Excellent visuals, audio, demolition and fun! Read until the end to see my only nit-pick.
Visuals:
The visuals look excellent coming out of my PS3 on a 50" screen. The colors are rich, vibrant, and not overly saturated like some games I've seen lately. Shadowing is soft, yet it's not pixelated/grainy like a many other games. Texture quality is very high, resulting in a crisp and detailed world reminiscent of a myriad Martian movies such as "Mission to Mars." The use of real-time light rendering simulates the day/night atmosphere effectively like GTA4 or Crysis. Explosions are brilliant and realistic, buildings and vehicles fit the futuristic settings perfectly, an all along, no significant anti-aliasing is present to mar the beautiful game Volition has crafted!
Audio:
I'm glad to see that Volition has chosen DTS audio. DTS's higher sampling rate and bit rate is perfect for a game like this where spatial sense and clarity adds depth to the game. Every crack of a gunshot, ever percussion from an explosion, every creak and moan of a collapsing building, ever scream of a dying enemy Drone -- everything sounds tight and envelops the player in the action on screen. The voice acting so far is well done; though who voices the characters is not immediately recognizable, the chosen talent inflects well their lines and makes you believe their character's dialogue.
Destruction:
This is the meat of the game: blowing stuff up! In Red Faction, everything consisted of a concrete-like substance that could be blown up, including the ground. This game takes a more useful approach to Geo-modding by foregoing ground deformation and instead making every structure a "fully-built" construct. What do I mean, "fully-built?" Each building has a frame of some sort and then materials attached to the frame, like a real structure. As you blow off chunks of a building, it begins to collapse and expose the frame, crumble in believable ways (thanks to the Havok physics engine), and be more than just a static entity that has a pre-determined collapse pattern. I enjoyed blowing holes in a residential tower (empty, of course!) so that only one support remained. The tower creaked and moaned as it started to lean, then eventually collapsed under its own weight. Pretty cool! Another interesting consequence of this destruction system is the danger to the player; you will be harmed or killed if you decide to collapse a building on your own head. Debris from exploding objects will do you harm -- the nice thing is you can harm your enemies by the same token. Vehicles are also gradually destructible, as well. With dozens of vehicles to interact with, you can use them as battering rams so long as you don't mind breaking your ride. While we're on the topic of vehicles, it's time for my nit-picking.
What's bad in the game:
So far, I enjoy everything about this game except two (2) things: the vehicle handling and the gun play. All of the vehicles handle the same! They are all bouncy and slide around like the Warthog did in Halo. Now this might be a consequence of Mars being lower gravity than Earth, but the vehicles just don't feel real. The only difference I really feel through my Dualshock controller rumbling away ferociously is the difference in acceleration and turning speed. Small buggies take off and turn on a dime, while trucks lumber off the line and require a wide birth. In the end, they all feel a bit limp and uninspired. The gun play on the other hand is purposely underwhelming, I think, in order to emphasize the need for guerrilla tactics throughout the game. If you were an immortal killing machine like in Call of Duty games or Crysis, there wouldn't be a need to run from a fight -- you'd go toe-to-toe with every enemy and this would become another mindless shooter. There is some degree of aim-lock-on when shooting, but the large imprecise reticle and relative unease of shooting lots of baddies definitely encourages you to use explosives to set traps to kill. Again, the gun play doesn't bother me because I think it's necessary, but I wanted to share my thoughts with anyone taking the time to read this.
Multi-player stuff:
Wrecking Crew mode is worth the game's cost alone. It's a pass-the-controller style demolition-fest. It's so much fun blowing up realistically the structures in this game that I see myself popping in the game just to play this for 10-15 minutes every now and then after I get tired of the campaign. It's a fun thing, let me tell you. I didn't try the online yet. You'll have to read someone else's review for that. I can only imagine that a frag-fest will be great fun when there is truly nowhere for snipers and other enemy combatants to hide from your fury. There is a variety of online scenarios beyond simple deathmatch. Several are CTF-style where your team attempts to blow up the enemy's base while they try to rebuild it/keep it intact. Another involves one team with a Demolisher who only seeks to blow up buildings to win while the rest of his team protects him (if Demolisher dies, they cannot win the round). All in all, it looks like a good variety.
My last thoughts after my first day of playing are the following: great game -
Visuals: 9.5
Audio: 9.0
Story: 8.0 (I haven't played enough to gauge this well)
Game play: 10.0
Overall: 9.5+
My only worry is that it won't be long enough. We'll see. What lies between the start and finish is exciting and will definitely bring a smile to your face. This game is well worth the money.