The Red Faction series has gained quite the following over the years, due partially to its science-fiction story, but mostly because of its history of great gameplay mechanics and cool weapons. The game series is set entirely on Mars, and follows the story of several generations of human colonists trying to survive life on the red planet. But of course, like all good science fiction, something has to go wrong.

The fourth entry in the Red Faction series takes place 50 years after the events in Red Faction: Guerilla. The terraforming operation that was so critical to execute in the last game has failed, forcing the remaining human on Mars to go underground. You play as Darius Mason, who unwittingly drills too far beneath the planet’s surface and awakens a long-dormant race of aliens who are bent on destroying the human invaders. From here, our hero has to figure out how to stop these aliens from causing Armageddon on Mars. One of the cool things about the new story in Red Faction: Armageddon is that it is designed to be a standalone story. Events from previous games will be recalled and mentioned, but if you are new to the Red Faction universe, you should be able to jump right in with Armageddon.

The gameplay in Red Faction: Armageddon will retain the series’ longstanding third-person shooting format, but there will be some important changes this time around, most notably, with the way you will use its environment as a weapon. Although destructible environments have been a staple of previous Red Faction games (most notably, Guerilla), Armageddon will take the game’s destruction element to the next level with a new weapon: the magnet gun.

The magnet gun will be the main weapon in the game and will allow players to completely change their surroundings. We were able to watch as a bridge and parts of an old mine shaft were picked up and transformed into flying shrapnel to take out enemies. The magnet gun turns every structure into a weapon, and can also be used to move objects in the enemy’s way, if you want to adopt a more defensive strategy. The magnet gun works by attracting two specific objects towards each other. If you are trying to take out some enemies in the middle of the screen, you can select an object on one side, select another on the opposite side, and then just sit back and watch the fireworks. The collisions use some brutal physics, and while we didn’t get any specifics on the engine, everything looks good so far. Little pieces of shrapnel bounce around the screen, and the amount of detail we were able to see in the demo was pretty amazing.

In addition to this new weapon (which looks to be the cornerstone of the gameplay), there will also be a new mecha element in the game. Because the gameplay areas are uninhabitable, Darius will need to step inside a giant robotic suit, known as the Exo, in order to clear certain areas. This mecha suit can bust through walls, blow things up, and even smash through enemies. We didn’t see as much of the Exo in action as we did the gravity gun, but we were able to watch it smash through some enemies with efficiency and speed.

In addition to the game’s single-player mode, a new multiplayer mode has also been unveiled. Extermination mode will be a new survival-style multiplayer mode that allows up to four people to play against infinite waves of enemies. At this juncture, Extermination mode sounds a lot like Horde mode from Gears of War 2, so hopefully more information will be released soon detailing how this mode will set itself apart from other survival-style multiplayer modes.

From what we’ve seen, Red Faction: Armageddon is coming along nicely and will be a blockbuster addition to the series. Even if you haven’t been able to check out previous entries in the Red Faction series, the game’s fresh new characters should acquaint new players with the world of Red Faction quite nicely. Red Faction: Armageddon is currently scheduled for a March 2011 release, so there is still a bit of a wait before we’ll be able to check out the full game. But stay tuned, as Red Faction: Armageddon looks like a game worth waiting for!

By Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Staff Contributor