Red Faction: Armageddon is extraordinary. Having smashed every last thing from beginning to end, I'm now in a position to tell you Wot I Think. RED.Volition's Red Faction: Armageddon has been out for a few days, surprising many with the direction it's taken for its hammer/magnet based destruction. "You call this a guerrilla war? Get with the program, son! You gotta shout 'Red Faction' like you mean it. The multiplayer in Guerilla is still regularly updated, so definitely worth checking out. Pretty much any time there’s a sale on, you can pick up the Red Faction Collection for a price well worth 30 hours of your time - more if you play multiplayer and the DLCs. Much the opposite of Star Trek movies, the even numbered ones are the dodgy ones, but even so you can still have fun blowing up walls.
If you’re looking for a series to play through, there is a lot of fun to be had in Red Faction. Looking at recent trends, it wouldn’t be too unbelievable to see a MOBA, survival or action RPG - maybe even a return to first-person shooter in some Titanfall/ Call of Duty-esque storyline, and a heavy emphasis on multiplayer. Secret development, of course, because as far as anyone can tell the franchise has no plans for resurrection. It's left me wondering what Red Faction 5 would be modelled after, if it were in development right now. Darius Mason is part of the militia, but only as part of the engineering corps, with Parker and Alec Mason literally just being miners thrown into an untenable situation.Įach title was also modelled after the current “big thing” Half-Life, Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Gears of War. It's not always been about rebellion but about survival, and rather than a soldier just being a one-man army it’s only Red Faction II that sees you as an actual soldier. The miner uprising, enhanced supersoldiers overthrowing the government, the people of Mars wanting quality of life, and surviving against millions of inhuman beasts. That’s literally it's one purpose throughout the game, but just forget that.Įach of the Red Faction titles focussed on some kind of minor force overcoming a much larger one. The start of the game where the Terraformer was blown up, and was safe enough to check for Hale’s body due to suspecting that he died in the blast…īut then I suppose we wouldn’t have had a game if they didn’t conveniently forget that the Nano-Forge could repair things. mentioned that it could drive away the bugs, Mason instantly says “The Nano-Forge could !” - the thing he’s had strapped to his arm since the start of the game.
Nothing in the movie or the game explains why Mason didn’t repair the Terraformer in the months after everyone moved underground.
A movie came out between Guerrilla and Armageddon ( Red Faction Origins), but the game itself never even mentions events from it. For instance, Hale claims that the Mason’s have been a thorn in his family’s side for generations - but that’s never expanded upon. It isn’t helped by the plot being pretty inconsistent, and lacking in certain information. Even the GeoMod engine wasn't utilised as well as it was in Guerilla and the original game, and that’s arguably Red Faction’s main selling point. I can't think of a “horde style” game I've played before this, so the constant barrage of enemies wasn't as engaging as past titles.
30 hours of gameplay and an equal number of these write-ups later, I’ve only got one job left before moving on to another franchise (because Deus Ex: Invisible War still doesn’t work on Windows 10…).Īrmageddon was quite unlike the other games in the series, requiring much less thinking before doing. It’s been quite the undertaking, spending so much time with a franchise - it’s 13 months since the very first entry of the Red Faction Diaries went live. With Red Faction Armageddon finished, I’ve now completed all of the games in the series. Articles // 14th Jan 2017 - 5 years ago // By Andrew Duncan Red Faction Armageddon Diaries Epilogue