Red Faction Armageddon

[Fiach]

So, finally Red Faction returns to its roots.

The series had gravitated towards a GTA-esque, open world sandbox type of game and in doing so seems to have garnered itself a huge following, which, judging by all the complaining, all of them are currently severely disappointed with the games return to its linear geo-mod shooter roots.

I dont really like GTA, its just me, I need more narrative focus in a game, I will play the likes of RDR, but
never stray from the beaten path, to just dick around for the hell of it, its just not my style. As a compliment to the open world nature of Red Faction Guerilla, you of course had the geo mod terrain destruction, which added its own dynamic to the game.

With Red Faction Armageddon, you lose the open world of mars and as such, spend the game, mostly underground, so with the open world gone, whats left?

Well, the current iteration seems to be all about focused empowerment, you can destroy ..... and rebuild, also with the linearity of its underground campaign, the story is more focused, with a stronger narrative and a greater impetus to keep moving forward, than wandering away to do lots of sand box stuff, therefore (in my opinion) diluting the narrative flow.

You may think that losing the open world, the game would seem more flat and lacking in fun for funs sake, but I guess its horses for courses, I like it, it provides focus and fun. Take the first missions, some cultists are trying to blow up a complex, so, to stop them, you head into the place and blow stuff up, shoot bullets at all the carelessly placed fuel drums and generally create havoc, until you are the last man standing..... makes perfect sense to me :)

You get some nice tools of the trade, you have an assault rifle, with a very well implemented "snap to" aiming, you have a big a$$ hammer (STOP! HAMMER TIME! :)), a gun to blow stuff up and a forge to rebuild stuff. So for example, you are fighting an enemy, they destroy your cover, you can rebuild it and keep using it. One of the first skills you get is the ability to punch through a wall.... hows that for empowerment :)

Of course thats at its most simplistic, everything is destructible, walls, floors, stairs, what goes up, must inevitably come down, you are trying to get at an enemy a couple of floors up and all the explosions are destroying the stairs, floors and bridges, it can get quite hectic, rebuilding and shooting, as you progress towards your goal.

Another aspect of the game, takes place after you complete it, called New Game Plus, where you get a pet unicorn that apparently farts rainbows, you can also buy cheats to use as well, with "salvage" (the games currency), you aquire while playing. So I guess you have the narrative driven first playthrough, then the fun playthrough for shiz and giggles.

The graphics and especially the explosions are really nice looking and as good as any other corridor shooter you care to compare it with, they look solid and with them and the controls, you are definately looking at a Triple A experience, especially if you take the game at face value and dont expect an open world game ala Guerilla, but appreciate a more evolved Red Faction game, like the first two in the series.

All in all, a blast-a-thon, with a story, a very enjoyable romp indeed :)

[Art Blade]

nice read  :) Is it multi-platform?

[Fiach]

Yes mate, PC, 360 and PS3, dunno the PC specs though :)

[Art Blade]

cheers :)

I'm going to keep my eyes peeled. Who knows, might be interesting after all  :-()

By the way, I think you earned yourself a slap on the back, recently you're posting a lot of reviews in quick succession :) :-X

[Binnatics]

Very good review Fiach!!! Thumps up indeed!!!

I waited with reading it, don't know why. Maybe because I was in doubt since the game didn;t come out for the GfWL platform. I was hoping for another multiplayer BLAST-HAMMER-FIGHT sensation with the same friend I made there playing Guerrilla. I liked the open world scenario, but most of all I liked the multiplayer madness. Compared to other shooters, it has the best multiplayer I've ever played. It has anything you'd desire. The only game that comes close to it is DNF, but the maps are crap there compared to the Guerrilla ones.
What about the MP Fiach? Did you try it? I'm really hoping for a repeating multiplayer experience there. The destroying vs. rebuilding was allready implemented in Guerrilla, but it only came in handy in the MP. I remember how you could lock yourself up with a bunch of friends in a specific area where the other team had to break in because they wanted what you and your team had: The Bag. (In team bagman, one of the most popular MP gametypes)
They had tyo break through the walls and meanwhile, you could shoot them with your rocketlauncher  >:D
It was hard, but not impossible to breake a barricade like that: Go berserk with the entire team, or use the "railgun" which could look and shoot through anything but rock. Really great!!

I hope you can warm me up for the MP part, then I might buy the game.
Oh, and by the way... same characters? Or new ones?

