Red Faction: Armageddon (X360)

“It is a very good thing they give you the nano-forge, just about everything in this game can be destroyed...and likely will be.”

“It is a very good thing they give you the nano-forge, just about everything in this game can be destroyed...and likely will be.”

“Red Faction Armageddon is a linear third person shooter taking place in the year 2170 on Mars, half a century after the events of Red Faction Guerrilla. You play as Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason from the previous game. After the...”

“Red Faction Armageddon is a linear third person shooter taking place in the year 2170 on Mars, half a century after the events of Red Faction Guerrilla.

You play as Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason from the previous game. After the destruction of the Terraformer in Guerrilla the people of Mars were forced to live underground. Involuntarily, Mason opens a shaft and unleashes an evil race of aliens. He must stop them or the people on Mars will face Armageddon.

With a huge arsenal of about 20 weapons (most of them unlocked during gameplay and probably more to come as DLC) and the option to use a Nano Forge device and upgrading it by trading in collected salvage at certain upgrade stations Mason fights his way through varying underground, urban and surface regions and often finds himself surrounded and overrun by enemies. Most of the time you are on foot. But there are also parts where you are on a boat on a river of lava or you are able to use Mining or Military Exo-suits or a spider-like Mech. There's even a part where you have to pilot a flying vehicle. All fun, all well done. The only thing I'm missing is a cover system though.

The Red Faction series is famous for giving the player the ability to literally destroy the levels. In the newest game of the Red Faction franchise you can also rebuild and patch what you broke at any time by using your Nano device which I found not only visually impressive but tactically helpful while fighting the hostile hordes.

While it is undeniably fun to demolish buildings and break down any structural work and using the created ruins as tactical advantage I caught myself not being too focused on destroying everything but following the story and fighting the aliens. Destruction doesn't dominate the gameplay but feels embedded into this game's universe. And in addition to this the wide range of weapons and the powers of the Nano device invite you to explore multiple ways of fighting the enemies.

After you have finished the campaign there's still much to do: The fact that the game saves all the weapons and upgrades you have discovered and earned for another campaign gameplay (by entering the Game-plus Mode) and for the multiplayer makes it truly fun to start a second or third walk-through. But there's even more. After your first play-through you unlock additional weapons like the infamous "Mr. Toots" for instance or you unlock the opportunity to trade in salvage you have earned in both SP and MP for certain cheats like unlimited ammo for each weapon to start a game on the "insane" difficulty setting.

The game comes with two MP modes. While both game modes are really fun I feel just two modes is a little dissapointing.

- The Infestation Mode let's you fight against wave after wave of enemies on 16 maps with up to four players online (Actually it's 8 maps. But by completing 5 waves on a map you unlock a "dark" version of this map: you fight now at night. This turns out well and is more challenging). On some maps you just fight the hordes. On other maps you must defend a building against the aliens who will try to destroy it. This is also well done and a nice alternative.

- The Ruin Mode challenges you to cause as much destruction as possible within a time limit. The goal here is to achieve a certain destruction score. By achieving a certain score you unlock another area. However, The Ruin Mode must be activated by entering a code that comes with the game. If you get your copy used or rent the game you will have to download the Ruin Pack DLC to get past the first map of the Ruin Mode.

A lot of the achievements a story related. There are achievements for collecting audio logs, killing certain numbers of enemies with certain weapons or special attacks or for finishing the single player on a certain difficulty or surviving a specific number of waves on Infestation. I'd say they are all achievable without getting a heart attack. Most can be done alone.

To sum it up I'd say Mason's grimly and funny comments make it really fun to play his down-to-earth (or should I say "down-to-mars"?) character and the large number of weapons and nano abilities add variety to the gameplay . The overall gameplay of Armageddon is well done and flawless. The Multiplayer is great fun. I do miss a cover system and there could be more MP modes. But the game is well done and in my opinion a worthy addition to the Red Faction franchise. I really do enjoy this game and IMO this is the best Red Faction game so far. Therefore: 5 out of 5”

“i play this game on ps3 . i love this game but couldve been better ”

“i play this game on ps3 . i love this game but couldve been better ”