Red Faction: Armageddon
Encyclopedia
Red Faction: Armageddon is a third-person shooter
video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ
. It is the fourth and final installment in the Red Faction
series, and was released for Microsoft Windows
, PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
in various countries around the world between June 7 and June 10, 2011.
, such as the focus on fully destructible environments. Unlike its predecessor which had the player liberating settlements from the totalitarian control of the corrupt Earth Defense Force, players must now reclaim cultist fortifications on the disaster-ravaged surface of the planet and defend colonists from hostile Martian creatures in the ancient mines and chasms beneath it and cleansing infestations from all structures. Guerrillas open-world approach has been done away with, in exchange for linear and directed gameplay, a better progression of the narrative, and a sense of suspense and tension when traversing the sometimes claustrophobic interiors in the game.
Armageddon will be modifying the previous game's repertoire of tools and weaponry. Using the Magnet Gun, Darius fires first at one object, then at a second object, and then the first object rockets toward the second.
The Nano-Forge, a relic in the Mason family, returns, having been passed down through two generations. Darius' father has incorporated the tool with a function that reverses any and all destruction dealt to man-made objects. The Nano-Forge will also feature an ability known as Impact, which discharges an incredibly powerful burst of force which can blow away structures and throw enemies off their feet. The Nano-Rifle will return.
The Hammer and Singularity Bomb will be returning in the form of the Maul (featuring lethally destructive yet silent motorized gyros) and Singularity Cannon (featuring ranged capabilities). The matter-slicing Plasma Beam will be making a comeback.
Darius' Nano-Forge, weapons and armor will all be upgradeable, improving their efficiency, unlocking new abilities, and altering their appearances.
Finally at E3, Volition debuted the LEO exosuit, "a robotic suit with powerful weaponry whose biggest strength nonetheless appears to be its ability to crash through structures with little effort. Darius piloted the LEO at full speed through a horde of aliens, splattering them on contact, and then brought down an infested building by crashing through its walls."
The game features no competitive multiplayer and instead focuses on co-operative multiplayer for up to four players called Infestation which features two different game modes, survival where you need to survive against waves of increasingly challenging alien attackers and defensive where you need to defend areas from attack.
In a six-part Youtube series, the game's main storyline developer Leo and Max revealed "Ruin mode". This mode consists of nothing but "blowing stuff up". Players can either take all the time they want, or cause as much destruction as possible within one minute. The latter mode will have supported worldwide and friend leader boards.
However, ruin mode will only be available to players who buy the game new or purchase a code online, as players are given the choice to either play the demo of the mode or enter a code using the methods stated above. It hasn't been revealed as to why Volition decided to make this choice with only the Ruin mode.
. It is set in the year 2170, fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerrilla
. Since the liberation of Mars, the surface of the planet has become uninhabitable. This occurred when the massive Terraformer machine on Mars which supplied it with its Earth
-like atmosphere was destroyed by Adam Hale, the game's key antagonist, causing super-tornados and violent lightning storms to engulf the planet. In order to survive, the Colonists were forced to flee to the underground mines of Mars built by their ancestors, creating a network of habitable caves under the surface of the planet and setting up colonies there.
The game begins five years after the relocation to the mines in 2170, and follows Darius Mason, grandson of Martian Revolution heroes Alec Mason and Samanya, the main characters of Red Faction: Guerrilla, who runs a lucrative series of businesses based in Bastion, the underground hub of Colonist activity, including mining, scavenging and mercenary work. Few sane people venture to the ravaged surface of Mars, apart from contractors like Darius and smugglers who transport goods between settlements. Darius is tricked into reopening a mysterious, vast shaft in an old Marauder temple by a fanatical Marauder priest, which awakens a long-dormant race of Martian creatures, causing an Armageddon on Mars. Colonist and Marauder settlements alike are torn apart by the new enemies, and the blame for the whole disaster is placed on Darius, soon inciting several angry colonists to form mobs and attack him in their fury. Now Darius must join the Red Faction to clear his name and save the people of Mars, as his grandfather did before him.
