Red Faction Guerrilla: Demons of the Badlands

This approach is a slightly risky one, mind you; by throwing the player most of the destructive toys from the start, along with enhanced armour, the sting is noticeably taken out of the game. By being able to raze entire buildings quickly and blitz otherwise-lethal emplacements from a safe distance any kind of vaguely patient, measured approach to play is going to kick the AI's arse into orbit.

And so it proves. The initial rescue mission isn't going to trouble anyone for more than about 15 minutes, with a bit of routine run-and-gun and emplacement-manning the order of the day. Even the second assassination-based mission isn't anywhere near as tough as it initially appears - a gaggle of underpowered EDF grunt troops prove to be no match for your enhanced pre-upgrade power armour, and mopping up stragglers is an efficient process if you're well-versed in the ways of stop-and-pop recharging health mechanics. It's only once the game rolls out the big guns that things get hairy, but, again, taking out anything ferocious from a distance proves to be a sure-fire route to success.

After that, the game defaults to the kind of progression mechanics which characterised the parent game. With the EDF control over the region barring further progress, the only option available to you is to steadily work through a series of Marauder missions. As before, these take the form of various brief side-quests, such as Heavy Metal, where you have to defend an area from attack, or Marauder Raid, where you take the fight to the EDF.

Elsewhere two time-based Transporter driving missions make the cut, alongside five Demolitions trials, and the hostage-rescuing House Arrest mission - happily, the route you take through these is firmly left up to you. Alongside those, you can also wrestle away EDF control by simply going around destroying their buildings - and this proves to be an effective shortcut to unlocking the final mission. Like a lot of openworld games, this cut-and-paste approach to padding out proceedings can feel a little tiresome - especially if you've recently spent untold hours playing these exact same side mission types over and over again recently. Did I mention that I'm bored of Red Faction's side missions? Good. Let's move on.

Once you've wrestled back control of the Mariner Valley region the third and final story mission becomes available, and it's a bit of a beast. Split into four distinct parts, it throws a bit of everything into the pot to exciting effect, including equipment sabotage, daring colonist rescue antics, rollocking tank-driving escapades, and even a bit of on-rails destruction for good measure. It's a fitting conclusion to a generally exciting portion of content which, in many respects, delivers its thrills in a tighter, less frustrating and more explosive environment.