Hired Guns

How to Decide

Hired Guns is a 1993 PC‑only split‑screen sci‑fi action RPG that lets up to four local players team up as mercenaries in tactical combat. The alternatives split into a few clear camps: Red Faction: Armageddon leans into a Geo‑Mod engine for full‑environment destruction; PlanetSide 2 offers massive MMO‑scale battles with up to 2,000 players and a free‑to‑play model; Borderlands is chosen for its procedural generation of over four million unique weapons and supports both local split‑screen and online co‑op.

When weighing these options, focus on (1) the multiplayer architecture – Hired Guns is limited to local split‑screen, Red Faction adds online co‑op, PlanetSide 2 runs as a persistent MMO, and Borderlands supports both split‑screen and online co‑op; (2) battle scale – from small tactical squads in Hired Guns, to large open‑world engagements in Red Faction, to continent‑spanning 2,000‑player wars in PlanetSide 2, and loot‑focused encounters in Borderlands; (3) customization depth – Hired Guns offers skill trees and equipment upgrades, Red Faction emphasizes weapon attachments, Borderlands provides procedural loot and class skill trees, while PlanetSide 2 delivers class‑specific abilities and vehicle options; (4) pricing model – Hired Guns and Red Faction/Borderlands are one‑time purchases, whereas PlanetSide 2 is free‑to‑play; and (5) content scope – Hired Guns delivers 20 mission theaters, Red Faction features an open‑world Mars, Borderlands offers a vast desert world with side quests, and PlanetSide 2 provides a seamless, continuously evolving map.