A few years later, Darius now works as a mercenary along with a former marauder named Kara. Darius was sent to do a mining job and learned that he was tricked again by Adam Hale and the cultists to open a seal that releases an alien race called The Plague, and becomes trapped in the tunnels The Plague live in. After falling off a cliff that left him unconscious for three days, Darius, guided by S.A.M. escapes the tunnels into a underground mining colony, to find The Plague attacking the miners. Grouping up with survivors and some Red Faction soldiers, he escorts an ambulance convoy to Bastion, with help of a L.E.O exosuit found along the way. Darius then arrives at Bastion only to find the town was overrun by the Plague, with injured holed up in the center of town. Darius helps out the town, only to have them turn on him when they found out he is involved with The Plague. He escapes to the surface, as the pursuers following him are attacked. The Red Faction, along with Frank, shows up and arrests him, but are attacked, and Darius joins the Red Faction and fends off The Plague. Informed that Hale is involved with releasing The Plague, Frank informs Darius where the Cultists are hiding, and Darius assaults the in a walker with Kara, and discovers Hale, trying to tame The Plague. Darius is then discovered trying to kill Hale, and tries to escape in a minecart, but Hale attacks in a walker. The walker is crippled by a landslide, and Darius uses his Magnet Gun to drop pieces of the ceiling on him, decapitating Hale. He and Kara escape in the walker to a Marauder city, when they try to learn more about The Plague. They discover a secret entrance that is filled in with lava, so Darius and Frank pilot a ship to a machine used to raise the lava, and destroys it to lower the lava. Darius and Kara then assault the tunnels to find the Queen, but Kara is killed when they get out to repair a leg. Darius then make a personal vendetta against the Queen. He finds her, and in a fight, badly weakens her, but she starts to escape and destroy Mars. S.A.M. discovers that The Plague cannot withstand pure air, and Darius follows the Queen to the surface, and finds and repairs the terraformer that Hale destroyed, killing all of The Plague.
Red Faction arrives at the terraformer, and S.A.M. warns Darius of high concentration of radiation incoming: sunlight.
TV. The game was also showcased at the E3 2010
from June 15 to 17, 2010. During Comic-Con in San Diego, 2010, a promotional comic book titled Red Faction: Armageddon #0 was presented as a free giveaway. A downloadable vehicle-based multiplayer game called Red Faction: Battlegrounds
was released in April 2011. Additionally, the Syfy
network produced a direct-to-television film that bridges the story gap between Guerrilla and Armageddon, titled Red Faction: Origins
. It was released on June 7, 2011.
A playable demo for the game was announced in April, and was released on May 3, 2011 for the Xbox 360. The playable demo for PS3 was released on June 2, 2011.
A DLC entitled "Path to War" has been released for the game. It features four new single-player missions, new weapons and achievements.
gave the PC version 75.62% and 75/100, the Xbox 360
version 73.78% and 71/100 and the PlayStation 3
version 73.59% and 71/100. GameSpot gave the game an 8.0 out of 10, saying, "Red Faction: Armageddon returns to the linear roots of the series with great success. Thanks to an enjoyably powerful arsenal and remarkably thorough destructibility, tearing your way through this alien-annihilating adventure is a blast. The campaign and Infestation mode offer a good amount of content, and the arrival of the magnet gun should be celebrated by anyone with a hankering for havoc. It's one of the most powerful, inspiring, and downright hilarious gameplay mechanics to come along in a while, and it makes Red Faction: Armageddon immensely appealing." While IGN
gave it a 7.0, saying, "Despite its forgettable story and pacing issues with the campaign, Red Faction: Armageddon is good fun for letting out your inner destructive child." Joystiq
was less forgiving of the title, scoring the game with a 2.5/5 rating. GameZone
gave the game an 8.5 out of 10, stating "I wasn’t sure whether I would like the game’s change from Guerrilla’s open world formula to a more linear mission-based one. However, this wasn’t the case. The storyline is gripping, if at times a bit cliché; the controls are spot on; and leveling all that’s around you never gets old. Red Faction: Armageddon is simply a blast to play through." The Gaming Review awarded it an 8 out of 10 explaining "this is the best of the Red Faction games to date".
GameSpy was less forgiving of the game, giving Armageddon two and a half stars out of five (a rating of 'fair'), stating that "The main campaign has gone from an open-ended, Grand Theft Auto-style game to a strictly linear, close-quarters, and poorly plotted mess" and also describes the 'ruin mode' as "...incredibly fun in short bursts, but without any overarching goals or real sense of rewards, it's really more of a time-waster than an honest-to-goodness game in its own right." However, it did praise the new weapons available, saying, "...you get some pretty nifty gear with which to do said dealing."
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
. It is the fourth and final installment in the Red Faction
Red Faction (series)
Red Faction is a series of science fiction shooter video games developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. Originating in 2001, the Red Faction games have spanned PC, Mac and many consoles, including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.-Gameplay:The series...
series, and was released for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
in various countries around the world between June 7 and June 10, 2011.
Gameplay
The game carries over many elements from its predecessor, Red Faction: GuerrillaRed Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open-world third-person action video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June 2009 and for Microsoft Windows in September 2009...
