Red Faction Armageddon

I bought red faction Armageddon because of the budget price and I played and enjoyed Red Faction: Guerilla.At first I was disappointed it wasn't a sandbox free roam like its predecessors' the developers adopted a more linear approach to levels design which makes the game seem significantly smaller than Guerilla all tho Soon it became apparent that these changes have improved the flow of the game and cut a vast amounts of going back and forth over sandy boring environment.Saying that I managed to finish the main story in two days and squeezed a few hrs out of Infestation mode and Ruin mode but for £6 that's just what I expected.A good all round game which might get another play-through once skyrims done.
PS......... all achievement junkies this is a easy 850 gs over 2 - 3 days work.

This review is based purely on the single player campaign.

To start off I was a big fan of Red Faction Guerilla so I was looking forward to more of the free roaming, building bashing, driving off cliffs and generally causing havoc. Unfortunately the free roaming element has gone, RFA is a fairly linear game that directs you on a set course with not much chance of exploring or backtracking.
In RFG you would arrive on areas that were practically small villages of buildings you could have endless fun smashing to pieces or tearing through with a mech, in RFA there seem to be very few areas that you can totally destroy, and as most of the game is set in underground caverns (which gets very dull after a few hours) there is no chance to knock down huge towers and building.
There are no in game challenges as in RFG, no destruction mini games or timed races. There are a few sections of the game that let you drive vehicles, but again they feel very linear and uninspired and involve nothing more than shooting endless hoards of very similar enemies.

I found the storyline in RFG to be much more engaging and well thought out, you became interested in the characters and their relation to each other. In RFA we are given the story in small cutscenes but it is so dull and bland with very average animation and voice acting that you really don't pay much attention to it. By the end of the game I was skipping the cutscenes just to get back to the action, which wasn't a problem as the storyline is so predictable you can see what's coming hours before it happens.

The new weapons and tools in RFA are a welcome addition, sadly they are vastly underused. To have a tool that gives you the ability to rebuild the destroyed scenery opens up a whole world of possibilities, unfortunately it is used for mainly for repairing gaps in the floor or fixing machinery. The other weapons although interesting feel unnecessary because for most of the time (as with the magnet gun) there is no need to use them. I got through most of the game relying on the trusty assault rifle and the rocket launcher. The magnet gun (as with the nano forge) could have been used so much more for problem solving or building.

The enemies you come across are very unoriginal, I appreciate that it's hard to be original with some many other games on the market in this genre, but the same old half insect half alien creatures that jump from floor to ceiling and spit laser beams and bombs is very boring. The AI is practicality non existent as most enemies just come charging at you.

To sum up what we have here is a game that just feels very lazy and badly pieced together. There are some fun elements but the dreary level design and monotonous gameplay out weigh the good. It feels like a watered down version of Gears of War with some interesting weapons and tools thrown in at the last minute.

Rent or wait for the price to drop, not worth the hard cash.

Red Faction Armageddon is the first of the Red Faction series that I've played and to be honest the game started on a downer for me, I read the back of the box to see the green words I love "Co-op 2-4 player", great, my girlfriend and I can play this together!
This, however, is no the case, the co-op isn't local co-op at all, it's over System link or Xbox Live, so why it states Co-op in green, I have no idea...

But on to the review...

As it boasts, it's full of mayhem and destruction of any (specifically) man made structure (However this isn't 100% true, but you have to draw the line somewhere...

I bought this game not expecting much (I only bought this game as Brink was £30 trade-in against it) but I have been pleasantly surprised.

The game starts off, easing you in, letting you get to grips with aiming, shooting and switching weapons before letting you loose on a couple of enemies. As the game goes on it lets you get your hands on a few more "fun" weapons.

To start the game, I wanted to use the Maul as much as possible, but this isn't particularly wise for 2 reasons, 1) On Insane difficulty, I don't think you're meant to and 2) After the first few "levels" the enemies like to jump around out of your reach, it's hard to hit an enemy with a Maul when they're on top of a pillar.

I spent most of my time (and killed most enemies) with the amazing Magnet gun, tag an object (like a Pillar) then tag the enemy and watch it fly into their face and squish them into mush, it's great fun!

The game handles really well, there are upgrades you can buy using Salvage that you find (Or once you have the upgrade, you can get this by killing the enemies), they upgrade a multitude of things, from health, damage done by your weapons and you can even get a "shell" that can reflect damage back at enemies.

To be honest, I'm not the best person at 3rd or even first person shooters, but playing this on Insane difficulty isn't really that challenging, sure I've died once or twice by being outnumbered and overwhelmed by the enemy, but their attacks are usually easy to dodge, and they are pretty simple to kill.

There are also two other game types to play, a (what seems to be standard these days) last stand type game, where you fight wave after wave of enemies, and also a game type called "Ruin", which gives you weapons and freedom to destroy as much as you can in the time limit given. There is a demo given with the game, but it's 400 MS points to unlock the full version (The download is 128kb, so the content is already on the disc, which I feel is a ripoff, but each to their own)

Overall, the game is good, better than most other releases at the moment (perhaps with the exception of LA Noire, but that's a whole different kettle of fish!)

Definitely worth a buy, should entertain you for a while (especially if your friends buy it, the last stand game is always fun to play)