Red Faction: Armageddon
 |
This page is under construction. The information on this page may not yet be complete. |
Red Faction: Armageddon is a third-person shooter video game developed by Volition Inc. and published by THQ, in collaboration with Syfy Games. The fourth and final installment in the Red Faction series, Armageddon is set on Mars in the year 2175, fifty years after the events of "Red Faction: Guerrilla." It was released to tie in with the television series, Red Faction: Origins.
Fans of the series will be glad to hear that the PC version of Red Faction: Armageddon will be developed in-house by Volition Inc. and not by Reactor Zero. It will also use Steamworks, as opposed to the Games for Windows: LIVE service used in Red Faction: Guerrilla. [1]
Overview
Armageddon's backdrop is a dramatically altered Mars. The destruction of the Terraformer by Adam Hale, the game's antagonist, at the beginning of the game has rendered the planet's surface inhospitable. This catastrophic destruction led to devastating super-tornados and lightning storms, forcing the colonists to flee to the underground mines and caves, initially built by their ancestors. These subterranean realms have since been transformed into habitable colonies for a people adapting to life beneath the surface.
The protagonist and player character in Armageddon is Darius Mason, grandson of Alec Mason and Samanya, the revolutionaries in Red Faction: Guerrilla. Darius, unlike his parents, is not a freedom fighter but a business entrepreneur who operates various enterprises from Bastion, an underground center of colonist life, and regularly engages in mining, scavenging, and mercenary work. The surface of Mars, now a ravaged landscape, is rarely visited except by individuals like Darius and smugglers who risk the dangerous conditions to transport goods among the underground settlements. The majority of the game's events are set in motion when Darius is deceived into opening a shaft in an ancient temple (which has been sealed years earlier by Capek), awakening a race of Martian creatures that wreak havoc across the planet. The resultant chaos and destruction earn Darius the ire of the colonists, who blame him for the disaster.
Gameplay
The game will retain several elements from its predecessor, Red Faction: Guerrilla, such as fully destructible environments. Armageddon doesn't include an open-world or hub-like areas but rather a linear-approach to both its story and gameplay, similar to the previous instalment, which had the player liberating settlements from the Earth Defense Force, the player must now reclaim cultist fortifications on the disaster-ravaged surface of the planet and free colonists from alien cocoons. Players can also hunt for artifacts to create new alien weapons such as the new Nano Forge, Tremblers and Rhino Charges. Although the planet's surface is no longer habitable, gameplay will not be restricted to only the underground caverns of Mars and can still explore and fight on the surface of Mars against the aliens. The game also features a new extermination mode which has four players teaming up to fight against infinite waves of attackers
Infestation
This subject has an article with more information: Infestation
Compared to Red Faction Guerrilla's multiplayer, which featured a team versus structure, Armageddon's approach was decided for a co-op like experience with wave-based rounds which sets out a different experience from it's predecessor.
Ruin
- This subject has an article with more information: Ruin Mode
Raid is a separate gamemode, equivalent to Guerilla's Wrecking Crew, that allows the player to destroy structures in order to gain points as per its score based system, it can be played as a challenge with a timer or in free mode.
Plot
After the Red Faction's victory against the EDF, the newly-independent Mars prospered. Fifty years later, however, the terraforming machine that regulated Mars' environment and atmosphere was damaged, rendering the surface uninhabitable and forcing the populace to move underground into the mines excavated by the first Colonists more than a century before.
The game begins fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerrilla, and five years after the population's move underground. It follows the story of Darius Mason -- grandson of Martian Revolution heroes Alec and Samanya -- who runs a lucrative series of businesses based in Bastion (the underground hub of Colonist activity), including mining, scavenging and mercenary work. Only a few sane people venture to the now-ravaged surface of Mars, apart from contractors like Darius and smugglers who transport goods between settlements. At the start of the game, Darius, as a freelance miner was tasked to accompany a group in a mining job, despite Kara insisting not to go, Darius does anyway but was tricked into reopening a mysterious shaft in an old Marauder temple, releasing a long-dormant race of aliens and causing an armageddon on Mars.
