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Playing through the Red Faction series has been fun. I can’t say any game I’ve played so far is outright bad. But I would say Red Faction II is the weakest. To me, it just feels like another first-person shooter in a sea of many. The first game showcased cool destructible environments which was impressive for its time and I feel Guerrilla is the best game in the series up to this point. It lets the player run around Mars and destroy everything in their path. Guerrilla was followed up by Red Faction: Armageddon and a movie tie-in was produced by Syfy called Red Faction: Origins that fills in the story gap between the two games. Developed by Volition and published by THQ in association with the TV network Syfy, Red Faction: Armageddon was released for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in June, 2011. For this review, I played the PC version. I attempted to play this once before years ago and couldn’t get into it but this time I beat it and I have to say I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Set on Mars, the player assumes the role of Darius Mason, grandson of Alec Mason, and member of the Red Faction. After they fail to prevent a terraformer from being destroyed by a group of cultists led by the insane Adam Hale, the resulting catastrophic weather forces the population underground. A few years later, Darius is working as a miner in the town of Bastion and is tricked by Adam Hale and the Cultists into doing a job that opens a seal releasing a race of aliens known as The Plague. The story then follows Darius and his efforts to fend off the aliens and prevent armageddon. An additional campaign titled “Path To War” was released as DLC. It comes with new missions and weapons and centers on the battle for the terraformer. It’s also extremely short and mostly forgettable.
I enjoyed the main story for a few reasons. I like that it’s not another tale of rebellion, of the oppressed rising up and fighting back. It also feels more sci fi than its predecessors thanks primarily to the presence of aliens. It also conveys a darker tone and atmosphere than its predecessors which at first threw me off but, ultimately, I found it refreshing. I would say Armageddon kind of leans slightly into the horror genre. It’s far from scary but it’s definitely got a dark edge to it. Once again, you don’t need to play the prior games to understand what’s happening here but the plot is connected and you will definitely get a lot more out of it if you’ve seen the movie, Red Faction: Origins.
As soon as I started playing, I remembered why I gave up on it on my first attempt years ago. Armageddon marks yet another change in direction for the series and the darker tone and linearity threw me off. I admit it did take me a bit to get passed these things this time around but when I did, I really enjoyed myself. I think part of the issue was me being used to a certain style and atmosphere and after really enjoying Guerilla, Armageddon just feels like a major departure. It’s another third-person shooter but unlike it’s predecessor, it’s much more linear. No open world here. It’s a story-driven action game.
The third-person shooter mechanics and impressive destruction and physics seen in Guerrilla have been carried over. While I enjoyed the third-person shooter combat in Guerrilla, I feel that game is definitely carried by its destruction elements. Armageddon doesn’t offer the same type of freedom Guerrilla’s world offers but the combat has been refined. I still don’t think the action is anything super special but it does feel better. The gunplay is solid, the game features a good variety of weapons, and the action is once again complimented nicely by the destruction. That, too, feels more refined here. Ultimately, controlling the character and the action and destruction all feel better or more refined in Armageddon.
You will get your hands on some pretty awesome firepower in this game and you can also unlock and utilize various abilities. You can find Salvage in the environments and by destroying things and spend it at upgrade stations on abilities and various character upgrades. The upgrades and abilities do make a difference and I found trying to unlock them all can become addictive. Your Salvage and upgrades are shared between saved games, and with multiplayer. What this means is if you start a new game, your Salvage and upgrades will not be reset, although you can reset them manually if you so desire. Beating the campaign does unlock new weapons, a new game plus mode, and cheats.
In typical third-person shooter fashion, you run through the environments and shoot enemies. I would say Armageddon feels like a horde shooter for lack of a better term. By that I mean you go from area to area shooting hordes of foes. Enter an area, kill a bunch of enemies, destroy the pods that spawn them and the Monoliths that strengthen them, rinse and repeat. Unlike the previous games, you’ll shoot more than just human foes. The aliens are the big new threat here and they come in different types. They run around, crawl around, jump around, unleash projectiles, and some can withstand more damage than others. You’ll have to run, shoot and dodge to stay alive and the action can get hectic.
The gunplay does feel good as mentioned earlier and many weapons are extremely fun to use. Weapons can be swapped out at Weapon Lockers in the environments and new weapons are unlocked when you find them. You’ll start with more traditional weapons like a maul, assault rifle, and shotgun before getting your hands on the good stuff like the plasma cannon, rail driver, singularity cannon, and pulse grenade launcher among others. Not only are the more devastating weapons fun to use against enemies, they also prove to be excellent tools for destruction. The Magnet Gun is by far one of my favorite weapons in the game. You fire a magnet and then the anchor and whatever the magnet is attached to will be pulled towards the anchor. One positive thing I will say about the Path To War campaign is the new Shard Cannon weapon. It gathers nearby debris and lets you launch it at your target, great for killing enemies and causing destruction. Armageddon is a game that lets you get creative with kills and destruction but also gives you the option to play it more traditionally like a typical run and gun shooter.
