When researching a game to play for this semester I looked up "Red Faction: Guerrilla wiki" since I often find that people who've actually played the game can give more valuable insight than those who created it. Compared to other wikis I've visited during the course of their respective games, including the Dead Space Wiki and the Mass Effect Wiki, the Red Faction: Guerrilla part of the Red Faction Wiki is surprisingly primitive, although I'm not surprised considering that the game isn't very widely advertised and was only released in December of 2009.
Some may consider using wikis as cheating since it takes the effort out of figuring out how to solve a puzzle or whatever, but I say it's more of a useful tool than a violation of the "moral code of gamers", as it were. I definitely agree that reading ahead to figure out what happens in a game ruins it because then there's no suspense or surprises for the player. For games such as Freelancer which include a virtual "economy" with different planets and space stations that buy and sell different commodities at different prices, I eventually looked for guides such as this one that showed me the most profitable trade routes I could follow. I would consider this an intermediate step between playing the game legitimately and cheating, since I'm still required to travel at the maximum speed at which my ship can fly as well as being restrained by the ship's maximum cargo capacity and if I really wanted to I could fly to every single landable location and make a list of what they're buying and selling.
However, there's another way. By editing a key file which allows me to alter any number of the game's mechanics, I was able to give myself the maximum amount of money that a player can carry, the best ship with the best weaponry, and set the difficulty to 0 so that I was invincible. With these modifications, I was able to safely travel into the unpoliced areas of the game where pirates and bounty hunters lock heads. I also found some interesting spacial anomalies such as a neutron star, a red giant, and and unknown system that had two habitable planets: one with monkeys and the other with robots. Being invulnerable was fun for a little while, but quickly became boring when I had explored all the systems available in the game.
As I've mentioned before, RFG includes a number of unlockable cheats. Here's a list of the available cheats, according to Cheat Code Central:
- Cool Turrets: Blow up 100 small hydrogen tanks. When this cheat is active, turrets do not overheat.
- Free Upgrades: Successfully complete 50 Guerrilla Actions. When this cheat is active, there is no more salvage charge at the safe house.
- Max Morale: Liberate Oasis Sector. When this cheat is active, there is full morale in all sectors all the time.
- Max Technology: Liberate Mars. When this cheat is active, EDF/Guerilla/Marauder always has the best armor and weapons.
- No Green Alert: Successfully complete 25 killing sprees in Campaign mode. When this cheat is active, there are constant EDF assaults.
- Super Debris: Destroy 50 EDF owned buildings. When this cheat is active, all explosive impulses and damage from collisions are tripled.
- Super Hammer: Kill 100 EDF with a hammer. When this cheat is active, your sledgehammer is extra strong.
- Super Jetpack: Destroy 250 EDF supply crates. When this cheat is active, the jetpack recharges at twice the maximum recharge.
- Super Sprinting: Mine all ore locations. When this cheat is active, the player can sprint at 1.5x normal speed.
- Super Toughness: Locate all missing radio tags. When this cheat is active, it greatly increases the amount of damage you can take, making you harder to kill.
- Unlimited Ammo: Destroy 50 EDF flyers. When this cheat is active, you will have infinite ammunition for all weapons.
Unlike what I perceive as cheats which can be activated at any time, these require the player to engage in specific actions and, after doing so, are rewarded for their effort. This type of system makes it seem like these aren't really cheats afterall, but rather they're bonuses for accomplishing something. The game can't be saved when they're enabled, however, so players still have to play the game without them activated if they want to progress.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Post Game
Since I beat the game last time, I'll buy the weapons and upgrades I didn't get last time and wreak havoc across Mars.....purely for testing purposes, of course.
There's no picture archive, but I've uploaded the best of what I captured here.
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I'll start by messing around with some of the cheats I've unlocked. I can't save when cheats are enabled, but that doesn't matter. Throughout the course of the game I've unlocked multiple cheats, but for some reason the only one available is the "Max Technology" cheat. Maybe the cheats fluctuate randomly? I don't know.
After buying all of the available upgrades, the first weapon I'll try out is the thermobaric rocket
Holy shit. You can see my ammo reserves (the boxed number) and I just about destroyed this building using only two rockets. If it wasn't so expensive maybe I'd have bought it during the campaign.
Proximity mines. I intentionally didn't buy these during the campaign because I never felt that a small, static weapon would be of any use in such a large, dynamic environment.
Since there were no EDF soldiers nearby I had to manually detonate the mines by shooting at them. The last picture is the aftermath of three mines I set down and detonated when a vehicle passed by them.
I did a little bit of road surfing but the taxi didn't get far before Mason ragdolled onto the road. I know that in Garry's Mod it's difficult to stand on moving platforms and I think it's because the avatar physics is calculated differently from the platform physics, so the avatar tends to slide off easily rather than follow Newton's first law. To the game's credit, it is difficult in real life to stand on a moving vehicle that has a variable acceleration. The UM buses can attest to that.
This is the grinder with the explosive disks and faster firing rate upgrades.
Now I remember why I didn't keep it. As you can see it doesn't do much damage so I'd have to aim my shots carefully, but when EDF soldiers are firing at me from all directions I don't have time to line up a clear shot.
Next is the "Enhanced Nanites" upgrade for the nano rifle. Supposedly this upgrade increases the damage the nano rifle causes.
Hmm. If I had found the nano rifle to be more useful than the rocket launcher then I probably would have wanted this upgrade, but the rocket launcher has the area-of-effect damage that the nano rifle lacks.
