civilians react to high morale by joining your fight. These are things that would feel right at home in Ubisoft Game.

Between "Deathinitive," "Warmastered," and now "Re-Mars-tered" editions of THQ's old games, THQ Nordic has established a clear pattern. I really hope it leads to a "Resanctified" version of Saints Row 2 or maybe a "Waterfront Genkification" edition of The Third. (And I hope Volition comes up with better puns than mine.)

Progress: Just got to Dust.

Rating: Good