After falling off a cliff that left him unconscious for three days, Darius, guided by SAM (Situation Awareness Module), escapes the tunnels into an underground mining colony where he finds the Plague attacking the citizens. Grouping up with survivors and some Red Faction soldiers, he escorts an ambulance convoy to Bastion with the help of an LEO Exo Suit that is found along the way. Darius then arrives at Bastion to discover that the town is overrun by the Plague, with all the injured holed up in the centre of town. Darius helps out, only to have them turn on him when they find out that he was involved in the release of the Plague. As he escapes to the surface, the pursuers following him are attacked and slaughtered by the alien race. The Red Faction, along with Frank, shows up and arrests him, but are attacked, at which point Darius joins the Red Faction and helps fend off the Plague.
Informed that Adam Hale is involved with releasing the Plague, Frank lets Darius know where the Cultists are hiding. Darius assaults them in a walker with Kara, and discovers Hale trying to tame the Plague. Darius then attempts to kill Hale, but fails. Because of this, he tries to escape in a minecart. Hale pursues Darius with his walker. Eventually the walker is crippled by a landslide. Darius takes out his Magnet Gun to finish Hale by dropping pieces of the ceiling on him, and results with Hale being decapitated. He is then picked up by Kara and escape in a walker to a Marauder city, where they hope to learn more about the Plague. They discover a secret entrance that is filled with lava, but it's inaccessible, so Darius and Frank take a barge to the machine used to raise the lava, and destroy it to lower the lava. Darius and Kara then head through the tunnels to find the alien Queen, but Kara is killed when they get out to repair a leg. With Kara gone, he takes a personal vendetta against the Queen. He finds her, and in the fight, badly weakens her. Enraged, she begins her ascent to the surface in order to take it over.
At this point, SAM discovers that the Plague cannot withstand an Earth-like atmosphere. Hearing this, Darius with the help from the nano forge needs to repair the terraformer to bring back the atmosphere. S.A.M explains due to their underground depth, they would have to break surface fast to stop Plague from over running Mars. Mason decides the quickest way to the surface is to latch on one of the Queen's tentacles during her ascension. He finds the terraformer that Hale destroyed, traverses its Plague infestation within and repairs it, killing off the Plague. The Red Faction along with Marauder forces soon arrives at the terraformer to secure the area. After a brief conversation with Frank, Mason looks at the terraformer to see the clouds start to dissipate after years of dust storms. A thunderstorm starts to appear off at a distance and sunlight breaking through the clouds. Darius pulls out the Franklin medallion he received from Kara and stares at it. SAM warns Darius of high concentration of radiation coming into the atmosphere to which Mason replies "Easy there genius. That's the sun." as Darius continues to walk wherever, ending on a bleaker note.
Downloadable Content
Path to War
|
- This subject has an article with more information: Path to War
Released on August 2, 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows, Path to War features a prequel campaign set before the events of the terraformer failure, featuring new content such as a weapons set for the DLC only and achievements that the player can unlock. It is currently being sold on digital store platforms such as GOG, Xbox and Steam.
Ruin Pack
|
- This subject has an article with more information: Ruin Mode
Released on June 8, 2011, originally a pre-order bonus, introduces a new type of gamemode similar to Red Faction: Guerilla's Wrecking Crew. It follows the same format without the multiplayer aspect, as most of the maps are set in revised versions of the campaign.
Commando Pack
|
Released on August 10, 2011, the Commando Pack is a pre-order pack for Red Faction: Armageddon, originally a Gamestop pre-order bonus. It comes with new character uniforms for the main protagonist and new weapons for the campaign.
Recon Pack
|
Released on August 10, 2011, the Recon Pack is a pre-order pack for Red Faction: Armageddon, originally a Best Buy pre-order bonus. It also comes with 2 new character uniforms for Armageddon's Infestation Mode and weapons for the campaign.
Alien speculation
It is speculated that the aliens are actually mutants from Capek's Zoo, which appeared in the first Red Faction game. This is supported by the fact that Armageddon, like the first game in the series, takes place in underground mines.
Future
Following poor sales, on June 27, 2011, THQ CEO Brian Farrell announced that the company would not be pursuing the Red Faction series further as any future installments are cancelled. [2] The disappointing sales of Armageddon, along with other factors, had led THQ to lose $38.4 million in a fiscal year. [3]
| “ We do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way." „ |
| — THQ CEO Brian Farrel |