Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Review (Switch)

A 're-Mars-ter" for Red Faction's most successful entry, Red Faction Guerrilla, is coming now on the Nintendo Switch

When word got out that they were planning to release Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered on the Nintendo Switch, I have to admit that I was a bit conflicted.  One one hand, I like the way the made the remaster feel like a successful attempt at bringing the game back into the spotlight, especially since a lot of people were sad when they though there would be no more Red Faction after Armageddon. On the other hand, I realized that one of the things they must have done to make the game run efficiently on the Nintendo Switch was actually dialing down the graphics a bit.  Given that this title is actually an attempt at tweaking the visuals of a 10-year-old game, dialing the visuals back when you just upgraded them sounded pretty counter-productive.

Things still break when I hit them with my hammer

Those that played the original know that any building is fair game as long as you have your trusty sledge-hammer, and the building destruction mechanics are probably one of the game’s key selling points. I’m glad they didn’t touch this mechanic at all, as it offered a lot of flexibility as far as how I could handle certain missions, plus the fact the debris were considered currency was even more of an incentive for me to smash pretty much anything with my hammer. More so, I think that from a story point of view, going against an oppressive force and destroying their entire base-camp by hand would be pretty wicked,. Vehicle mechanics didn’t change at all either, and I loved wreaking on the EDF while in a tank or in a walker that would have made George Lucas proud.

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"Vanilla" versus Re-Mars-tered

Sometimes a game is so good in both mechanics and story, that when doing a remaster, bring the visuals up to date is more than enough. Such would be the case with Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered as well, and as far as visuals are concerned, everything looks way better right now.

First of all, the texture quality is probably the most obvious change with the remaster. Previously, getting close to objects would be enough to make most surfaces look like pixelated sludge that kind of blended in with itself. This prevented viewers from getting to see relevant environmental details such as scratches, stains and rust, which would be common things when talking about scrap, junk, abandoned buildings and life on Mars in general.

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More so, in some cases the textures were changed altogether, such as how certain vehicles look, or how reflective surfaces actually reflect the light of the scorching sun in a realistic manner. The level of detail has also been increased, and being far away from objects will no longer make the more smaller elements disappear for the sake of being easy on your CPU.

The way you destroy your environment was only changed from a visual point of view. While the game reportedly still uses the Geo-Mod 2.0 engine which allows for buildings, covers, and other structures to be destroyed, some modifications have been made to it to make debris look more realistic. Those that played "vanilla" probably remembered how detonating a building would send random rectangular blocks flying everywhere, but rest assured that they have now been replaced by debris that actually look like they were once part of the building.

Now only if they could have managed to do something about debris that acted way too “bouncy”...

Because the entire game takes place on mars, a planet where pretty much everything the eye can see is a red desolate wasteland, it goes without saying that the developers thought that maybe throwing is some sun shafts into the mix would be appropriate, and they managed to pull if off successfully.

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How does the Re-Mars-tered version fair on the Nintendo Switch?

After seeing footage of how the PC version of the remaster looks like, I have to admit I was only half-right about my presumptions.  While the graphics are indeed inferior, they aren’t that bad. In fact,  for a better comparison I would say that the Switch remastered version looks way better than the PC "vanilla" version, and as far as gaming goes, I don’t think anyone could ask for more anyway.

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The only visual improvement they didn’t manage to include, and that’s most likely because of hardware limitations, is ambient occlusion, or at least some sort of realistic shading.

However,  as most of you know, shadows and shadow-related effects are the most resource-demanding visual effects of a game, so the fact that it is missing is almost understandable. They didn't change anything as far as multiplayer gameplay is involved. The same game modes you knew and loved (or hated) are still available, so as long as you have access to the Nintendo Switch online service, you should be able to play with whomever you want without any issue.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion