Session 3 - 1/28/10 - 8:00PM to 10:00PM

It doesn't seem like I got much done in this session but the Dust sector is more than twice as large as the Parker sector.

The screenshot archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 3/

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My last game save left me in Parker so that's where I'm starting. It's nice that the game is geographically consistent in respect to my location. The only problem is that Dust is quite a long drive from here. Speed limit signs along the road vary, but I passed by one that said "90 km/h", which is about 56 mph.
Instead of driving straight to the Dust safehouse, I'm going to engage in a hostage rescue mission. I preemptively swapped my light utility truck for a heavy dump truck. A stupid EDF transport ran into me and opened fire. What gives?

One of the hostages immediately jumped in the bed but the other lingered to fight the EDF. Flashing face icons in the corner show relative health levels of the hostages and I started getting nervous when the fighting hostage's face was flashing red. I backed the dump truck up to block her line of sight and she gave up the fight to get to safety in the truck.
The truck is far too damaged to continue driving. I'm ditching it for a 4-door EDF transport with a roof gun. Surprisingly, neither hostage took over the gun and instead preferred to sit in the back seats. While not unusual, I expected at least one of them to take control of it.
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It appears Fraps randomly closed on me so I don't have pictures for anything passed the first hostage mission I went on to the Marauder mission. Although this saves me some time sorting through the pictures I'm really frustrated that I lost an hour's worth of in-game information. I'll be more careful to prevent this from happening in the future.
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After blowing up a random smokestack I happened to be escaping from the EDF in the direction of some kind of mission with a gun icon. A voice on the radio identifying itself as Jenkins asked me if I was interested in being a gunner. The voice sounds a bit redneck-ish so I expect this mission to be funny. While waiting an EDF transport showed up behind me and all hell broke loose.

I can't say I'm surprised. This vehicle looks like a fine example of Mad Max engineering, but yhe driver, Jenkins, is no Marauder. Based on the hubless front wheels I'm assuming this vehicle has rear-wheel-drive. The point of this mission is to destroy a quota amount of EDF property, which further instills the hatred the colonists have for the EDF.

The vehicle's primary weapon is a rocker launcher and it's secondary is a machine gun. Like the tank, the only weapon I'm using is the rocket launcher. Turret rotation is sluggish so I can't quickly change my field of view. Yellow arrows point out targets I'm supposed to attack, which is somewhat difficult since the vehicle is moving and I have to compensate constantly.

Apparently Jenkins is a "red blooded Martian" who despises Earth and wants all Earthen presence gone. He sounds like he needs a beer in his hand and a soap box to shout from.

I keep trying to shoot at an EDF gunship but the turret can't angle upwards high enough. I'll have to wait until Jenkins decides to drive along a hill.

I see some crystals but I can't leave or direct the vehicle. Oh well.

We're driving up towards the safehouse but since I didn't reach the mission goal of $35 million in damage I didn't succeed. Now that I have a better understanding of the mission and what it entails I should succeed this time.

I saw the gunship flying low enough to follow it and I took it down early. Apparently I took down *A* gunship, but not the one that follows me throughout the mission. How annoying. I'm not supposed to fire at colonist vehicles but it's difficult when they're fleeing from the EDF in all directions, although that adds to the realism.

I passed this time. It was a close call though and it feels like I had to work really hard to just barely pass. I hope future missions aren't like this.

An EDF transport showed up, but it looks like the nearby guerrillas took care of it. Thanks for the free vehicle guys!

The next story mission requires me to head into a Marauder hideout to find some sort of package. The briefing warns me to be careful because the Marauders are hostile. Wow thanks for telling me I sure didn't know that!

I'm starting this mission by following a Marauder vehicle into the Badlands. When I got close enough a red circle appeared on my minimap showing me the minimum following distance. I've encountered missions like this in Grand Theft Auto so I know the drill.
The vehicle entered some kind of portal in the rocks.
This is the vehicle I was following. It definitely looks like Marauder technology. As I was taking the pictures my truck rolled down the hill so I'll likely be driving this vehicle back to Dust.
The commander told me that this building might belong to the Ultor Corporation and was likely abandoned after the first Red Faction uprising. I like that this game is referencing it's predecessor and provides realistic chronological continuity.
I found something interesting in this building. This might be what I'm looking for. As soon as I picked up I was alerted that EDF was moving in on my position. I was expecting a giant boulder to start chasing me.....
Sam asked me about the artifact I found. She was strangely focused on whether or not I killed any Marauders and speaking in a calm and sad voice, but when Alex questioned her she quickly changed the subject.

I swapped the Marauder shotgun for an EDF shotgun. I've learned in other shooter games that it's always a good idea to carry weapons that the local enemy is using since it'll ensure I have a steady supply of ammunition.

When I reached the place I had arrived from the Marauders and EDF were busy fighting each other, so I took the opportunity to steal the Marauder vehicle and escape. Its front end is really wide and I used it to clip some soldiers along the way. I tried to avoid killing any Marauders since it seems Sam is concerned about them for some reason I can't fathom. The vehicle's only weapon is a harpoon launcher. It fires a single shot at a time so I'm sure it does massive damage.
I gave Sam the artifact but she didn't tell me what it was. I'm sure I'll find out later.

A cut scene showed dialogue between the Admiral of the Hydra, a spaceship approaching Mars, and someone in command, I'm not sure who or where. They both mentioned that "the terrorist" has the "nano forge", which apparently is what that artifact is, and are concerned about the Red Faction turning it into a weapon.

If I was driving along minding my own business and some vehicle belonging to a known hostile faction approached me, firing randomly, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't continue along the road at a constant velocity (spoilers: this actually happened in-game).

Red Faction morale is at 100, but I still have to clear the EDF out of Dust to liberate the sector.

I've engaged in another "defend this area" mission. There are a lot of people here but only 10 of them are RF members. That means the rest must be civvies and I'll have to protect them. My first act is to electrocute the occupants of this APC and use it to shoot back at the soldiers that got out. The trend of keeping the soldiers' faces hidden is still present. Their voices are projected through radios so they even sound robotic. They remind me of the Civil Protection from Half Life 2, although I know these aren't human/machine hybrids.
Having completed the mission, I unlocked a new weapon called "The Grinder". It looks like a weapon that fires saw blades that likely are able to penetrate multiple targets. This game is following the trend of offering more valuable rewards for accomplishing more difficult challenges, which is motivating and creates positive reinforcement.
There's another gunner mission nearby. I'll do this mission because if it's like the previous one it'll take me to the southern Dust safehouse, which is where I was heading anyway.
This mission ended much better than the last one. I didn't even have any civilian casualties.
Because Mars is much smaller than Earth its gravitational pull is smaller. I can clearly feel this when I'm driving the ATV since it's quite easy to get airborne. Giving light vehicles low gravity physics really adds to the realism and helps me immerse myself in the game.
The next story mission requires me to break into a supply building and steal a "walker" to put on a truck and take to a safehouse. This sounds like it'll be a fun mission.
I just barely had enough time to get to the walker's garage. I didn't have a vehicle that could punch through the EDF so I had to push through on foot. A risky endeavor, but the reward speaks for itself.
This mech has incredible momentum and isn't hindered by anything but steep slopes. It's heavily armored as well. No wonder the EDF confiscated all of them from the civilians. Clicking either mouse button rotates the arms in opposite directions and I was able to fling a utility truck with ease.

Now that I'm on the flatbed truck my job is to keep the EDF away using a rocket launcher mounted to the truck's bed. It's not as powerful as Jenkins' but the experience I gained from gunning for him will help here.
An EDF transport's corpse bounced onto the bed of the truck. I don't think the programmers intended for that to happen.

