Red Faction: Armageddon

This doesn't look promising at all. Moratorium on power suits forever, please.

Besides the free roam and destruction, I liked that Guerrilla avoided the alien shit. Volition's been a surprising developer recently, but if I didn't know this was a Red Faction game, I wouldn't have made it all the way through the trailer.

In addition to those, there's been word of a Saints Row for the PSP.

err... Red Space anyone?


It's not like the series is some unblemished run either, after Red Faction 2.



But yeah, not looking too enticing.

I'll give Volition the benefit of the dobut due to them surprising me in the past; plus, its not likem adding monsters will mean the game will lose its appeall, say, like Crackdown.
Still, better be wary here.

Ack, stupid monsters. Annoying.

I was really excited about this game until I actually heard anything about it.

I really don't think any series consistently wastes so much potential as the Red Faction games. You could make Guerrilla a masterpiece with like five simple changes*, and instead, it's pretty much a dull slog with moments of total brilliance.

At least this time we know it'll suck from the get-go.

*First thing: You're making a game where you play a terrorist. Have some balls and add some moral gray tones.

Second thing: Pet peeve -- why does every open world game think the best way to model law enforcement is "The more stuff you kill, the faster they come and the bigger tanks they'll drive." It literally creates an incentive to destroy as little as possible. Just because GTA did it doesn't mean you should too. The easiest way to get yourself killed in Guerrilla was to plan out a surprise attack to destroy as much as you could as quickly as you could -- like, you know, an actual guerrilla would. Give us a response timer, for god's sake, and when they do come, let us escape by killing them all before reinforcements arrive. It's more fun, it rewards thinking and planning ahead, and it's about ten times more realistic than ONE HUNDRED JEEPS FLOOD THE SCREEN AS SOON AS YOU BLOW UP A BUILDING OH GOD

Aw. That's a shame - there's so much potential for improvement in a sequel - like AC2 for example, yet this just looks like well-trodden shit.

Hmmm....wary about this one. Why the hell did they feel the need to go underground? Very weird. Hopefully the game will look better once more of it is revealed.

If I recall correctly, the original Red Faction (from what, 2000?) was underground 90% of the time. It was actually kind of cool that you could use the rocket launcher and bombs to actually tunnel through the rock.

And I'd actually be OK with that if it were the case again, but the introduction of monsters just really disappointed with the introduction of monsters.

I think I must be the only one who enjoyed the second game....

Flying to the top of the skyscrapers with a jetpack, taking out the stairs with the nano rifle on the roof, and blasting the shit out of the opposite building whil most opponents had no idea how to get me down from there never got old. Also, the few times I was able to sneak up on an annoying jetpack-sniper asshole and cave in their skull with my sledgehammer were priceless. In general, the sledgehammer in that game was a great way to work out your frustrations.

Reading the official press release today at least gave me a little bit of hope, specifically the mention of co-op modes. I'm sure we'll know more after E3 next week.

"Red Faction®: ArmageddonTM moves beneath the surface of Mars as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As Darius Mason, players fight to save humanity from an even greater evil that threatens to extinguish all life on the planet.

Leveraging Volition’s groundbreaking Geo-Mod 2.0 technology, Red Faction®: ArmageddonTM offers never-before-seen physics-based weaponry that redefines gameplay in the shooter genre. Utilizing Darius’ Nano Forge abilities, players are presented with a wealth of new strategic options including reconstruction technology and the Magnet Gun in their battle to save humanity. From lava tubes to ice caves, gamers will discover a new playground for epic battles in both the single-player campaign and multiplayer co-operative modes."

I'll be kinda disappointed if the new Red Faction doesn't let you become the new Space Asshole.

That video is hilarious! It also brings something else up. Will this new Red Faction game have regular old vehicles since it is underground? I'll be sad if they take away the ability to lace a truck with explosives, smash it into a building, and blow it up. The mechs in RF Guerrilla were fun and all, but overall I had much more fun experimenting with the generic vehicles.

One thing this new game could do though. Include vehicles in the multiplayer mode. You know, if they're actually in the game in the first place.

RF Guerrilla ended up being probably my favourite game of last year (that or Borderlands) and the direction they've taken with this is disappointing. Co-op could save it though.

I just don't get how someone there could think this was a good idea.

When you have a good hit on your hands, don't take everything people liked about it and then take it away. Open world environments...gone it seems like. Destruction...I don't see how you can have much in an enclosed space like that. Also I read it's going to use Geo-Mod 2.0, which ONLY seems to apply to buildings. So I guess there's no epic skyscrapers to put down or things of that nature. Then they took things we didn't like and made it worse like the samey-ness of the environments. Adding some lava and some ice we can't even interact with is not going to change the fact we're still in an underground tunnel.

It's just mindblowingly stupid to me. That'd be like making a Saint's Row that took place entirely in a prison.

Okay, this video has me a little more excited for this game. It starts off with just some talking, but there is quite a bit of gameplay later on. I think the magnet gun looks like it could be really fun to experiment with. I also think the mech suit looks like it would be fun to use as well.

Apparently one of the reasons they wanted to bring the setting underground is so they could attach destructible things to walls and ceilings.


http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...faction/700398

Has anyone (well besides crazy random online blog commenters) been complaining about it being underground? The problem I have is that they added monsters, something that seems unnecessary for the series.

Technically speaking, they kinda had monsters in the last one too. This time, they're actually alien.

Personally, I don't really care if the enemies are aliens, soldiers, zombies, monsters, nazis, Donald Trump or any combination of the above. The enemies weren't the reason I enjoyed RF Guerrilla so much. I enjoyed blowing things up and knocking things down in creative ways. Also, I don't care if it fits the story or not this time around, the awesome sledgehammer had better still be in the game.

