If you had a large amount of explosives, were on Mars and also had access to high-powered guns, would you help a group of resistance fighters bring down a corrupt military group? One that’s killed your brother and oppressed said resistance fighters and forced them into said life of violence in order to gain peace?

Well, I for one would take up explosives and blow things up, blow people away and have a good time. At least, that’s what I did in Red Faction: Guerrilla, and let me tell you that it was a heck of a lot of fun.

If you’re not familiar with the way things are going on Mars during Red Faction and its successors like Red Faction: Guerrilla, Mars has been terraformed, and mining has become big business on the red planet. Unfortunately, with this new territory has come military conflict, giving birth to revolutionaries retaliating, and a large number of people have been caught up in the crossfire.

One such person is the main character — you, Alec Mason. Mason’s a demolition expert, is at home in a gun fight, and wields a hammer that can take out drywall or metal with ease. While on the red planet, Mason is trying to get honest work in the mines. Although, with of all the political turmoil, his brother Daniel gets caught up with the Red Faction, the group of resistance fighters who are going trying their best to stop the Earth Defense Force from oppressing them further.

While he’s instructing Mason, Daniel gets killed by the EDF, which means that Mason joins the Red Faction, and so, the epic battle of Mason versus the EDF begins. Granted, I felt the storyline was a bit too Star Wars-esque, but that didn’t really matter since the focus of the gameplay was destruction of, well, everything. Anything manmade as far as I could tell was destructible. I thought that was pretty darn cool.

And, given that Mason gets explosives, and a few different guns, plus a powerful hammer, the ability to go through Mars and lay waste to EDF forces and buildings with the assembled armaments was definitely enjoyable.

With a third-person perspective, mouse aiming and keyboard movement via W, A, S and D, the controls for Red Faction: Guerrilla were familiar to me and easy to pick up. Given that, I was able to go through the missions of Red Faction: Guerrilla and let loose my ammunition swiftly.

Armed with ammunition within the world of Mars, which is divided into five different sections, Mason sets out to bring about the end of the EDF’s tyranny. His goal, and that of the Red Faction, is to free themselves, create peace, etc. As the player, you complete each mission to raise morale of each section, eventually enough missions are completed to raise morale enough to liberate an entire section.

What sort of missions might a fighter for freedom from the EDF have? Well, three that were most prevalent involved saving hostages, retrieving vehicles and blowing things up. Oh, and there are those missions that don’t fall into those categories that normally were a bit specialized and moved the story forward.

For each mission, you utilize your weapons and different vehicles that are available to you at the Red Faction’s main base or as you are being driven around the planet. Since you’re a known figure in Red Faction, those driving will gladly give up their vehicles, since you’re, to them, one of the good guys.

I found each mission to be similar if they were of the same type but different in execution. Drive a truck through a wall to destroy part of a building then save the hostage and drive away worked for one mission, but the next ... not so much. I ended up being surrounded by EDF and just couldn’t get them all with the truck as well as fend them off.

In short, you can’t always use the same tactic every mission, which I thought was great. I was challenged and having fun, even if I did see Mason explode and get gunned down a tad more than I’m sure he or I really liked. But that’s the way it is on Mars.

Although, with the weapons available, you can devise quite a few tactics to take down your foes. The number of weapons available gave me a great way to mix and match. I could throw an explosive toward one group of enemies, pull out my pistol to pick off a few EDF troops that manned guns on vehicles, then use my automatic to take out anyone within a radius that didn’t qualify as far enough away to use explosives.

I felt the ability to quickly swap to each weapon and try to adapt to a situation was really great in rewarding experimentation by the player. Throwing explosives all over didn’t work? Try being sneaky and dispatching some foes quickly then pulling ’em out and blowing a building away.

If you couldn’t tell from how many times I’ve mentioned them, there are explosives in Red Faction: Guerrilla. And, they’re very, very handy and wonderfully destructive. Plus, they’re used for missions that involve decimating buildings. Being able to use them quickly and the fact that they were useful (some games I’ve played have bombs that I used for maybe one level and forgot about) was fantastic.

The flow of the game really worked — an open expansive alien planet that seemed large enough to be its own world yet wasn’t so big that it took forever to get to a point of interest for a mission. Areas were close enough so I didn’t feel like I was wasting time driving to and from them, and I always knew where to go or what to do.

I never got lost either in what I was supposed to be doing or in traveling around the world. Which can be a real challenge with some games if the world is just a tad too big. That’s not the case with Red Faction: Guerrilla, and there’s a map that is helpful. The map has a feature in which you can set a mission starting point as your desired destination so that small yellow arrows will show you on the minimap and in the game how to get where you need to be.

I used that feature a lot and found it very helpful. Perhaps not exactly realistic, but then Mars isn’t exactly terraformed today, either. Battling foes was partly realistic due to the physics for vehicles and buildings. Powered by Havok physics, buildings crumble while having a big jeep driven through their supports to help Mason avoid enemy gunfire.

There was quite a bit of gunfire, too, whenever I ran into an enemy group or infiltrated an area where a vehicle needed to be recovered or hostages needed saved. While in the middle of a firefight, I did enjoy that I couldn’t automatically hit an enemy and that I had to conserve my ammunition. I couldn’t just wail on one guy without knowing I’d have to resort to my hammer or explosives. Not that I didn’t resort to them just because.

Running forward and taking out an enemy then blowing up a few nearby then rushing through a crumbling home to save fellow Red Faction members is the sort of experience that got my adrenaline going. I loved the variety of weapons, the number of missions that were similar yet difficult and challenging. I also loved the number of ways I could approach a scenario &mdash even if I did get gunned down because of it. I could experiment with different attacks.

The red planet has a lot to offer in the way of entertainment, and even if you’ve never played a Red Faction game I’d say go for it and get it. It’s fun; there’s a lot to do and lots to blow up. I absolutely loved the explosives and just how much really could blow up.

Granted, that doesn’t leave the storyline or missions hanging. It’s not just blowing stuff up. There’s more there. But the fact that you can blow things up adds just so much more to the game than if it were simply shooting and dodging enemies all around Mars. Try Red Faction: Guerrilla and enjoy the mayhem on Mars.