I’m not sure what the problem was. I loved the demo when I played it a few months ago and I expected that I’d love this game, but it didn’t come together. I could blame too many dull drives or the slightly awkward shooting. I think, though, that I might be to blame. I just don’t think I’ve got any patience at the moment. Every moment that wasn’t the Best Thing Ever, every death, every restart, they all put me off the game.

I’m just so used to iPhone gaming these days, which consists of five minutes of fun, a check of Twitter, a refresh of some forums, a peek at Google Reader, back to a game for a few minutes, etc.

That might not be it, either, though. I just might be one of those restless phases at the moment.

Though, that said, I played Arkham Asylum to death for a few days not so long ago, so maybe Red Faction simply isn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

I did do one new mission type last night, which had me riding on the back of an amazing vehicle shooting rockets at, well, everything in site. Some amusing dialogue from the driver. Lots of explosions.

It’s not really a game that requires many words.

It’s all coming together.

Last night I was more careful, I died less (though not infrequently) and I had a grand old time. I’m really growing to love the missions that involve other characters, though the “defend a certain area” missions seem to be incredibly tough, with the EDF coming and coming and coming, seemingly without end. I need more rocket launcher ammo, I think.

The only real problem with the game is that driving between missions is all a bit dull. I do my best to enliven it by doing jumps where I can, but that normally ends up just meaning I take longer to get anywhere. Unlike GTA IV, where the driving between missions is probably the best part of the game, Mars is just a bit dull so far.

Still, it’s worth it. Leading raids on chemical plants, bringing down wind farms, killing a courier and making an escape in the martian equivalent of a milk float, these are all great moments.

Couldn’t play on Saturday, because I was too hungover to blow stuff up.

Tried to play on Sunday and managed an hour that was filled with great moments, but somehow I couldn’t get into it. I think the problem was that my heart just wasn’t it. I kept dying because I was more concerned with throwing explosives around than protecting myself. When I actually went on missions and tried to complete them I had a great time, full of tens moments, gut-wrenching losses and hard-won victories, but I was just finding it too easy just to cause mindless destruction and ignore the fact that people were shooting me.

I suspect that I still wasn’t quite right on Sunday, though I didn’t quite have a two-day hangover, thankfully.

Basically, although you get to drive around and shoot people, destruction is the key element. (Just as in Crackdown, thinking about it, where jumping was the thing that brought the open-world shooting and driving gameplay to life.) Not that the shooting and driving isn’t fun. The run and gun approach to killing enemies feels a bit wooly, but if you use cover and aim your shots it’s a lot better. (And sneaking up on people and walloping them with a sledgehammer is unlikely to ever get old.) The driving is great fun, with trucks that just love to go flying through the air.

But, yeah, it’s watching buildings fly apart and collapse that’s the real draw here. The game knows this and populates the first area with impressively tall smokestacks that are amazing to bring down – and which you’re rewarded for destroying with the game’s currency. Excellent.

I think I’m going to enjoy this.

I’m only a silver member of Live these days, so I won’t be able to try out the multiplayer, but I’ll try to finish the single player before sending the game back.

Awesome stuff.

It’s really growing on me, by the way.

I just started this up again and tried playing it as a standard shooter. Turns out, it’s better than I gave it credit for. There’s not enough ammo to do the whole demo level with a gun, I don’t think, but a nice cover system and a better aiming mode (that I missed first time round), makes for a good, solid (if unspectacular) shooter – though the enemy AI doesn’t seem to be up for much.

Then add in your destructive options and… BOOM!

Also, this time when I got to the bridge the truck I was on continued driving straight over it and I won the demo. Hooray!

According to the blurb you get when finishing the demo, this is an open world game, which sounds fun.

My interested levels have gone up for this. I’ll put it down as a probably buy. But I will check reviews and Internet impressions first.