I think if it wasn’t for the destruction elements, Armageddon would feel like a more repetitive experience. This is a linear action game and, luckily, with plenty of ways to tackle situations. You can shoot enemies, utilize abilities and melee attacks, send foes flying into walls and objects or send objects and debris flying at them. And many weapons allow for different ways to destroy things. Much like Guerrilla, destruction is restricted to objects and structures and it’s the shooting combined with the destruction that makes the experience enjoyable. Almost everywhere you go includes shit that can be destroyed including the buildings and structures you have to navigate but you can repair anything destroyed at any time which is also pretty cool.
Every now and then you’ll get to jump into an Exo suit equipped with a machine gun and rocket launcher and use it to blow away foes and decimate areas which proves to be a shit ton of fun, and the typical destructive action is often broken up by set pieces. You’ll get to pilot Walkers and use them to annihilate foes, man the turret on a barge and defend it as you move along a river of magma, and even pilot a gunship, mowing down any enemies in your way. Towards the end of the game, the set pieces become more prevalent and believe it or not, I felt that’s when the action was at its most boring. It’s probably my biggest complaint with the main campaign. At a certain point, it felt like I was just going from one set piece to another and I got tired of it. As fun as they are, I feel they’re best enjoyed in small doses just to break up the typical action from time to time. This is also a problem in the Path To War campaign. Half of it is just set pieces. Four missions total and two of them are just long set pieces. The real meat of the gameplay is the on-foot stuff – using different weapons and abilities to rampage through the environments leaving nothing but destruction in your wake.
In addition to the campaigns is the Infestation and Ruin modes. Infestation is a mode that can be enjoyed solo or cooperatively and comes with multiple maps and two game types; Survive and Defend. In Survive, up to four players must survive against waves of enemies. In Defend, players must prevent structures from being destroyed. Ruin is a mode where the player must cause as much destruction as possible in a set amount of time and by reaching certain scores, you can unlock new maps. It also comes with a Free Play game type so you can just destroy things at your own leisure. It’s a great mode for those looking to just sit back and destroy shit, especially if you enjoy the destruction and physics on offer.
Visually, I think Armageddon holds up pretty well. Much of the game takes place underground so you’ll be moving through a lot of tunnels, caves, caverns and dark areas and they are well detailed. The destruction looks great and seeing structures break apart, topple and crumble never gets old. The visual effects are good, enemies can explode, and I like the use of color in several environments. On the audio side, most weapons sound pretty good and satisfying and the soundtrack isn’t terrible. I enjoyed several tunes heard during gameplay. Much of the music helps to elevate tension and drive the darker tone the developers were aiming for. On the technical side, the game did run smooth but it did crash on me several times which was annoying.
I really enjoyed my time with Armageddon and I would go so far to say that I think it’s underrated. I think part of the problem with this series as a whole is that it’s inconsistent. The developers don’t seem to stay on any particular course. You might really enjoy and get hooked on one thing or style in one game and then they toss it out with the next game. I like the destruction in the first game even though it’s underutilized but did we get more of that in Red Faction II? No. In fact, that game places a bigger focus on action. Then Guerrilla comes around, shifts the view to third-person, and lets us run around Mars destroying everything and it’s a ton of fun. Now we come to Armageddon and it’s a linear story-driven action game. I don’t want to make it sound like I want the devs to make the same game over and over again but considering how good Guerrilla is, I was hoping they would continue in that direction and simply expand upon it and refine it. I can’t say Armageddon expands upon anything but it does refine things. Regardless, I found it to be extremely enjoyable so I guess I can’t really complain. In fact, I enjoyed it more and more the further I progressed. Once I got into the groove of things, I actually found it hard to put down at certain points. I won’t deny that the action can get repetitive but the tools you’re given along with the impressive destruction and physics on display make it easy to ignore.
I would recommend Red Faction: Armageddon. Guerrilla is still my favorite game in the franchise and I think Armageddon comes in second. Armageddon does refine many of the mechanics introduced in Guerrilla but I think the freedom on offer in Guerrilla gives it a slight edge. In the end, I think Armageddon tells a pretty good story and offers some great action and destruction. If you can get into it, it can become addictive. I do think Armageddon is a bit underrated and overlooked but, ultimately, it’s a very fun game. Definitely check it out.