After we passed over a bridge the Red Faction blew it up with a memorable explosion.
The trench separating both sides is accessible by ramps on the side of the bridge so I really don't know why blowing it up stopped the EDF as they can clearly traverse the trench, but I'll settle for the fact that blowing up the bridge was the "explosive" finale of the mission.
I bought the grinder and it "fires razor sharp blades that pierce enemy armor". I also bought the ability to carry more arc welder ammo. Since it's described as an anti-armor weapon I'll swap out my remote mines for the grinder.
To fire it I press and hold for a couple seconds and it fires a single blade in a trajectory that follows projectile physics. Four blades and that ATV is nothing but a pile of parts. I think I'll like using this weapon.

Session 2 - 1/21/10 - 6:30PM to 8:30PM

In case anybody is interested, I'm using Fraps (http://www.fraps.com/) to take in-game screenshots.

The screenshot archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 2/

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The game started me out at a safehouse even though I saved while somewhere random. This is probably to make sure I start in a safe area.

Missions I've already completed show up as slightly darker icons. This is a useful feature telling me what I've already completed so I can bypass those missions.

It appears damage is a persistent component in the game. A wall I destroyed two days ago is still destroyed.
In a move that both tested the arc welder on an enemy target as well as gave me an EDF transport with a roof gun, I learned about the arc welder's ability to neutralize occupants in a vehicle.
My EDF transport can't carry more than two people so I have to ditch it. In a move not to dissimilar to Grand Theft Auto, I ran towards a truck and stopped in front of it to block its path. The driver stopped and when I pushed the "enter vehicle" key he got out and said "You didn't get this from me, right?"
Since I completed 5 guerrilla actions I unlocked "Proximity Mines." I don't think they'll be useful to me since I prefer to use weapons that give immediate results rather than set traps.

On my way to what looks like a large EDF-controlled structure (three blue hexagons on the map) I found another demolition mission. This one had me shoot rockets at comm towers from a distance. The rockets' trajectories varied slightly with each firing, but I was able to complete the mission the first time. Again I didn't get the "Pro" time but I think I'd have to practice to get it and that sounds boring.
Back to the EDF base behind me. Instead of assaulting the structure from the (obviously) guarded front gate I decided to go around to the side. In an attempt to kill a soldier I destroyed a supply crate. EDF supply crates must be scattered all over the place and I get salvage for destroying them. Ring the bell, get some meat.....
I was ambushed so I ran back towards the exit with my tail between my legs (and a fraction of my health). In a convenient fashion, an EDF transport showed up next to me and the lone occupant stepped out so I could kill him. An armored car will be useful.

One of the towers cut through the middle of the building as it fell. Awesome!
I guess the flashing red alert status and warning siren are ways of letting me know that the EDF isn't too happy right now.

As I was leaving two APCs full of EDF soldiers appeared. I used the garage on my left to provide cover as I electrocuted the occupants of the APC on my right. Instead of trying to fight off the soldiers I'll make a quick getaway in the APC. I feel kind of bad for the guerrillas I left behind but there's nothing I can do.
The Parker safehouse is pretty close to, and easily accessible from, the main road. I'm surprised the EDF hasn't found and raided it.

I can buy three arc welder upgrades. One increases the amount of ammo I can carry, the second adds another arc of lighting, and the third modifies the beam to only target enemies. I didn't know I could kill friendlies with the arc welder, but I never fired it when they were in my line of sight. In any case I don't have enough salvage to buy any of the upgrades so I'll have to wait.
Another story mission is open. It's the only mission available so I don't have a choice. I'm supposed to escort a convoy of Red Faction vehicles from Parker (the sector I'm in) to Dust (the sector to the east) by destroying comm towers along the way. I'm not exactly sure what this entails but the quickest way I can think of to destroy the towers is to run into them with a vehicle. The debriefing told me to expect heavy resistance so that further promotes the hit-n-run idea.
As expected everything in the world wanted me dead. I finished the mission but with half of my vehicle's health left and had to play bumper cars a few times. I unlocked a rocket launcher and level 1 armor. Both sound very useful.
The next story mission is in Dust and involves me protecting protesters from being violently killed. I found a single-person ATV so I'll drive that to the rally. My brilliant entry involved me crashing into the closest EDF transport, abandoning the ATV, and taking over the mounted gun of the transport. That strategy worked until something exploded and I was thrown from the vehicle. I helped kill the remaining soldiers and now I'm supposed to destroy some loudspeaker towers to prevent more miners from being "brought to slaughter." I just realized that I never bought the armor upgrade.

