Interviews

GAME gets the lowdown on Red Faction Guerrilla from Producer Rick White...

Hi Rick, can you tell us a bit about your role on Red Faction Guerrilla?

I'm Rick White, Producer for Red Faction Guerrilla. I oversee the art, design and programming teams that report directly to me. I champion the vision, keep an eye on the date and keep everything on track.

Tell us a bit about the Red Faction brand.

Red Faction came out in 2001 on PS2. It was all about Parker, a miner who came to Mars trying to get the good life, and joined a revolution trying to stop the atrocities in the mines. Towards the end, the Earth Defence Force came in and saved the day.

Then we came out with Red Faction 2 in 2003. We went to Central America and changed the whole theme. And now we have Red Faction Guerrilla and we're back on Mars, 50 years later. Mars has been terraformed so you can breathe air; small frontier-like towns have sprung up; and the Earth Defence Force who were the good guys in Red Faction are the bad guys in Red Faction Guerrilla.

The old Red Faction games were first-person shooters. Red Faction Guerrilla is a third-person free-roaming adventure. Why the change?

The first Red Faction was a linear game, and we had this GeoMod technology that let you blow things up and make tunnels. It's still pretty unparalleled even now, but what you could do with it was very restricted. With Red Faction Guerrilla we looked at that vision of 'go anywhere, do anything', which is why we went open world. We also made Saint's Row, so we have that open-world game experience. And we have the tech, GeoMod 2.0, where we've added physics. So when you get hit by a piece of rubble, depending on the size, type and velocity, you or the bad guys take different amounts of damage. Our goal with Red Faction Guerrilla was to make the destruction meaningful, not just eyecandy. I think we've done it – I hope we have!

So you wanted to make the destruction more important?

Yeah, we wanted more use of GeoMod, and more freedom of choice. As a designer, I can't control the player. In other open-world games, because you don't have that level of destruction, you're forced down a linear path. With GeoMod 2.0, we make challenges and you decide when, where and how to interdict.

How do you integrate a story – a linear beginning, middle and end – into an open-world game where you can do what you want, when you want?

We have an over-arching game mechanic: The Earth Defence Force's control vs the civilian morale in an area.

The goal is that you want to liberate different areas with guerrilla actions and get the civilians to join your fight by bringing down the infrastructure of the Earth Defence Force. More missions become unlocked in different parts of Mars, depending on where you've done missions and weakened the EDF so far. When you want to advance the story, you can complete the main objectives, or you can go off and explore, take side missions, or just blow stuff up – we don't force you to do anything at any point.

How does the story set the scene?

You arrive on Mars as Alex Mason. Your brother, Dan, is already on the planet. When you arrive he tells you how the Earth Defence Force have become oppressive; they're kidnapping people; putting them in camps, and generally making them work longer. Your brother eventually gets killed, and the EDF accuses you of being part of the Red Faction – this big conspiracy to help you overthrow the government.

So unwittingly you get more and more intertwined with this revolution. Alex's goal becomes to do enough guerrilla actions make it so costly for the EDF that it's not worth them being on Mars any more – a little like the Afghan/Russia war, which is what we based the idea on.

How do you go about getting the EDF off Mars?

The core of Red Faction Guerrilla is all about guerrilla actions. You can't just get in a run-and-gun shootout with them; we let you do that in small parts, but what we want you to do is identify and decide how you want to hit the EDF: Do you go in round the back and create your own hole and get the hostages out that way? Do you blow a hole in the roof and jump down? Red Faction Guerrilla is really about becoming really immersed in this changing, dynamic world and making your own choices.

Is it more challenging making games for next-gen, HD-ready systems?

It's more challenging, but more rewarding. We certainly couldn’t have done what we’re doing with Red Faction Guerrilla on older consoles – the more powerful you get the more you can do and the more realistic it feels. Maybe on future consoles we’ll even be able to have you blow holes and go underground – or even have the realism of a Saints Row with the destruction of Red Faction Guerrilla.

You've got multiplayer in Red Faction Guerilla too – tell us a bit about it.

Multiplayer's just as exciting as singleplayer – and with that real destruction element, it changes the way you play competitively. No longer can you find that one sweet spot to camp and kill people as they come across your kill zone – with Red Faction Guerrilla somebody can get close, blow it up, and you're gonna have to change your tactics. It's fast paced, and your strategies are changing as the environment's changing.