Apparently Armageddon is going to have its own take on "horde mode" co-op play. In order to shake things up, some rounds will be in total darkness and some rounds will task you with protecting a building while fighting off the waves of enemies. As a fan of this type of co-op mode, this sounds like an awesome idea to me.

This is May's biggest unknown quantity for me. Guerrilla was one of 2009's best games, but I'm not convinced that Armageddon will capitalize on what made that game so balls-to-the-wall great. Red Faction: Battlegrounds does not inspire confidence, although I'm sure they had two totally separate teams working on them.

Battlegrounds seems like THQ told Volition they wanted a downloadable title to expand the brand or something, like they'll be doing with the TV miniseries thing as well. Don't really care about any of it.

 

Armageddon, however, looks completely awesome to me in all the preview footage so far. The new weapons look badass, and I'm actually excited that the single-player isn't open-world again. At this point, the only thing I'm really worried about is the rumor that there won't be any competitive multiplayer.  Seeing as how they haven't said anything about it and it's only a little over a month away from release now, I'm a little worried about it. Hopefully it's just a case of them focusing on other aspects of the game in the marketing so far.

Volition didn't do Battlegrounds.  That was THQ Digital Studios UK.

Well no wonder it seems to have nothing to do with Red Faction whatsoever.

 

On another note, I am extremely disappointed that Armageddon won't have competitive multiplayer. Guerrilla's multiplayer was freaking awesome, and I would have been happy if they had just included the same modes in Armageddon, even if it had used the same maps. Hopefully Armageddon does well enough that there will be another Red Faction game in the future that does include multiplayer. Hell, I'd probably buy a multiplayer-only Red Faction game.

The demo didn't impress me at all. Now I'm really interested in learning what possessed Volition to remove two of the best parts of Guerrilla - the open world and the competitive multiplayer - and stuff it into underground corridors filled with aliens. It's like setting Portal 3 in Kabul and removing the Portal gun.

I did however enjoy the Magnet Gun and the repairing device immensely. I enjoy how the environment is still pretty much completely destructible, and ragdolling the aliens into the walls with it tickled me.

I'll probably buy this one after it's gone down in price.

It's likey they forgot why everybody loved Guerilla or as I liked to call it Insurgents: The Game. It might turn out to be a decent game, but like how Burnout: Revenge turned into the open world Paradise, it won't be the same.

You guys didn't like the demo?  Wow..I had a ton of fun with it.  The graphics are pretty bland and i'm bummed it's all underground but I love the rebuilding mechanic and the black hole and magnet guns are just fucking awesome.  I'm definitely picking this up when it comes out.  

IGN released their review, and I'm so disappointed that this is mediocre, I'll probably just pick up Guerrilla and replay it.

I fairness they said the co-op was really good and looking back, that was the main draw of Guerilla to me.

Seems like the embargo must have been up today since I've been seeing reviews pop up everywhere. Whether on purpose or not, it seems like Volition took out everything that was cool about Guerrilla except for the destruction engine. I think they thought up a couple of cool new weapons (magnet gun was kind of fun in the demo), but multiple reviews suggest that the destruction is sort of downplayed in Armageddon in that most of the time it isn't needed and can even get in the way (ie. you bust out a walkway you are on when melee attacking an enemy and fall through it). I've also seen the word "boring" thrown about here and there.

 

Disappointing.

Yeah, it's kind of the worst of our fears from when this was announced confirmed.

I'm playing through the game right now...it's okay. Not great, but not terrible.

THQ: "Hey that Red Faction Guerrilla game made some money. Let's make a sequel!"

 

Fans: "Yes! Guerrilla was great fun. I can't wait for a sequel."

 

THQ: "So....everybody seemed to enjoy the sandbox aspects of Guerrilla and Volition is known for making sandbox games......I know! Let's make the new Red Faction game a linear shooter!"

 

Fans: "Wait, what?:

 

THQ: "Yeah! And that Dead Space game seems to be fairly popular. Let's add a bunch of alien bugs into our game too!"

 

Fans: "Ummmmm.....I'm not so sure about alien things."

 

THQ: "All that destruction is so cool. Let's make sur ethe level design minimizes it and sometimes makes the destruction actually get in the way of the gameplay! It'll be awesome!"

 

Fans: "This is sounding worse and worse."

 

THQ: "People thought the multiplayer from Guerrilla was explosively strategic and a ton of fun. I know, let's get rid of it and add a poorly implemented horde mode instead!"

 

Fans: "No multiplayer!! That was the best thing about Guerrilla!"

 

THQ: "Armageddon DOES have multiplayer! That's what the horde mode thing is for! Quick! Somebody throw a dumpy looking unicorn that vomits rainbows as a weapon into the game! Distract them with shininess!!"

 

Fans: "Man, it looks like they completely removed everything that was good about Red Faction Guerrilla, called it Armageddon, and slapped it on store shelves. This is so disappointing that I'm not going to buy it."

 

 

General Public: "What is this generic-looking shooter game with Dead Space aliens in it? Looks boring."

 

 

THQ: "Why is nobody buying our game!?! We advertised it and everything this time! We made a TV movie and a rebranded  Red Faction downloadable promo game! Screw it! No more Red Faction games! Nobody wants them!"

 

Fans: "We want them! We just didn't want your crappy game that ignored everything good about its predecessors!"

 

 

Nobody wins.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/28/volition-founder-and-president-resigns/

 

Double suckage, Mike Kulas came across as a pretty good boss/guy from the gameinformer doco earlier in the year.

 

 

But yeah, Armageddon, not what I was hoping for. I loved RF:G.