En route to the nearest speaker tower I ran over a hydrogen tank that nearly destroyed my car. Since it was quick and light I didn't expect it to have much armor. My machine gun ran out of ammo again. One of the game's mechanics includes the ability to swap my current weapon with one I find on the ground, so I swapped the empty machine gun for a pistol. With 21 bullets.
Running around while bullets whiz past my head isn't a smart idea. Time to steal a truck. I crashed the truck through the shed under the speaker tower and ended up on my side on the level below. Apparently I can flip vehicles over by pressing "E". Although unrealistic, it's another useful feature.
The towers are destroyed but now I have to chase Captain Gunnarsen, the one who organized the anti-protester attack. I rammed his getaway car before it could leave but he drove around me and took off. The arc welder couldn't electrocute him in time so I had to get back in the truck and chase him. The benefit of driving a light vehicle meant I could catch up easily and when I did I rammed him into a sign on the side of the road. Since the vehicle was trapped between the sign and my truck, the A.I. determined that everyone should get out of the vehicle and I finished him off.
The Dust sector is much larger than the Parker sector. The nearest safehouse is a bit of a drive away, but that'll give me a chance to explore a bit.

My ATV bounced before I started to cross the bridge and when I landed the left side gouged a giant trench on the surface. I really don't know what to say: If an ATV can cause that much damage just by bouncing how can any of these heavy vehicles travel across?
While running over crystals with my EDF transport it was suddenly struck by some kind of energy weapon that knocked it sideways about 6 feet. I saw 3 figures approaching but I couldn't tell who they were while I was running for cover. They definitely weren't EDF. I took one of their weapons to try it out. It's some kind of shotgun with a bayonet on the end.
I checked the Guerrilla Handbook and it turns out I just met a group of Marauders. Mad Max anyone?

Instead of traveling straight to the safehouse I'm going on another hostage rescuing mission. Since I have to take them to a safehouse anyway I figure I'll be killing two EDF soldiers with one stone, so to speak.

Things didn't go according to plan, but I can retry the mission. This definitely coincides with Gee's Psychosocial Moratorium principle and I'll retry the mission with something a little heavier...
I grabbed a heavy dump truck and drove it back to the hostages. Without skipping a beat it passed by the EDF resistance and cut a border along the south side of the building, which was dangerously close to the hostages. I hopped out of the cab, untied both of them, and hopped back in. I should have done this in the first place because both hostages immediately climbed up into the bed, out of harms way, while I backed up over the cliff away from the EDF. I waved as I passed by an EDF roadblock that didn't take into consideration that I wasn't driving on the road.

Abandoned, derelict vehicles line the entrance to this safehouse. This looks inviting.

I only had enough salvage to buy the level 1 armor and the arc welder's ability to distinguish friend from foe. I'll go smash up those abandoned vehicles along the entrance for some extra salvage.

I started with 8 salvage end ended with 49. Not sure if it was worth the effort but it was free salvage so I won't complain. The vehicle I'm driving is a regular truck with two machine guns mounted on the hood. There's no manual gunning mode. As I was traveling towards the wind farm I was informed that an EDF courier was carrying some information the Red Faction wanted. This'll give me a chance to try out the machine guns.
I stepped out to zap an EDF transport passing by because I thought it was the courier but it wasn't. Oops.