We have classic modes like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. But I really enjoy Siege, where you have one team trying to penetrate a base's defences, and one team trying to repair them and stop the attacking team taking these key points. In playtesting, we had this one cool scenario where we were attacking, and we broke through a first wall, started working on the second wall, and then the other team came around behind us and repaired the first wall, catching us in this death zone. It's that constant strategy element in Red Faction Guerilla's multiplayer that makes it a lot of fun.

What weapons can we expect?

We've tried to give the look and feel of improvised mining equipment that they've modified, taken the safety latch off and made into an effective weapon. The Ark Emitter shoots electricity out, the Grinder, instead of being just a blade cutting up stuff, it shoots out; and then we have stuff like the rocket launcher. At the same time it's very destructive. And then you have your Earth Defence Force weapons which are more conventional – your Assault Rifle, Shotgun, stuff like that. If you really want to hurt the EDF in singleplayer though, you'll want to use the mining weapons, since the EDF has limited ammo.

Are we going to see EDF vs Red Faction multiplayer modes?

Well, all the weapons from the two sides will be in there – balanced a bit like the Covenant and Human weapons in Halo. As you gain experience you'll unlock new weapons, skins and maps, too.

Speaking of weapons: in the GAME office we loved the Ostrich Hammer April Fool's video. So we used that as inspiration, put our heads together and came up with some of our own. Tell us what you think...

Ok, hit me!

Viper Sniper: A poison dart rifle.

That's kinda cool. The EDF wear armour, though...

Care Bear Snare: Colourful; cuddly; DEADLY.

Hah, that's nice.

Macaw Chainsaw: Colourful handle, big beak-like blade.

[Grins] Like it.

Rhino Cycle: Like a uni-cycle, with a BIG horn on the front.

Just to ram and destroy stuff? That would work pretty well with the GeoMod.

And my favourite, the Bullzooka: Like, a comedy South Park style cow launcher.

Hahahaha, y'know, I'm sure my artists and designers would love to hear that. Those are some great ideas.

Speaking of inspirations, what were yours – in terms of films, TV, other games?

The first thing we did was go back to the brand and look at the old Red Factions and see what worked. People really resonated with being on Mars, and being the small guy that overcame something. The GeoMod was what Volition is known for: destruction. And then it was mostly movies and books.

We looked at Total Recall and the Red Mars and Blue Mars books. I also used Aliens as an example of a possible future… I mean, Aliens was Sci Fi, but it you were still comfortable with what you saw. The same with Blade Runner: you could see a future like that; it's kinda weird, but not so far out there that you were uncomfortable. That's really where we came from designing Red Faction Guerrilla. You can push the envelope a bit but at the end of the day we wanted the player to be comfortable first, and that's why you start out in a red Mars environment, with a yellow and black colour scheme for the mining equipment. That way, it's futuristic, but people still appreciate it.

What other games do you play?

Nowadays I'm on the move a lot, so I play a lot of games on my PSP and DS. I just finished Joan of Arc which is pretty old now; I just got the new DS Final Fantasy but I haven't played it yet. It's usually quick, tactical games. Some Quake sometimes. I'll probably pick up Resident Evil 5 too when I get home since I keep hearing good things about it.

Activision's Prototype is the other big open-world game this summer. If it's a choice between one game or the other, why should people pick Red Faction Guerrilla?

Because Red faction Guerrilla is resetting the genre; it's something that raises the bar for destruction. I don't know much about Prototype, but moving forward, if you have an open-world game with 'destruction' as a big feature, Red Faction Guerrilla is the new bar. Once you've played our game, you're gonna shoot a wall and expect it to do something; you'll be in a car, it'll bounce off a wall and you'll think “Well, that was kinda stupid”. We raise that realism and crumbling eyecandy to another level.

A lot of games, though... it's just personal preference. Reviews and word of mouth are big factors, and also longevity. If you have a game that takes five hours, why wouldn't you just go rent it? With Red Faction Guerrilla we've got 20 hours of gameplay, and downloadable content coming out too.

Can you give us any hints about the download content?

Nothing specific. But I can say we have singleplayer and multiplayer content coming. Our playtesting with college students highlighted areas they really wanted to see, so our singleplayer DLC for Red Faction Guerrilla will address that. I can say no more!

Brill, cheers Rick.

Interview by: Mark 'Bullzooka' Scott
Interview Published: 09.04.09