[Fiach]

I dont play MP mate, only in MMO's.

You play a decendant of the Guerilla character.

The fact that its not open world it may not appeal to you, its a corridor shooter.

Sorry I cant be more helpful :)

[Binnatics]

I don't care if it's corridor. Open world is nice, but not a must. I've played great games with corridors, and I belive that Red Faction will be like that. The gameformula makes that more then possible  :-D

I'll google online about the MP, maybe one of my old friends online plays it. I'll post the result.

Edit: Googling around a bit shows only 2 'online' modes for the game. One seems cool: Destroy wave after wave of alien invaders with up to 3 friends in COOP mode. I know that can be great, since Art and I had a lot of fun doing Coop wave fighting. But we also experienced that most players focus on their own skills instead of doing teamwork, so that is a minus there. The other mode, total destruction or something, is not so cool. They had that mode in Guerrilla as well. You have to destroy as much as possible in a short period of time, in a given arena. Then you can try to climb the leaderboards. I didn't like that very much in the last version, so it won't be a lot better now I'm affraid.
Too bad they skipped the deathmatch-like MP games Guerrilla had.  :-\\

[Binnatics]

Well, since Rage was such a bummer, and since Steam had the game in special sale for only 12.50 euro, I desided to buy it. I also got a DLC that was available for 1,25 euro. No idea what it is, we'll check out soon. Downloading now ;)

[Fiach]

Well, since Rage was such a bummer, and since Steam had the game in special sale for only 12.50 euro, I desided to buy it.

Its a pretty good game mate, hope you enjoy it, when you finish, there is a "final save", it gives you a pet unicorn that farts.... no I'm serious lol :).... to use in future plays.

Can you let me know what the DLC is like, I still have the game. :)

As soon as I finished Rage, I loaded up Borderlands and started a new Lilith, to get the bad taste of Rage out of my mouth :)

[Binnatics]

A unicorn that farts

I'll let you know. And I've been also thinking about borderlands. I should give it a go, since I don't want to be fully unprepaired when BL2 drops in ;)

[Binnatics]

Well, didn't play the DLC yet, but it seems to me like another alternate campaign, just like in RF: Guerrilla.
I started the regular campaign and must say it's entertaining. A little simple from the start, but it gets interesting with funny new guns. I found out that the smash hammer still is a valuable weapon. In the last release you would have it allways as a basic part of your equipment, but this time you can change it for another weapon in your inventory. I won't, I like it too much ;)

The magnet gun is funny, as well as the remote charge shooter.
Ahhh, after Rage, this is just a descent nononsense shooter.  8) I do miss the open world setting a little though. I mean the open world setting in RF: Guerrilla.

The need for reconstructing parts of the destroyable environment is not really my type of thing. The idea is original, but it should have better stayed by rebuilding cover, not having to rebuild entire walkways after numerous explosions.  :-()

[Fiach]

I thought the rebuilding was awesome, you could rebuild and area as you ran through it, maybe its different on PC, but on 360, you could just hold the bumper button as you ran and the walkways/stairs etc filled in as you ran over them in real time, it looked astonishing, dunno how it would w@&k on a mouse and keyboard or if you can do that rebuilding on the fly.

[JRD]

I've been also thinking about borderlands. I should give it a go, since I don't want to be fully unprepaired when BL2 drops in ;)

You haven't played Borderlands yet?  ???

As mmosu once told me "dooooooo it  >:D "

It changed my gaming life  :-() ... and as Fiach also said, it will surely wash away the bad taste Rage left in your mouth!

[Fiach]

Its great mate!

Imagine Rage with a bigger, open world, more enemy variety, an actual reason to kill enemies (XP), a huge range of weapons, eg. a Rocket Launcher that looks like a pistol, elemental weapons to shock/burn/poison enemies, a huge range of grenades (bouncy, multiple warhead, take health from enemies and transfer it to you etc.). A sense of fun with the characters.

Loot is random, so when you loot a case, if you dont like whats in it, keep reloading until you get that Boomstick of Smelly Death (tm) you have always wanted. :)

Then you have the characters, a witch with a submachine gun, a hillbilly with a hawk and a sniper rifle, a soldier with a pet gun that deploys (like a sentry bot) and helps you, or Brick a man mountain, demolition expert, with a pair of fists that are only surpassed by his rocket launcher :)

The more you use a weapon, your proficancy with it will increase, also, you can restart the game with all your gear and play again, against harder enemies.

