Red Faction: Armageddon

If there’s one question that developers surely consider before making a sequel, it’s probably: rinse and repeat or start afresh? The number of identikit sequels around points to the former being the safest bet; however, isn’t that a bit boring?

All the same, Volition could’ve played it safe for Armageddon. They could’ve said, “let’s get a new Mason, explore a new section on Mars and rethink some of Guerrilla’s missions. It’ll be magic.” It probably would.

Nevertheless, we’re glad they’ve shaken things up, because there were fundamental issues with the old formula that we’re glad to be getting away from. For starters, Red Faction is set on Mars, therefore pretty sights are few and far between, unless you have a keen eye for various shades of red and brown. We didn’t want Armageddon to look the same.

Then there’s the hardware limitations; those huge vistas and open world environments come with a huge framerate cost, so it’s unlikely we would have seen a new built-up Mars ­— not unless they scaled back on the destruction (and that wasn’t going to happen). So more travelling across sparse terrain.

It makes sense, then, why Volition has decided to put destruction and action at the heart ofeverything — and not something that you work towards — even if it means giving up on some of the things we liked about Guerrilla.

Action, action, action

To do this, they’ve mostly set Armageddon in underground caverns, where the spaces are enclosed and tight. In these claustrophobic tunnels, Volition funnel wave after wave of aliens at us, giving us plenty of reasons to cause damage (not that we need one).

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