14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Red Faction series carved its own niche ever since the inception of the franchise back in 2001, by letting players interact with the environment in new and exciting ways. And when we mean interact, we mean tear everything down with a big hammer until there's nothing left.
2009's Red Faction: Guerrilla marked the jump to the current generation of devices for the series, and impressed through its wide open world, even if its presentation lacked polish in areas like graphics.
Now, Red Faction: Armageddon, Volition, the developer of the series, and THQ, its publisher, have eliminated the open-world aspect in favor of adding more polish, telling a more refined story and allowing for the same freedom in tearing the environment down.
Does Red Faction: Armageddon manage to succeed or should it be torn down bit by bit with a large sledgehammer? Let's find out.
Story You play as Darius Mason, the grandson of Guerrilla hero Alec Mason, who, after fighting for the Red Faction on Mars, makes a critical mistake that leaves the red planet without its precious Terraformer, a giant machine that allowed for its Earth-like atmosphere and weather.
This forces the resident of the planet to take refuge in the old mining tunnels and colonies beneath the surface, while Adam Hale, the main antagonist, has rounded up a group of cultists in order to restore the true order on the red planet.
As you can imagine, that doesn't go so well, and the tunnels are soon invaded by alien creatures of all shapes and sizes, so only Mason, together with his large arsenal of weapons, can save the humans that are left on Mars.
The open world in Guerrilla didn't allow for a good pacing of the story, so it's understandable that Volition wanted to eliminate the feature in order to replace it with a more carefully paced narrative. While the story in Armageddon is quite interesting in plenty of cases, there are a few segments that fall short of the atmospheric, dark, almost survival horror-like nature the developer wanted to show to players.
Mason is a pretty decent protagonist, although the rest of the main character don't have any time to actually show some depth, so you'll get to know more about S.A.M., the Artificial Intelligence in Darius' Nanoforge, than the main antagonist, for example.
Still, Armageddon's story is a pretty decent one, even if it's not going to win any Oscars.
Gameplay Red Faction: Armageddon doesn't try to mess with the mechanics that made the series so popular, as the destruction gameplay is still here and looks better than ever. While Guerrilla was a fun and impressive game, there were quite a few problems with the GeoMod technology used by Volition. Now, with the new game, a proper amount of polish has been given, and it's more fascinating than ever to take a hammer to even the most awe-inspiring buildings and seeing them crumble.
The closed nature of the Martian mining tunnels doesn't really allow players to go wild on the destruction, however, as most of the times you'll find yourself in closed tunnels or engaged in firefights, instead of more open areas that just let you go wild with your hammer or the big number of weapons you can wield.
Still, it's not all bad, as the combat mechanics are pretty smooth and, given the fact that most of the times you're dealing with alien creatures that like to jump around from wall to wall, the autolock system makes taking them down a breeze, on Normal difficulty.
What's more, like I've said above, you have a variety of weapons to choose from, ranging from your trusty hammer, which you should never put down, to dual pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers or the more exotic plasma rifles or weapons that shoot grenades which damage only living tissue while leaving buildings standing. Special mention goes to the Magnet gun, which can join together almost any two parts of the world, from rocks or building parts to aliens or explosive barrels.
Once in a while, you'll be able to use the LEO exosuit, a special kind of mechanized walker that has a built in machine gun and rocket launchers, and can even charge through walls, buildings and, of course, alien enemies. These sections are a nice change of pace, even if you sometimes need to jump out of the suit in order to press a button or access the repair feature of your Nanoforge.
Darius is also capable of using the Nanoforge, which makes an upgraded return from Guerrilla, allowing him not only to interact with the environment through destruction, but also rebuild it through a reconstruction power that is especially handy when enemies start carving up your cover.
The game has a nifty little RPG-like upgrade system for the Nanoforge, with players trading salvage, aka remains of buildings or special salvage containers, for upgrades to the variety of Nanoforge powers or improvements to melee attacks and more.
These Nanoforge powers, which are both offensive and defensive, include Impact, which sends a force wave forward, Berserk, which overcharges the abilities of Darius and his weapons, Shell, which encases you a shield-like force field, and Shockwave, which acts in a similar way to Impact but damages enemies in all directions.
Speaking of adversaries, they're pretty varied, ranging from small, crawling creatures that do damage up close, to larger, jumping foes that are able to fire spikes from further away. There are also bigger enemies, from ones that throw some sort of energy grenade around your location, to teleporting/invisible creatures that like to jump on your back.
Given the monstrous nature of these Martian aliens, Red Faction: Armageddon could have easily given survival horror franchises like Dead Space or Resident Evil a run for their money, especially with the large number of dark corridors. This is ruined by the fact that the game really likes to throw a large number of creatures at you, thus eliminating any sort of horror aspects of the gameplay.
Still, it makes a decent third-person shooter and, combined with the destruction combat, proves to be extremely fun, even if the story is a bit short . Thankfully, after you complete it, you can start a New Game+ mode, which carries over the upgrades you make to Darius' Nanoforge, as well as all your weapons.
Multiplayer There are two online modes built into Red Faction: Armageddon, in the form of the Infestation and Ruin.
Infestation is basically the game's take-on the Horde mode from Gears of War, where teams of four players need to take on increasingly difficult waves of enemies, with different types of objectives. These range from just staying alive to defending an area, and really force players to use all their Nanoforge abilities, as well as work like a team in order to survive the onslaught spread though the 30 waves of enemies.
While the experience sounds pretty good on paper, it really falls apart if you don't have good teammates, as towards the latter waves, things get extremely hectic and you need to micromanage any offensive or defensive push.
Then we have the Ruin mode which, basically, unleashes you on the levels of Red Faction Armageddon and tasks you with doing the biggest amount of damage in as little time as possible. Your performance will be recorded by the game and displayed on a global leaderboard. This is definitely the most fun of the modes in Armageddon, largely because it evokes the feelings from Guerrilla, where the player was set against the whole world.
Graphics and Sound Red Faction: Armageddon is a pretty game, much more beautiful than Guerrilla, even if it really likes to display dark environments like tunnels or gray buildings. Still, the game delivers a polished experience while the destruction is recreated in a more realistic way. You'll still be on the look-out for single rafters that seem to support giant buildings, but these situations are few and far in between.
In terms of sound, Red Faction: Armageddon is quite good, with the voice acting being quite impressive, while the Martian aliens manage to sound scary even around the end of the game, after many other previous encounters. Weapons sound powerful, while crumbling buildings always manage to satisfy players.
Conclusion Red Faction: Armageddon is a good game, which manages to combine its classic destruction-themed experience with the core mechanics of a third-person shooter. The lack of an open world is a bit of a downside, but the Ruin mode makes up for it, allowing gamers to take a break from the story and just go wild with their hammer or weapons on parts of its world.
Seeing as how there aren't a lot of new games scheduled to arrive this summer, it's probably worth it to invest in Red Faction: Armageddon, at least for a batch of mindless fun.