These characters each have three skill trees that have enough skill variety for multiple playthroughs, so mix that with the different characters ( 3 characters = 9 skilltrees) and you will be playing the game for a LONG time.

On top of all that sweaty goodness, it has probably the best range of DLC ever released for a game, decent, long meaty expansions to get your teeth sunk into.

Should probably pick up a GOTY edition with all expansions (4?) for about a tenner :)

[Binnatics]

I think you guys kind of... convinced me ^-^ Sounds great!!!

I'll focus on RF: Armageddon first, but this game is a must-have I see. Thanx for the advice ;)

[fragger]

...Boomstick of Smelly Death (tm)...

Had to look twice though - at first I thought it said Broomstick of Smelly Death and made me think of the straw one I use to whack spiders with...

I nearly picked up Borderlands in the shop the other day only Deus Ex Human Revolution @ half-price caught my eye instead. I may take BL up since many of you guys did and evidently had a great deal of fun with :)

[Fiach]

Had to look twice though - at first I thought it said Broomstick of Smelly Death and made me think of the straw one I use to whack spiders with...

I nearly picked up Borderlands in the shop the other day only Deus Ex Human Revolution @ half-price caught my eye instead. I may take BL up since many of you guys did and evidently had a great deal of fun with :)

I really think you would enjoy it mate....ummm ... unfortunately I cannot guarantee the product to be spider free and ..... they would be a bit large for your broomstick, I think it would just piss them off  >:D

[Binnatics]

I really like this 'magnet gun' thing.
Shoot a magnet (or magnetic field) to a surface (destroyable or alive) and then shoot another magnet (or magnetic field) to another place. It will drag whatever it contains in the first magnet towards the pointer of the second shot. With proper aiming you can destroy lots of things in a fast way. I managed to kill an alien by draging it onto another alien which gave me a nice achievement called the "Martian matchmaker".
With it's unlimited ammo it's pretty usefull in all situations.
Had a great time as well in a skeleton walker, undestroyable so far >:D Great shooting with it, and it moves quite fluidly. The guns, heavy homing missiles and a powerfull machinegun, are with infinite ammo too. You can create a nice bit of chaos with that thing. I haven't died once being in that walker.

So far, this game reveals itself as a quality shooter. I'm playing on normal difficulty level and sometimes it seems all a bit too easy to me. But that doesn't really bother me. Some other parts of the game can be a pain in the a$$ though.
I remember being in a large "drill-machine" which gets attacked by numerous aliens. Whatever weapon you use is with unlimited ammo so you can fire all you want. I used the "remote-bomb-shooter" which came in handy.
But the attacking aliens all had their own way of attacking me, with dito coloured projectiles coming towards me. It seemed the newyears fireworks show in that tunnel, and all I did was firing like a madman these explosive bowls and have them detonate and kill anything close.
The whole experience was getting a bit too fancy, graphically speaking, to really understand what was going on, so endless bombing was the only proper thing to do. I had a bit of cover though, which needed some repair every now and then, but that was pretty much what I could do about it. After a few restarts I succeeded, FIEW ::), thank god the game does an autosave.

I find it funny that when you die, the game shows you an old fashoned "GAME OVER" before giving you the option to reload a checkpoint. Haven't seen that in a while ^-^

[Fiach]

Glad you are having fun mate, I thought it was a pretty cool game :)

[fragger]

I really think you would enjoy it mate....ummm ... unfortunately I cannot guarantee the product to be spider free and ..... they would be a bit large for your broomstick, I think it would just piss them off  >:D

You haven't seen the size of some of the spiders we get around here... they'll carry off the dog if we're not careful :-\\

[Fiach]

I was curious about the name Weta Workshop, I looked up Weta, man, you have some FUGLY insects down there!

I used to hate spiders, until I saw a film called Arachnophobia, There was one scene where a bird swooped down out of the sky, picked up the spider and flew away, only to drop out of the sky, dead, seconds later and the spider scuttles away from the body  It was the turning point in my fear of them I guess, but I live in Ireland, so I'm a wimp  :-[, you live in oz, you have a reason to fear them LOL  >:D

[Binnatics]

Spiders are ment to be fearsome. Man, I can't stand the poor animals. The way they crawl, super fast, horrible. And yes I know that movie, with the poor family living on top of that damn nest of these.... ???

[Art Blade]

the spiders we get around here... they'll carry off the dog if we're not careful :-\\

ROFL