This past weekend I was able to get a hold of the “Red Faction: Guerrila” multiplayer beta. Knowing that it is a beta, in similar condition as the CoD4 multiplayer beta when it was made available, I still have an itch needing to be scratched.

The multiplayer feels more like Team Fortress 2 meets Halo 3. The game tries its best to do so much however it lacks the basic fundamentals of navigation in its current stage, and the party lobby simply sucks. (cough cough halo’s party system sucks, don’t try copying it)

The party lobby has a feature many beta players didn’t even care to notice and that is your gamer picture next to your name. This I thought was very intuitive since visual recognition is much easy than trying to find out someone’s gamertag with today clan names built into them. The part lobby is a bit annoying because you are lucky to get into a game sometimes because of the launch counter is set to 40 seconds and restarts anytime someone comes and goes.

Now peeves set aside, time to speak about the actual gameplay. The multiplayer offers some unique game play and funny halo like moments that keep bringing me back. For example, there are backpacks you can pick up at various spots on the map that provide power ups. Packs include Rhino (acharge attack), Jetpack (Rocketeer away), Concussion (ground sonic boom) Fleetpack (the Flash has nothing on it), and Firepower (increases damage). The packs add some dynamics to the game however also create the bad effect of camping in specific areas of user preference.

Another cool thing about the game is almost everything is destructible. Everything but large rocks can be pulverized using your trusty sledgehammer and other big booming weapons. The sledge hammer will make you feel like Kratos stuck in a Halo environment as you start pulling a Gallagher in various people on Xbox Live. It is a great pwnage tool. Also note this game is in third person and is not an FPS. (Ie.. You see your guy running around like Gears of War).

So far I have experienced two game modes, Damage Control and Team Anarchy. Damage Control is much like Domination is Call of Duty 4 and Team Anarchy is equivalent basically Team Deathmatch in every other game. Damage control is an brilliant concept because you must destroy various structures on the map and rebuild them with a repair gun to claim them as your own. Claim and hold the most structures for the longest duration is the way to achieve victory in this mode.

Overall I feel this game has a lot of potential and once the kinks are worked out, I will certainly give it a go again. I don’t sense this game will stick like a GoW or CoD4 multiplayer however if you need a break from those this will certainly provide a good fix. As more information becomes available I will certainly provide updates. Now let the onslaught of Halo fanboys rip me a new one for my comments.