The courier randomly disappeared. On the plus side the level 1 armor tripled my health bar. I'm supposed to destroy the wind turbines here anyway so I'll do that now. The EDF's weapons have become more powerful. They're using shotguns instead of machine guns. I'll have to be more careful with direct encounters.

This wind farm really heated up. Being outside of a vehicle for more than a few seconds is nearly lethal.

Oh %@$#. They brought in a tank. I wonder if I could steal it........
YES, YES I CAN. The arc welder is a most useful tool.
I've destroyed everything I can here. Time to head back to the safehouse before I lose the tank. The primary firing mode (left click) is a really powerful energy ball and the secondary firing mode (right click) is a machine gun. Why would I ever use the machine gun when I could do area-of-effect damage with the main cannon?

I don't know if I can save or repair the tank. I haven't been given the chance to do this with other vehicles so I don't think I can. That's too bad, but at the same time it'd be waaaaaaaay too easy to beat the game if I had a tank all the time. While I have it I'll try demolishing as many EDF structures as I can. It's at almost half armor so I'll have to ditch it if the going gets tough.

Hey guys, this tank is stolen. Are you going to do anything? Guys? :(
Ambushed by more marauders. How does it feel to be killed by one of your own weapons?

Another courier is nearby. I accidentally drove off the ledge of the pit mine and nearly landed on top of the truck. One shot completely obliterated any trace of it and left a box on the ground. Now I have to lose my alert status somehow, most likely by heading to a safehouse. With the tank that drives at a snail's pace I'll be sure to get there quickly.

I destroyed an EDF airpad but at the cost of nearly all of the tank's armor.
I'm abandoning it. I'll take one of the EDF transports attacking me as my replacement. Goodbye tank!

I'm trying to destroy the last smokestack before I head back to the safehouse but I think I'll collect my victories and leave while I still can. I still have to bring the alert level to green to complete the courier mission.
The courier mission unlocked a personnel detector. I still can't afford any of the arc welder upgrades or the rocket launcher, so I'll use 250 salvage to get the detector and another remote mine slot.

All this ATV needs is mounted guns, a few skulls, and some spikes. I wonder if I can get some from the Marauders?

Session 1 - 1/19/10 - 8:00PM to 10:00PM

I'm typing this post as I'm playing the game so verb tenses and syntax may be a bit goofy. This first post will likely be the longest of all the posts since everything in the game is new to me, but as time passes I'll be able to shorten them because I won't have to explain the same thing in great detail 400 times.

I've included some example images of what I'm writing about in this post and the full archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 1/

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When I clicked the "New Game" button I was given a choice of 4 options: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Impossible. The Impossible mode was grayed out, suggesting that it's not available until I beat the game on one of the other modes.

The game starts with two men, the main character and his brother, driving somewhere and they almost collide head-on with a convoy of military trucks.

Ominous music is playing and the landscape looks bleak and lifeless. It's Mars so it's not out of the ordinary but I'd think it would look more Earth-like since it's colonized.

Further down the road there are scenes of soldiers breaking into a house and shooting the people inside. Another scene showed civilians on their knees with their hands behind their heads, held at gunpoint by more soldiers. I haven't even been given a chance to interact with the EDF and I'm already labeling them as a fascist police organization.

I can control the main character, Alec Mason, but the mouse sensitivity is too slow so I had to increase it.

At the work site I'm given a sledgehammer and some remote explosives. As I walked down the hill towards the site a voice on the radio told me to pick up a bit of salvage on the ground. Apparently the currency in this game is salvage so I'll try to collect as much of it as I can.
There's also a derelict truck at the bottom of the hill. I smashed it with my sledgehammer and found more salvage.

A fence is blocking my path, but it seems nothing can resist the power of my sledgehammer. with a couple swings I made a hole big enough for me to walk through. Prompts keep popping up showing me basic controls, such as swinging the sledgehammer and switching weapons. These are useful since I didn't bother to look up the controls.

