Red Faction: Armageddon is a third-person shooter and the fourth game in the Red Faction series that was developed by Volition and published by THQ in June 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs. This game was one of the free games made available in August 2017 as part of Xbox's Games With Gold program.
Like the other Red Faction games, Armageddon takes place on Mars in the future. You are Darius Mason who is the descendant of Alex Mason who was the main character in Red Faction: Guerrilla. The liberation of Mars is over and the surface has become inhospitable after a terror attack and you find yourself in the depths of the Martian caves trying to just stay alive while helping out any way you can.
Darius Mason |
For the most part, this game plays very similarly to the earlier games but it does have some changes. First off as I mentioned above you are off the surface of Mars and instead are underground. This change reminded me a lot of the original Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The biggest change with the gameplay is the ability to repair structures. Red Faction has always been know for the ability to destroy the structures throughout the environment in the games but in this one, you can repair structures and devices like the machine that you go to when you want to purchase upgrades. I thought this was a great change because it made battles more dangerous. You have to be very careful as you make your way up during a battle. If you dive to avoid a shot from an enemy you need to make sure that where you've lept hasn't been destroyed during the battle. I probably died more times after falling to my doom while making my way through the level. You have to keep your head down while you walk.
It's a good thing that Darius is an engineer because most of everything he encounters is broken and of course he's the only one around that can fix it.
Darius Repairing |
As with many games like these, there are items to find, in this game, you'll be on the lookout for recordings. These are basic logs that give you a bit of flavor for the world and go into more depth to explain what is happening in the game. These are fairly easy to find as they have a big blue glowing marker on each of them making them pretty easy to find. You also look for scrap to help you level up and weapons and ammo.
Scrap from a collapsed building. |
The game has 20 levels to complete and I'm not sure how long it took me to finish but it felt just about right. There are four difficulty levels to choose from; casual, normal, hard, and insane. I've played the first and third games previously so I felt safe to choose hard to start with. I had no problem with hard difficulty, as a matter of fact, it was pretty easy. After completing levels you'll find new better more powerful weapons to use but except for boss battles, I completed the game with the shotgun. I did like the singularity gun and used it when there were a ton of bad guys on the screen.
The game had three different vehicles that were available to use on certain levels including two types of walkers and a flying machine. The first walker, similar to the one Ripley used in Aliens, was a lot of fun as was the flying machine. The last walker you use was a bit slow to me and I didn't really care for it. The vehicles were a lot of fun and were a nice break from the regular third-person shooting levels.
Once I finished the game the infestation game is unlocked. It's your standard tower defense game with a total of 30 levels. As you complete each level new stronger weapons become available to use. You can play this solo, split-screen, or online with people. While not groundbreaking in any way it was a nice addition to the main game.
You ever notice that games like these have a female character that you're friends with but by the end of the game this is what happens?
Overall, I thought this was a good game and a good follow up from Red Faction: Guerilla. I liked the new ability to repair structures and thought it made a nice extra element to battles. I read online some review where they felt this game wasn't very good but I had a blast. There is nothing more satisfying than blowing up buildings with just a big hammer. Make sure you don't bring the building down on top of you!! I give Red Faction: Armageddon an 8 out of 10.
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