In a year that will see the release of Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a game like Red Faction: Armageddon may be overlooked. However, thanks to a June release date, Red Faction: Armageddon gets a jump on its competition and at times, shows that it certainly packs the punch to play with the big boys.
Red Faction: Armageddon puts you in the shoes of Darius Mason, a Red Faction member whose family has a deep-rooted history on Mars. From the outset, Mason is somewhate of a tragic hero and is joined by Sgt. Frank Winters, a member of the Red Faction military and Kara, a smuggler who sells weapons and parts in the underground colony of Bastion.
Without delving too deep into the game’s storyline, the game’s antagonist, Adam Hale, destroys the Terraformer, which allows humans to live on Mars’ surface, and forces humanity to create underground colonies. Years later, Mason, who failed to stop Hale, goes on a mission to explore ancient ruins and in turn discovers Hale has developed a cult following and unleashes The Plague onto the human colonists.
Essentially it is your job as Mason to stop Hale and wipe out the Plague.
As far as gameplay goes, Armageddon is a very formidable third-person shooter. Players can carry up to four different weapons, all of which can be swapped out at various points by either picking up a different one or using the game’s weapon locker.
In addition to having myriad guns at your disposal, Mason also has the Nanoforge, which has five unique powers that can be unlocked throughout your journey. The powers range from Reconstruction, which allows you to recreate structures to use for cover or repair damaged bridges and machinery, to Berserk, which gives you a temporary damage boost. The Nanoforge is one of the game’s strongest selling points, as it is a unique aspect of the gameplay and adds different levels of complexity to tasks to the game.
As far as the game’s cover system goes, you can use the Nanoforge to recreate destroyed cover and allow your shields to regenerate, or you can simply dodge incoming enemy attacks by simply using the directional stick and pressing a button to roll out of harms way.
As you play through the story, you will need to collect “salvage” to earn tier-specific upgrades, each of which become available as you progress through the game. While the upgrade system is a good idea, I often times found myself having to carefully select which upgrades to purchase as I did not accumulate enough salvage to buy more than two per tier. The lack of single player salvage almost forces you to play multiplayer to earn more upgrades, which I will delve into later.
Armageddon does a very good job of keeping the game challenging while entertaining, as even on the default difficultly level I was challenged enough while not being overwhelmed and frustrated at the same time.
In terms of controls, the game offers you a quick tutorial and in general there are very few issues if any. One nice feature is the quick aim, as with the press of the front shoulder button Mason directly aims at the nearest target and can move to others just as easily.
Graphically, Red Faction Armageddon is good, but not great. The environments are destructible and the alien/human models do look good, but at this point in the current console generation, I expect just a little more.
Armageddon offers several gameplay modes for multiplayer, including Ruin and Infestation.
Infestation is Armageddon’s version of Hoarde mode from Gears. Teaming up with three friends, the goal here is to survive wave after wave of oncoming aliens across the mode’s eight unique maps. The nice thing about Infestation is that all of the salvage and upgrades you unlock while fighting off the enemy onslaught carries over to your single player campaign. A unique twist on integrating single and multiplayer but for someone who plays through the story before hitting multiplayer, this could be an issue.
Ruin mode is best described as all-out chaos. The goal in Ruin mode is to just jump in and use your arsenal, the Nanoforge and even the environment to create a path of destruction and earn high scores based on how much havoc you cause. There is also a Free Play option for Ruin mode where players can take their time to find each map’s little secrets.
When all is said and done, Red Faction: Armageddon is a good game with a strong story and solid multiplayer options. There are certain aspects of the game that work very well, such as the controls and the innovative Nanoforge, but at the same time there are moments that feel a little ripped off and there is some room for improvement. Armageddon absolutely deserves a look if you are a fan of the franchise or of shooters in general.
Overall Grade: B/B+
