Impressions from the Red Faction Armageddon Demo

The song of war and destruction will soon resonate once again on gaming platforms. Perhaps the best game with the ability to deform almost everything and anything, Red Faction: Guerrilla had a couple of shortcomings that led critics to withhold the highly desired high scores. But let’s note: blowing up buildings in Guerrilla was a very fun pastime. Soon the time for the next part of the series - Armageddon - will arrive. I would like to share my impressions of the demo version with you.

First of all, the plot promises to be more complex and intriguing than it might seem at first glance. We play as the grandson of the main character from the previous game, Darius Mason, who faces an even more challenging task than participating in a revolution. The surface of Mars, where the actions of Red Faction take place, is now completely unsuitable for any life activities due to the destruction of the terraformer that supported the planet’s climate. All colonists have to take urgent measures and organize a vast network of long tunnels beneath the surface. Humanity on Mars can be said to have turned into an ant colony. However, people go to the planet's surface less frequently - the chances of dying are just too high. Darius, nevertheless, is engaged in this very work (for comparison, remember METRO 2033). At one fine moment, our protagonist stumbles upon an ancient temple, awakening some ancient evil. So, this is where all the chaos begins, in which we will participate. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dangerous creatures have infiltrated the tunnels, ready to tear apart any hapless soul. Darius, along with the "Red Brigade", will figure out all the intricacies of communicating with the monsters. At the end of the demo, there was a trailer that clearly stated - something stands behind this ancient evil. So we can expect intrigues, twists, and other interesting developments.

Under no circumstances should you let enemies get too close to you

Secondly, the gameplay. It can essentially be tied to the game engine Geo-Mod, as the wonderful Magnet Gun perfectly demonstrates all the perks of the "motor". The magnetic gun, as you might have guessed, feels right at home among metals. Its task is to blast them to bits. Collecting the scattered pieces of metal into one is the task of a special device called the Nano Forge, which was passed down to Darius as an inheritance. The first function will be useful in our fight against enemies. Here’s an example: apart from the magnetic gun, Darius has nothing else, and there’s no way to retreat - there’s a cliff behind him, and a monster ahead. No problem - we make the first shot from the weapon at a metal beam, and the second - at the creature itself. In less than a second, a heavy object will slam into the flesh of the enemy, leaving him with no chance. There are an infinite number of charges, entertain yourselves, folks. The Nano Forge’s ability to restore metal objects will come in handy during our adventures through the tunnels, as instances will frequently arise when various-sized chasms block the hero’s path. In such moments, simply pressing the corresponding key will unite metal objects, forming a road. All of this is, of course, great, but what to do when there’s hardly any metal around?

There's hardly any need to discuss the ordinary assault rifle - it's a classic rifle with a decent capacity. It will come to our rescue in situations when magnetic capabilities are ineffective. At long distances, a useful addition in dealings with enemies will be the grenade launcher, which allows making several shots with subsequent detonation of explosives. It’s somewhat akin to remote sticky mines. The only downside of the grenade launcher is that it leaves behind tons of debris, which we will probably have to restore later on. Other than that, it is a very deadly and extremely useful tool in battles. It’s also worth mentioning Singularity. No, not a mix of the main features of many hit games, but a singularity gun that leaves behind a small temporal black hole after firing, pulling everything alive and inanimate towards it. It has a limited number of charges, but this is compensated by its firepower. We apply Singularity only in particularly emergency situations.

There will also be large specimens like these

In the demo, we also got to use a walking robot, which, although smaller than its counterparts from Guerrilla, can still pack quite a punch, especially in the tight confines of underground slums. Besides the usual onboard machine guns and rocket launchers, the robot can also swing its fists and make swift lunges forward, knocking everything in its path aside.

The horror aspect of the game (although I’m not sure if the authors had plans for this component) is non-existent. It seems to be dark in spots, and we have to fumble around the area with a flashlight, but the atmosphere lacks those oppressive notes of horror found in both Dead Space games. In moments of respite, just like in the previously mentioned project from Visceral Games, we are allowed to upgrade our protagonist in a special shop: increase health, gain a new ability (for example, a powerful pulse that throws enemies away), reduce weapon recoil, and more. By the way, all our achievements in single-player mode will smoothly transfer to the multiplayer mode.

The return to Mars will happen very soon

Of course, it's too early to draw conclusions about the demo. Questions about the diversity of locations (in the demo, to be honest, they were pretty uniform), an interesting storyline, and the intelligence of our enemies (the monsters jump, change their position, but their actions lack what you could call a flair and unpredictability) remain open. Nevertheless, the gameplay of Red Faction Armageddon looks and plays very briskly, and I'd personally love to shake the developer’s hands for the magnetic gun. In the first minutes (and I played the demo of Armageddon with friends), you literally play with your mouth agape - the visuals are that impressive. We await the full version of the project, then we will evaluate the game in full.*

The version reviewed was for PlayStation 3.