With the mines equipped, if I left click I throw a mine, if I right click I melee with the mine in my hand, and if I push Ctrl I detonate all the mines I have thrown.

I made a newbie mistake of destroying the last support holding up the building while still inside and it collapsed on me. I didn't die but I ragdolled for a bit and then stood up. I was given 18 mines and I used 10 of them. I should probably be more efficient with my weapons.

I threw one mine at the second structure, a tower, and it collapsed. Quite a difference between the two. After the tower collapsed my brother nagged me to come back to him. A gunship appeared and killed him with a minigun.

EDF soldiers repossessed my work shed and the CO ordered me to be killed. Before they could, Red Faction soldiers showed up and killed the soldiers.

None of the soldiers had visible faces (covered by helmets and visors). I suppose it's to make them appear inhuman.

I've been taken to a Red Faction safehouse where I'm introduced to Samanya, another member of the RF. She gives me an item called "The Guerrilla Handbook" which, according to the prompt, "contains tutorial videos and other information useful to new Red Faction members". The book automatically opens and a video with audio commentary tells me that Mars has 6 habitable zones that must be liberated. It tells me about a useful combat strategy ("hit the target and get the hell outta there") and some other information. The book also includes a section about salvage and how I can use it. The book follows Gee's Discovery Principle and the information is very helpful as I usually have to discover these things the hard way or through trial and error.

I see a flare on the ground with a ring around it. The minimap shows a fist icon where the flare is, so that means it's a key mission. The safehouse has a utility truck so I'll probably get to drive it at some point, but first I'll accept the mission.

The mission requires me to destroy an old Red Faction base before the EDF finds it. A large map pops up and a trail of arrows leads to the destination. Because the game is non-linear this is a very helpful navigation tool. If I hit the escape key the map closes and if I push the tab key it reopens.

I'm driving the utility truck to the base. It's dingy looking and obviously worn and beaten in many places. The brake lights, headlights, and flood lights are lit up as well as a flashing beacon on the roof. The tires even have a "company" logo branded on them, "Groundhog". The control scheme is a typical WASD setup with the space bar for the brake, but it's very easy to gain speed and find myself airborne.

The line of yellow arrows appears on the road so I can follow it to my destination easily. There are NPC vehicles driving as well so I have to avoid hitting them. I bounced off a rock and a yellow bar appeared above the truck, showing how much I'd damaged it (very little). The camera is in a third person perspective and the mouse controls which way it points so I have a 360 degree view (although looking backwards caused me to crash into a dump truck). In the real world this collision would likely have totaled my truck, but it just broke the left headlight and dented the front a little bit. This reflects how failures in a game aren't as severe as failures in real life and I'm not discouraged or scared to drive again after the collision.

As I started to blow up the old Red Faction base a prompt tells me about the alert system which lets me know how hostile the EDF is from green to red. It says I can't save the game if I'm at orange or red.

I destroyed the structure just as two EDF soldiers showed up. They immediately opened fire so I returned the favor. Instead of trying to kill all of them, I ran towards the utility truck. Next to it were two armored EDF transports and instead of taking my truck I grabbed one of the transports. It's a 4-door vehicle, unlike the truck which was a 2-door, and it took slightly longer to gain momentum than the truck. The differences between the vehicles is similar to what I'd expect in real world vehicles so I'll probably be able to plow through obstacles much easier than with the lighter truck.

As I was returning to the safehouse I took a turn too wide and crashed into a growth of black crystals. The game paused and in the upper left corner it said "Mined 1 of 300 ore deposits". A prompt told me I can mine them for salvage. This is a simple demonstration of positive reinforcement (mine crystals --> acquire salvage) and encourages me to locate and mine other crystals in the world.