, such as the focus on fully destructible environments. Unlike its predecessor which had the player liberating settlements from the totalitarian control of the corrupt Earth Defense Force, players must now reclaim cultist fortifications on the disaster-ravaged surface of the planet and defend colonists from hostile Martian creatures in the ancient mines and chasms beneath it and cleansing infestations from all structures. Guerrillas open-world approach has been done away with, in exchange for linear and directed gameplay, a better progression of the narrative, and a sense of suspense and tension when traversing the sometimes claustrophobic interiors in the game.
Armageddon will be modifying the previous game's repertoire of tools and weaponry. Using the Magnet Gun, Darius fires first at one object, then at a second object, and then the first object rockets toward the second.
The Nano-Forge, a relic in the Mason family, returns, having been passed down through two generations. Darius' father has incorporated the tool with a function that reverses any and all destruction dealt to man-made objects. The Nano-Forge will also feature an ability known as Impact, which discharges an incredibly powerful burst of force which can blow away structures and throw enemies off their feet. The Nano-Rifle will return.
The Hammer and Singularity Bomb will be returning in the form of the Maul (featuring lethally destructive yet silent motorized gyros) and Singularity Cannon (featuring ranged capabilities). The matter-slicing Plasma Beam will be making a comeback.
Darius' Nano-Forge, weapons and armor will all be upgradeable, improving their efficiency, unlocking new abilities, and altering their appearances.
Finally at E3, Volition debuted the LEO exosuit, "a robotic suit with powerful weaponry whose biggest strength nonetheless appears to be its ability to crash through structures with little effort. Darius piloted the LEO at full speed through a horde of aliens, splattering them on contact, and then brought down an infested building by crashing through its walls."
The game features no competitive multiplayer and instead focuses on co-operative multiplayer for up to four players called Infestation which features two different game modes, survival where you need to survive against waves of increasingly challenging alien attackers and defensive where you need to defend areas from attack.
In a six-part Youtube series, the game's main storyline developer Leo and Max revealed "Ruin mode". This mode consists of nothing but "blowing stuff up". Players can either take all the time they want, or cause as much destruction as possible within one minute. The latter mode will have supported worldwide and friend leader boards.
However, ruin mode will only be available to players who buy the game new or purchase a code online, as players are given the choice to either play the demo of the mode or enter a code using the methods stated above. It hasn't been revealed as to why Volition decided to make this choice with only the Ruin mode.
Setting
The game takes place on the planet MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. It is set in the year 2170, fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open-world third-person action video game developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June 2009 and for Microsoft Windows in September 2009...
. Since the liberation of Mars, the surface of the planet has become uninhabitable. This occurred when the massive Terraformer machine on Mars which supplied it with its Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
-like atmosphere was destroyed by Adam Hale, the game's key antagonist, causing super-tornados and violent lightning storms to engulf the planet. In order to survive, the Colonists were forced to flee to the underground mines of Mars built by their ancestors, creating a network of habitable caves under the surface of the planet and setting up colonies there.
The game begins five years after the relocation to the mines in 2170, and follows Darius Mason, grandson of Martian Revolution heroes Alec Mason and Samanya, the main characters of Red Faction: Guerrilla, who runs a lucrative series of businesses based in Bastion, the underground hub of Colonist activity, including mining, scavenging and mercenary work. Few sane people venture to the ravaged surface of Mars, apart from contractors like Darius and smugglers who transport goods between settlements. Darius is tricked into reopening a mysterious, vast shaft in an old Marauder temple by a fanatical Marauder priest, which awakens a long-dormant race of Martian creatures, causing an Armageddon on Mars. Colonist and Marauder settlements alike are torn apart by the new enemies, and the blame for the whole disaster is placed on Darius, soon inciting several angry colonists to form mobs and attack him in their fury. Now Darius must join the Red Faction to clear his name and save the people of Mars, as his grandfather did before him.
