Red Faction: Armageddon Preview

Red Faction: Armageddon Preview

Unlimited ammo, that’s what Red Faction: Armageddon is all about!  The first footage of the new installment in this series was released June 4^th, 2010 and since then, fans have been torn.  Some were so discouraged in the previous games that they didn’t dare get too excited in case there are just as many flaws in gameplay and graphics this time around.  Others just had to hear that Volition was offering unlimited ammunition and new weapons for their mouths to salivate.  Will these fans be tragically disappointed in May 2011 when Red Faction: Armageddon is released?

Storyline

The Martian Colonies were led to freedom by Alec Mason 25 long years ago.  It’s also been ten years since his wife was murdered by vengeful enemies and his daughter Lyra was kidnapped.  Alec’s last surviving son, Jake Mason, is currently a ranger in the ruthless Red Faction Militia.  Jake has not given up one bit of hope that his sister Lyra is still alive out there somewhere and has continued to look for her all these years.

The planet has been swarmed by a powerful new enemy in Red Faction: Armageddon.  Good news and bad news comes for Jake.  He has found his sister however, she’s been turned into a cold-blooded soldier on a mission to conquer the planet and destroy the Red Faction.  Now Jake has to find a way to protect his troops, his planet and reunite his family.

Gameplay

The concept of simply shooting and blowing up as much stuff as you can in a set amount of time to make the leader board may be fun for a while but it’s sure to get old quick, especially when there is no reward for using some of the more exciting weapons.  While you may want to launch rockets or dip into your inventory to experiment, bottom line is, there’s only one weapon that will fire fast enough to place you on the leader board.  You would think you could at least get hooked up with double score or something for using the less desirable firearms!

Longtime fans will have no problem recognizing references to the other games and will probably appreciate the links.  The lock-on rockets and rapid fire attacks are pretty cool but they will slow you down if you’re trying to beat a high score.  If you are just playing to blow stuff up, you’ll find it’s pretty easy to get a little carried away using these features, especially when you’re able to break through more than one wall at a time.

Another noteworthy addition in Red Faction: Armageddon is that Nano Forge from the previous installments has been reversed and engineered.  This means you can reconstruct things that have been destroyed.  If you’re familiar with the game, it will seem just like the Reconstructor weapon that has been modified.  Nothing new, just different!

Graphics

Nothing about the footage that has been released so far screams improvement by any means.  It’s not that the graphics are bad because they’re not.  There’s just no WOW factor, it’s all very generic.  The detail is there but it lacks depth, personality, excitement, something!  As of now, it looks like the previous complaints of average graphics, hasn’t really been addressed.  So yes, you’ll probably still feel like you’re in 2001 playing the first Red Faction that you thought was so great back then but now looks just ordinary.

Conclusion

While THQ wants to market this as a game you’ll want to play again and again to beat your high score, the truth is, they didn’t make anything about Red Faction: Armageddon nearly exciting enough to keep you coming back for more.  Will it be a good go-to game when you just need to release a little aggression?  Absolutely!  Just don’t expect to lose any sleep over it, trying to finish the campaign.