A really fun sandbox with a destruction physics system that's pretty impressive even in 2017. Simply going around and demolishing buildings with a sledgehammer for no reason whatever is a blast. The actual missions are good too ,though. Some of the weapons and gadgets you acquire by the end are very creative and fun to use. For example: the pulse rifle (which makes a return from the original Red Faction) which allows you to see and shoot through walls, a gun that can literally disintegrate matter, and even a jetpack.

It's not a flawless game. I have some issues with it. For example, it allows you to carry only four weapons at any one time. Ideally, I would've liked to have all my arsenal available at all times for a game like this. Or it could've allowed you to purchase additional slots at least. Instead you have to look for these ammo crates which are scattered around the map. They allow you to switch weapons and refill some of your ammo of which you can't carry all that much.

Also, checkpoints are rather sparse. More often than not if you fail a mission you have to start all the way from the beginning of it. Some of the missions include lengthy shootouts or driving sections and it can be frustrating to have to redo the entire thing. It is an older game but is not old enough for it to be an excuse.

To be fair, I played on hard so these last issue may not be so pronounced on lower difficulties. In fact, I found it a bit more difficult than I would've liked, but I didn't want to change the difficulty midway through the campaign. Not impossible or anything, but I died quite a lot in the second half. It's the kind of game in which I just want to feel like a badass and blow shit up and not worry too much about dying. If I ever replay it I'll play on medium.

The driving is fine. Nothing special about it but it works well enough. The variety of vehicles is not too great, but they feel distinct from one another. The damage system on them is not very impressive considering what you can do to buildings. Every now and again you can get your hands on a mech (or walker or whatever) and those a lots of fun. Unfortunately, you only seem to be able to get them during specific missions.

Graphically, it looks good considering its age. With everything maxed out in 1080p it is still pleasing to the eye. The performance was locked at 60fps 90% of the time but, unfortunately, I got some drops during more intensive scenes. Particularly when you are standing next to a huge collapsing building with lots of particle effects around you. When you walk right through a building with a mech, for instance, it will slow down noticeably. I'm talking low 50's to mid 40's at the worst and only rarely. I have a 1060 6GB and i5-6500 and both of them were running at around 35-40% capacity. It's definitely not my hardware. The game doesn't seem to be able to take advantage of the extra power you throw at it during these more intense moments.

Overall, like a said, it's a very good game and I had loads of fun with it. Highly recommended if you like wreaking havoc in open world games. I'm surprised that they haven't made a newer game recently or that anyone hasn't picked up the idea of a huge open world game with destructible environments.