Welcome to Mars. The red planet, named after the god of war himself. Will it ever know peace? It's time to find out; this is Red Faction Armageddon for X-Box 360.

        It's time to leave the open free surface of Mars and head back to the confining, claustrophobic, soul-crushing mines that this franchise was born in. This time around the game designers decided to do away with free roam, and make this entry linear. I for one enjoyed the heck out of Guerilla. This is a nice change though; you play as a descendent of Alec named Darius Mason. The reason Darius and all of Martian kind are living in the deep underground is because years earlier a mission on the surface went south and a terrorist attack succeeded in destroying the terraformers. Gone are the fields of Oasis, now returned to the windswept wasteland that the surface once was. This is where the game starts, more or less. Good, right? I agree, let's move on.

        The graphics in this game are better than Guerilla but not by much. It keeps the same play style. Third person shooter, d-pad selecting weapons with all the good and bad that entails. This time around however you have a new and improved Nano-Forge. Now when you "accidently" blow up that persons' house you can fix it if you so wish. Or if you blow up a bridge you need in the heat of combat, no worries now. The aiming still seems a bit "meh" to me. I don't know why but I had the same problem in Guerilla. I can't help but compare this to itspredecessor because it is so very similar. It feels more like an add-on than a sequel. A really good add-on mind you but an add-on nonetheless. 

   nano forge, do your stuff!

        Your enemies this time around aren't some paramilitary organization, but rather bug-like monsters that look a little familiar. They seem to be bigger, badder versions of the monsters you fought in the very first Red Faction game all those years ago. This explains why they were there in the first place and why they weren't in Guerilla. I like it, it changes things up and expands on the mythos. As all good sequels SHOULD DO. I'm looking at you HALO (gunna get hate mail for that).

   monsters everywhere

        This is a good buy and I enjoy it quite a bit. I believe it's a good addition to what has always been a little bit of a  sleeper franchise. I give this game 4 out of 5.

Written by: Kevin Mason (AKA LempiElinika)

Edited by: Sarah Lawhorne