When I returned to the safehouse there was a brief dialogue between the commander of the Red Faction and myself and a "Mission Complete" screen popped up with three totals: Completion bonus, morale bonus, and total salvage. Apparently combining the first two is what determines how much salvage I'm given for completing a mission.

If I'm standing still I can see my breath when I exhale. I guess Mars is still cold even though it can support life.

I pushed tab to see what I should do next and I see a few icons standing out, so I'm going to head to the closest which is a blue hexagon with a star in the middle. It says the target is a processing plant smokestack and apparently I'll gain 10 control for destroying it, whatever that means.

The building is up on a hill, but instead of finding a road to the smokestack I'm going to abandon the EDF transport and hoof it up the hill.

The hill is just slightly too steep to climb so I'm going to try driving up it. The EDF transport probably has enough momentum to handle the climb.

The smokestack was easy to destroy, but as soon as I brought it down another EDF transport showed up, this one with a mounted gun on the roof. Another prompt showed me how I can switch from autofiring the gun while driving to manually firing it, but losing the ability to control the vehicle. Until I really need to, I suppose I'll rely on autofiring the gun while driving.

A weapons cabinet at the safehouse lets me reload my ammo and switch weapons when I want, so I can safely assume that I'll always have ammo available if I need it. This reinforces the feeling that while my immediate supplies are finite and must be used efficiently, I'll always have the ability to replenish them if I ever run out.

As I was heading to another target a voice on the radio informed me that the EDF was about to attack something and I'm given the option to jump in and head to the location. It sounds like this is a timed mission so I'll need to hurry to the location.

The mission involves me and several other Red Faction members defending the area from EDF soldiers. A large circle surrounded by green shows the "boundaries" of the fight, so I can't simply run away. I started getting shot from behind so I switched to manually controlling the roof gun and fired at the soldiers. It's kind of ironic that the soldiers are being killed by their own equipment.

I'm abandoning the EDF transport and switching to using my machine gun because I can't see any visible targets. I used two land mines to destroy another EDF transport that appeared and killed the occupants before they could exit. Some soldiers bunkered themselves behind a wall so I used a remote mine to clear them out. After pushing the remaining soldiers out of hiding the EDF's numbers dropped to 0 and I succeeded.

Two tanks appear as red squares on my minimap and I was told earlier that anything that appears red is EDF property and should be destroyed. When I detonated a mine on a tank, first the mine exploded and then the tank exploded with an even larger blast radius. Even though I know that the "tank" is really just bits of programming, polygonal models and graphic images designed to give the impression of a chemical tank, its behavior mimics what I'd expect from an explosive chemical tank and that makes it realistic to me.

I'll start taking pictures to illustrate what I'm talking about since a picture can describe a scene in much more detail than words.

My EDF transport is gone so I guess I'll be driving this thing that looks like a golf cart. It sounds like a golf cart too.
I found a truck at the bottom of the hill so I'm switching to it. The golf cart thing was too slow. I like that I have the freedom to pick whichever vehicle I want to drive and there are no penalties for stealing or ditching vehicles in random locations.
I found some more crystal growths. I should mine them while I'm here.
Apparently I got myself sucked into another mission. Oh well, might as well help the guerrillas while I'm here. I don't have the benefit of an armored attack vehicle but I'll have to deal with it.

It seems like they're too far away to shoot efficiently so I'm moving in to try and kill a group of them with mines. They're focusing on the main mass of guerrillas so I can flank them easily. I only have 22 rounds left in my rifle and 4 mines. I'll have to think quickly if I want to kill the rest of the soldiers.

I moved in from the rear since I figured they wouldn't look back and I was right. Another victory for the Red Faction. I also unlocked an upgrade so I should go see if I want to buy it.
It appears like another mission is available here. It's a hostage rescue mission. I wonder what that will be like.

