Red Faction: Armageddon for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

THQ's latest entry into its Red Faction franchise, "Armageddon", looked more promising in previews than it turned out in the final product. The previous game, "Guerilla", wasn't without its flaws but it was a lot of fun, had a likeable protagonist, a decent villian, and a fair amount of gameplay. It was a joy to run around Mars engaging in all kinds of sabotage and demolition, as the series with its Geo-mod technology did destruction well. This new game, not so much. There's still things to be destroyed, but as the action moves underground there seem to be less destructible envirronments. Movement is a little clumsy, and the snap aim isn't always helpful, as enemies tend to swarm over you. And the enemies tend to be bullet sponges, which isn't helpful either. And things get repetitive quickly- move forward to an enemy, fight swarms of alien bugs, do something to help you advance, and fight some more. Combat tends to get frustrating rather than be fun, and you rarely have enough quiet moments to do some salvaging, which you'll need plenty of salvage if you want to upgrade anything. Cut scenes are done well and the voice acting is decent, but the story (which wasn't exactly deep in the last game) is pretty thin. There's multiplayer for those who like that sort of thing, though if you rent you won't have access to the Ruin mode. Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment for me, and I felt this was a step backwards in the series. I'd recommend renting this first before you buy. If you don't have it already and you absolutely must buy a Red Faction game, I'd suggest RF: Guerilla, it's fairly cheap and a lot more fun. Still, if you have the space in your queue, you may want to give this a rent at least. With any luck you'll enjoy it more.