Plot
A group of Cultists, a splinter faction of the Marauders led by Adam Hale attacked and captured a terraformer that controlled the weather of Mars. Red Faction forces, led by Frank Winters along with Darius Mason, made an assault on the terraformer. Unfortunately, Adam, disguised as one of the Red Faction tricks Darius into destroying the terraformer. The destruction of the terraformer results in catastrophic weather which forces the entire population of Mars to go underground.A few years later, Darius now works as a mercenary along with a former marauder named Kara. Darius was sent to do a mining job and learned that he was tricked again by Adam Hale and the cultists to open a seal that releases an alien race called The Plague, and becomes trapped in the tunnels The Plague live in. After falling off a cliff that left him unconscious for three days, Darius, guided by S.A.M. escapes the tunnels into a underground mining colony, to find The Plague attacking the miners. Grouping up with survivors and some Red Faction soldiers, he escorts an ambulance convoy to Bastion, with help of a L.E.O exosuit found along the way. Darius then arrives at Bastion only to find the town was overrun by the Plague, with injured holed up in the center of town. Darius helps out the town, only to have them turn on him when they found out he is involved with The Plague. He escapes to the surface, as the pursuers following him are attacked. The Red Faction, along with Frank, shows up and arrests him, but are attacked, and Darius joins the Red Faction and fends off The Plague. Informed that Hale is involved with releasing The Plague, Frank informs Darius where the Cultists are hiding, and Darius assaults the in a walker with Kara, and discovers Hale, trying to tame The Plague. Darius is then discovered trying to kill Hale, and tries to escape in a minecart, but Hale attacks in a walker. The walker is crippled by a landslide, and Darius uses his Magnet Gun to drop pieces of the ceiling on him, decapitating Hale. He and Kara escape in the walker to a Marauder city, when they try to learn more about The Plague. They discover a secret entrance that is filled in with lava, so Darius and Frank pilot a ship to a machine used to raise the lava, and destroys it to lower the lava. Darius and Kara then assault the tunnels to find the Queen, but Kara is killed when they get out to repair a leg. Darius then make a personal vendetta against the Queen. He finds her, and in a fight, badly weakens her, but she starts to escape and destroy Mars. S.A.M. discovers that The Plague cannot withstand pure air, and Darius follows the Queen to the surface, and finds and repairs the terraformer that Hale destroyed, killing all of The Plague.
Red Faction arrives at the terraformer, and S.A.M. warns Darius of high concentration of radiation incoming: sunlight.
Development
The game was first announced in the form of a short teaser trailer which debuted worldwide on June 4, 2010 on GameTrailersGameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
TV. The game was also showcased at the E3 2010
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010, commonly known as E3 2010, was the 16th Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place on June 14–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software...
from June 15 to 17, 2010. During Comic-Con in San Diego, 2010, a promotional comic book titled Red Faction: Armageddon #0 was presented as a free giveaway. A downloadable vehicle-based multiplayer game called Red Faction: Battlegrounds
Red Faction: Battlegrounds
Red Faction: Battlegrounds is a multi-directional shooter developed by THQ Digital Warrington and published by THQ. It is a tie-in game to the upcoming release of Red Faction: Armageddon and was released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in April 2011...
was released in April 2011. Additionally, the Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
network produced a direct-to-television film that bridges the story gap between Guerrilla and Armageddon, titled Red Faction: Origins
Red Faction: Origins
Red Faction: Origins is a 2011 feature-length science fiction television movie pilot produced by Universal Media Studios and UFO Films debuting on SyFy, it is the first film based on the Red Faction series of video games. The movie stars Brian J. Smith as Jake Mason and Robert Patrick as Alec...
. It was released on June 7, 2011.
A playable demo for the game was announced in April, and was released on May 3, 2011 for the Xbox 360. The playable demo for PS3 was released on June 2, 2011.
A DLC entitled "Path to War" has been released for the game. It features four new single-player missions, new weapons and achievements.
Reception
Red Faction: Armageddon has received mostly mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the PC version 75.62% and 75/100, the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 73.78% and 71/100 and the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 73.59% and 71/100. GameSpot gave the game an 8.0 out of 10, saying, "Red Faction: Armageddon returns to the linear roots of the series with great success. Thanks to an enjoyably powerful arsenal and remarkably thorough destructibility, tearing your way through this alien-annihilating adventure is a blast. The campaign and Infestation mode offer a good amount of content, and the arrival of the magnet gun should be celebrated by anyone with a hankering for havoc. It's one of the most powerful, inspiring, and downright hilarious gameplay mechanics to come along in a while, and it makes Red Faction: Armageddon immensely appealing." While IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave it a 7.0, saying, "Despite its forgettable story and pacing issues with the campaign, Red Faction: Armageddon is good fun for letting out your inner destructive child." Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
was less forgiving of the title, scoring the game with a 2.5/5 rating. GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
gave the game an 8.5 out of 10, stating "I wasn’t sure whether I would like the game’s change from Guerrilla’s open world formula to a more linear mission-based one. However, this wasn’t the case. The storyline is gripping, if at times a bit cliché; the controls are spot on; and leveling all that’s around you never gets old. Red Faction: Armageddon is simply a blast to play through." The Gaming Review awarded it an 8 out of 10 explaining "this is the best of the Red Faction games to date".
GameSpy was less forgiving of the game, giving Armageddon two and a half stars out of five (a rating of 'fair'), stating that "The main campaign has gone from an open-ended, Grand Theft Auto-style game to a strictly linear, close-quarters, and poorly plotted mess" and also describes the 'ruin mode' as "...incredibly fun in short bursts, but without any overarching goals or real sense of rewards, it's really more of a time-waster than an honest-to-goodness game in its own right." However, it did praise the new weapons available, saying, "...you get some pretty nifty gear with which to do said dealing."