Speaking of the rocket launcher;
The only upgrade I had to buy for it was the multi-rocket capability which allows it to fire three rockets in a -30, 0, 30 degree span, all dumbfire. It seems the only reason I'd want to use this upgrade is if I want to spam rockets at a large target, but that's inefficient and very prone to friendly casualties. Luckily the mechanic for firing three rockets involves me holding down the trigger, so if I still want to fire one rocket all I have to do is click and release.
Remote mines. I haven't used these since I bought the rocket launcher. Fully upgraded, I can carry 30 and have 12 placed at a time.
The mines were only useful for targets that were stationary (or moving slowly) and required that I either be close to my target or agile enough to run away after I'd planted them. The rocket launcher filled the niche of a long-distance explosive weapon so the remote mines were stuffed into the locker.
While I'm in Marauder territory, I'll "borrow" one of their polearms.
Whenever the Marauders showed up I'd typically get blasted by several energy weapons and/or high-powered shotguns, so I was never able to get close enough to grab this weapon. After clearing out a few Marauders with it, I can safely say that I'd rather have this than my sledgehammer. It's radius is really wide, it clotheslines every NPC it hits, and it can easily smash through destructible debris.
That's it for the weapons and upgrades. Now for some friendly fire. Throughout the game I've never intentionally fired at guerrillas so I don't know how they'll react.
In response to a threat, me, they opened fire to try and take me down. [Vigil] This eventuality was not entirely unforeseen. [/Vigil]
Looks like those Martian boys are at it again. Just the good ole’ boys, never meanin’ no harm.
And now; a bunch of random explosions which symbolize this game in a nutshell.
Lastly, fireworks created by detonating a thermobaric rocket in mid-flight. This isn't the first time I've used an explosive weapon as improvised fireworks. Garry's Mod has explosive barrels that, when combined with a million soda cans with colored trails, create some impressive, if laggy, light shows.
There's no picture archive, but I've uploaded the best of what I captured here.
===========================================================
I'll start by messing around with some of the cheats I've unlocked. I can't save when cheats are enabled, but that doesn't matter. Throughout the course of the game I've unlocked multiple cheats, but for some reason the only one available is the "Max Technology" cheat. Maybe the cheats fluctuate randomly? I don't know.
After buying all of the available upgrades, the first weapon I'll try out is the thermobaric rocket
Holy shit. You can see my ammo reserves (the boxed number) and I just about destroyed this building using only two rockets. If it wasn't so expensive maybe I'd have bought it during the campaign.Proximity mines. I intentionally didn't buy these during the campaign because I never felt that a small, static weapon would be of any use in such a large, dynamic environment.
Since there were no EDF soldiers nearby I had to manually detonate the mines by shooting at them. The last picture is the aftermath of three mines I set down and detonated when a vehicle passed by them.I did a little bit of road surfing but the taxi didn't get far before Mason ragdolled onto the road. I know that in Garry's Mod it's difficult to stand on moving platforms and I think it's because the avatar physics is calculated differently from the platform physics, so the avatar tends to slide off easily rather than follow Newton's first law. To the game's credit, it is difficult in real life to stand on a moving vehicle that has a variable acceleration. The UM buses can attest to that.
This is the grinder with the explosive disks and faster firing rate upgrades.
Now I remember why I didn't keep it. As you can see it doesn't do much damage so I'd have to aim my shots carefully, but when EDF soldiers are firing at me from all directions I don't have time to line up a clear shot.Next is the "Enhanced Nanites" upgrade for the nano rifle. Supposedly this upgrade increases the damage the nano rifle causes.
Hmm. If I had found the nano rifle to be more useful than the rocket launcher then I probably would have wanted this upgrade, but the rocket launcher has the area-of-effect damage that the nano rifle lacks.Speaking of the rocket launcher;
The only upgrade I had to buy for it was the multi-rocket capability which allows it to fire three rockets in a -30, 0, 30 degree span, all dumbfire. It seems the only reason I'd want to use this upgrade is if I want to spam rockets at a large target, but that's inefficient and very prone to friendly casualties. Luckily the mechanic for firing three rockets involves me holding down the trigger, so if I still want to fire one rocket all I have to do is click and release.Remote mines. I haven't used these since I bought the rocket launcher. Fully upgraded, I can carry 30 and have 12 placed at a time.
The mines were only useful for targets that were stationary (or moving slowly) and required that I either be close to my target or agile enough to run away after I'd planted them. The rocket launcher filled the niche of a long-distance explosive weapon so the remote mines were stuffed into the locker.While I'm in Marauder territory, I'll "borrow" one of their polearms.
Whenever the Marauders showed up I'd typically get blasted by several energy weapons and/or high-powered shotguns, so I was never able to get close enough to grab this weapon. After clearing out a few Marauders with it, I can safely say that I'd rather have this than my sledgehammer. It's radius is really wide, it clotheslines every NPC it hits, and it can easily smash through destructible debris.That's it for the weapons and upgrades. Now for some friendly fire. Throughout the game I've never intentionally fired at guerrillas so I don't know how they'll react.
In response to a threat, me, they opened fire to try and take me down. [Vigil] This eventuality was not entirely unforeseen. [/Vigil]Looks like those Martian boys are at it again. Just the good ole’ boys, never meanin’ no harm.
And now; a bunch of random explosions which symbolize this game in a nutshell.
Lastly, fireworks created by detonating a thermobaric rocket in mid-flight. This isn't the first time I've used an explosive weapon as improvised fireworks. Garry's Mod has explosive barrels that, when combined with a million soda cans with colored trails, create some impressive, if laggy, light shows.
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