The landscape here is really dynamic and interesting. The clouds move at varied speeds and a persistent dust storm blows around me.
I decided to try and sneak in and rescue the hostage using only my sledgehammer so as to be quiet, but a soldier opened fire so that plan is out the window. My health bar at the top shows how much health I have left but it regenerates automatically. I dislike games that require me to constantly find health packs or health stations because it usually entails extra work to make sure I'm ready for the next fight.

As I was escaping some guerrillas joined in to help me. The hostage jumped in the passenger seat and immediately took control of the roof gun. I'm surprised that he's actually being useful as opposed to hiding, which is what I expected. The escape was mostly uneventful. With the armored EDF transport I could risk taking fire while driving away.
I can afford the ore upgrade which gives me two extra salvage per ore deposit, so I'm going to buy it. I'm sure it'll pay for itself over time. Pushing the enter key selects the upgrade to buy and a second selection screen pops up asking me if I really want to buy it with the "cancel" option highlighted by default. This is a great way to prevent players from accidentally buying something they didn't want since there is no sellback option.

There's a new weapon that looks interesting, but I can't afford it yet. Showing me items that I can buy before I can afford to buy them is highly motivating because it gives me a reason to explore, complete missions, etc, until I have enough salvage to buy it.
I bought an upgrade that lets me place 3 remote mines at the same time. At first I didn't understand why I couldn't just throw infinite mines, but I reasoned that it was because the detonator couldn't transmit a detonation signal to more than 3 (for now) mines at a time.

I found some kind of delivery truck that apparently can take quite a few bullet wounds and still drive perfectly. This is another example of true realism pushed aside to promote convenience.
I "accidentally" ran into a billboard post on the side of the road and it collapsed, reducing the EDF's control of the sector slightly.

Since I just blew up an EDF transport my alert level is yellow and I can't accept this mission unless it's green. I also found a pistol but haven't had a chance to use it. Sam(anya) went to meet with an EDF officer who is supposedly defecting, but I doubt it. I'm supposed to meet with her and probably have to extract her from an ambush or something.

Before I can even get in my battered delivery truck she gets ambushed, as I predicted, so now I have to hurry up and get to the mission location.

Defeating the current EDF force was easy, but apparently there are more on the way. I wasn't given much time but I had enough to place 3 mines on a walkway and toss a propane tank under it. I can carry propane tanks but not explosive barrels. Whatever.
The mines didn't do much but bring down the walkway. I guess a bunch of light metal isn't very effective against armored cars. The strategy of throwing mines on the cars themselves is very effective though, so I'll just keep doing that.

I tried throwing a propane tank at the soldiers and it blew up in my hands. I took a 50% health hit, but I think a propane tank exploding point blank next to my face would do a little more damage than that.

Unlike the assault rifle, the pistol is manually fired (i.e. I have to click each time I want to fire a bullet). Each round does significantly more damage than the assault rifle's rounds, but I'd prefer to just click and hold.
I'm just barely shy of the 300 salvage needed for the arc welder. I'll destroy random EDF stuff until I get enough. The salvage is a specific bluish color and glimmers when I look at it. I've played other games in which items I can pick up flash or are highlighted to show that they are important.
301 salvage. Time to head back to the safehouse. Looks like I'm driving the golf cart again.

I passed by some kind of mission on my left. I'll go check it out. It's a demolition mission and I'm supposed to destroy the building with what I'm given. Also, it appears they aren't propane tanks, but rather they're hydrogen tanks. Same thing.
I placed the hydrogen tanks, but I guess I didn't put them in the right spot because the building didn't get completely destroyed. I'll have to restart the mission.

Again I didn't put the tanks in the right spot, but instead of trying again I simply used the last tank as a battering ram and that worked. I didn't get the "Pro" time score but I'll deal with it. The mission is still available so if I want to retry it I can. I probably wont. The fact that I can complete the mission in more than one way promotes innovation and, as in my case, can turn a hopeless situation into a success.

I bought the arc welder. Sam says "It's like static electricity, but it can kill you".

Take that golf cart, you slow, dumb thing.