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Red Faction: Armageddon review

On May 28, 2011 by Aszrayel

Review

The game has a more linear and directed game play compared to its predecessor, this does however give rise to a better narrative and game flow.

You start as usual with the usual CGI intro with good voice acting which outlines the plot, the action starts pretty smooth. This is where you are walked through various tasks, killing Marauders on the surface. Destroying towers, repairing bridges, forcing doors, open with special tools and weapons (more on those later). This walkthrough system seems the norm these days on cross platform developments; I still hunger for the good old days where you were thrown into a game at the deep end.

The bulk of the action takes place in underground caverns, mining tunnels, alien hives and underground shanty towns. Underground you get a feeling of claustrophobia, tension and outright terror all moved along nicely by the sound system. As you traverse the subterranean caverns, shadows in distant corridors give the player cause for concern. I have to admit that the graphics are pretty darn good for a console game (when looking at them from a PC gamer’s perspective).

So as not to spoil the story and how you got to this point, all I will say is that Darius (you) end up trapped underground after an accident. Your job is to find your way back to one of the underground settlements. Not far along your journey you are warned of alien life signs ahead, which soon drops you straight into the action. Your initial enemy are called crawlers, these snap at your ankles, claw and whip at you. They have a swarm mentality and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Added to this these little critters keep on coming until you destroy breeding poaches nicely animated that hang from the cave ceiling and walls.

Progressing through the caverns, larger nastier alien throw themselves at you. These creatures more humanoid an appearance leap from wall to wall, out flank you, come at you from multiple directions at once and it is very easy to feel overwhelmed. You can despatch your enemies using various weapons including duel pistols, machine gun, shotgun, use cover (if not destroyed) etc. The real fun starts with the special weapons and the games main selling point, a near fully destructible playing area.

First up and the most fun weapon in my view is the Magnet Gun. This is a two shot weapon, first fire at one object and then a second. The first object is pulled at great speed towards the second object causing mayhem and destruction. You can have more fun with this by flinging explosive barrels around. Sides of buildings can be ripped off, towers toppled, the only limit is your imagination.

One of the dilemmas you face when ripping the playing area apart is the fact that you could be destroying walkways, ladders, machinery and other objects that are required to achieve your current objective, leaving you stuck with no place to go. This is where the Nano-Forge comes in (an ancient relic passed down through family generations). The Nano-Forge can be directed at destroyed objects and will simpley rebuild them before your eyes ergo allowing you to progress. The Nano-Forge is also very useful for creating cover when under attack i.e. Rebuilding barriers. The Nano-Forge can also send out a massive force of energy which will blow open barriers such as doors, buildings and throw enemies out of the way.

Other weapons available include the Nano-Rifle, Hammer, singularity bomb, singularity cannon, Plasma Beam and rocket launcher. All of which add to ability to totally destroy your playing environment. All these weapons and Darius’s armour can be upgraded at points throughout the game at upgrade stations. Also at these stations you can upgrade certain player abilities. This cost credits, to get credits by collecting recyclable items on your travels.

Along your travels you get the ability to use a LEO exosuit which adds more powerful weapons to your arsenal and offers the ability to crash through buildings and squash aliens on a whim.

Without the ability to destroy your surroundings this game would just be another third person alien shooter, but the features do make this game stand out from the crowed. I played the single player campaign for 4 hours, having a lot of fun along the way. The game progress indicated that I had played 8% of the content. So the player is looking at 40 plus hours of game play.

Multiplayer Options

No competitive form of multiplayer combat exists, but instead they have a playing mode called Infestation mode. This allows up to a four player co-op game where you have to fight off waves of ever increasing powerful enemies. When a player is injured (bleeding out), a team member has 25 seconds to get to you and revive you. Whilst reviving you the other player is immune to attack. If unsuccessful you are declared dead for the remainder of the multiplayer session. This leaves you in spectator mode. This is where the biggest niggle of the game comes in. When in spectator mode, your force feedback pad stays active, which does get annoying when you put the pad down on the table.

One of the great points about this game is that weapons you unlock in single player mode are carried through and accessible in multiplayer mode.

A second mode Ruin allows players to compete at picking one of several maps to destroy as much of the map as they can in 60 seconds, getting points for the amount of destruction they cause. This is fun for a short while, but tends to get a little tired later on. The best use of this mode in my opinion would be letting off steam after a bad day at the office or school.

The Movie

We were invited to attend a preview screening of a new SyFy channel movie which tells the story of the events between RFG and RFA. I could not attend the screening, but be sure to keep an eye out for it if you’re a fan of the series.

Conclusion

This is a typical formula third person shooter, with the added ability to completely destroy your surroundings which is the games main selling point. Personally I would buy the game just for that feature. But as with any game it depends on the individual and how long the game will appeal to them.

Red Faction: Armageddon is coming on out the 7th June  on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Author: Aszrayel

Retired programmer, due to health issues. But I cooked code for over 21 years just about. Command leader of SGUK-1. Fun bunch of people that like to play and are passionate about Stargate and any games out there.

Unfortunately the Stargate games came to an end. So now I research video games and advise on things.

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