- Publisher: THQ
- Developer: Volition Inc.
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Third-Person-Shooter
- Pros: Neat weapons; Ruin Mode; Infestation Mode; New Game + in campaign; cool vehicle sequences
- Cons: Gets repetitive; destructible environments aren't really a focus anymore; no competitive multiplayer; story; so-so presentation
Red Faction: Armageddon takes place 50 years after Guerrilla. You play as Darius Mason, grandson of Guerrilla hero Alec Mason. Armageddon doesn't concern itself with the politics and events that happened in those 50 years, though (the SyFy Channel movie "Red Faction: Origins" will fill in that back story), and instead focuses on a series of mistakes by Darius Mason that lead to the potential annihilation of all of mankind on Mars. He accidentally unleashes a horde of bug-like aliens and then spends the rest of the game cleaning up. The end.
The campaign takes about 8 hours or so to play through. It does have a New Game Plus feature when you beat it that lets you keep all of your weapons and purchased upgrades, as well as lets you buy cheats to make your next play through more fun.
There is no competitive multiplayer, but you can play a co-op survival mode called Infestation where you fight off waves of aliens. There are a ton of maps in Infestation, so there is a lot to do. You can also play Ruin Mode, which removes the enemies from the environments and tasks you with blowing things up as quickly as possible for points.
Gameplay
THQ
The best part is definitely the weapons. Explosives, a couple of normal guns, some devastating plasma weapons, a freaking black hole gun, and more including some melee and shockwave attacks to bounce enemies into the air, are all pretty darn fun to use. The best weapon, however, is the magnet gun. You shoot one magnet on an enemy or object, then another magnet at something else, and the two ends fly together crushing and destroying everything in between. You can play pretty much the whole game with just the magnet gun if you want to, and throwing enemies at walls to kill them or tearing apart buildings and throwing the pieces around is fun.
So, yeah, there is still a bit of mindless destruction, but it isn't the centerpiece of the experience anymore. Instead, surprisingly, re-building and fixing stuff is an important part of the game this time around. You just hold the left bumper, and magically fix bridges and walkways that you just destroyed or even re-build buildings. It puts a different twist on the game that is rather enjoyable.
The game is surprisingly fast paced and the enemies are kind of dumb, and there are dozens of enemies to fight at a time, so it is sort of arcadey feeling. The generous "snap to" targeting system makes picking off a room full of enemies fast and surprisingly satisfying. It also ends with a real oldschool boss fight, which we liked.
The Depth Of A Puddle
It definitely does get repetitive and tiresome after a while, though, which is the biggest problem with Red Faction: Armageddon. There just plain isn't enough variety in what you do. You fight the same handful of enemy types, whose behavior never changes, over and over and over again, and by the end (more like 2 hours before the end) I was ready for it to be over. Even the fun of tossing things around with the magnet gun gets old after a while. You experience the full extent of the destruction engine, as well as everything the enemies are going to do, within the first few levels and then it is just rinse and repeat from there. Once the thrill of the new weapons wears off, you're left with a fairly average third-person-shooter. It is sort of a shame, too, because the New Game Plus cheats and extras are really quite cool, but it is hard to muster the motivation to actually play through it all again.
THQ
Visually, Red Faction: Armageddon looks fairly good in some areas, but rather poor in others. The character models for the humans and aliens do look nice, but the environments are rather bland. You can only do so much with underground rock and dirt textures, after all. The game is also rather dark, which also contributes to everything looking similar. There are some nice lighting effects, but they aren't used that often.
Sound
The sound is only okay. The sound effects for gunfire and explosions are fine, but the voice acting is flat and you'll get sick of the repetitive alien sounds pretty quickly.
Bottom Line
Red Faction: Armageddon is a decent shooter, but one that wears out its welcome rather quickly. It doesn't take advantage of the unique things at its disposal - environmental destruction and cool weapons - nearly well enough to make it stand out in a crowded shooter market. It is shallow, linear, and just plain not as big or as interesting as its predecessor and it struggles because of it. It is a game you'll play through once, play around in Ruin and Infestation mode a bit, and then likely not touch again. It is fun, but shallow. Give it a rental.
