Red Faction Armageddon Diaries Part One

This is my ongoing exploration of the Red Faction Universe. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. I began Red Faction Armageddon.

The game opens with a terrorist cult having taken control of Mars’ atmospheric processing plant, the Terraformer. The Red Faction, now Mars’ militia rather than a group of rebels, are en-route to stop them by killing their leader Adam Hale. Darius Mason, grandson of Red Faction Guerilla’s Alec Mason, is an engineer and coming to help repair damage the cultists may have done.

Due to the damage already caused, a storm has been gathering over the Terraformer. Lightning begins to strike, hitting the APC that Mason and his unit are in. It blows off the rear door as the vehicle swerves, sending Mason flying out. Another bolt hits a second APC which slams into Mason making him black out.

Just after waking, Mason's on the case

Upon waking, his S.A.M. (Situational Awareness Module) which is built into his Nano-Forge gauntlet begins rebooting the damaged unit, keeping Mason appraised of his surroundings as he heads into the complex. There were many enemies, but they couldn’t stand up to my hammer, rifle and plasma cannon. Usually the heavy weapons are saved for later in the game, so I was happy to have it.

Entering the main building, I was attacked by a four-legged mech -- which S.A.M. advised I run from. A few rockets took it out, and I was free to resume my increasingly difficult task.

The Nano-Forge allowed quick reconstruction of walkways, buildings, boxes -- anything I pointed it at which explosives had destroyed. As I went further into the facility, S.A.M. restored another of the gauntlet’s useful function: Impact. Useful for punching through walls, including anything stood a short distance on the other side of them.

Such as Marauder cultists...

I made my way through the facility, reconstructing some reactors that were destroyed and killing loads of people. I passed several corpses along the way, so finding a wounded soldier was a blessing -- until he directed me towards the room with the Marauder mech inside. I dispatched it with relative ease, then activated a bridge which apparently led to where Hale was.

Then it turned out that the wounded soldier was Hale himself. He activated the explosives his people had planted, and the Terraformer blew up.

Having somehow survived that, things picked back up several years later with the population of Mars now living underground. The weather on the surface wasn’t ideal, though the atmosphere was still breathable. Through a cutscene we met Kara, a Marauder who was friends with Mason and sold salvage from the surface at the market. Mason told her that he was on his way to a well paying job on the surface, then went to meet up with the folks that had hired him.

Here you can see Kara. A lot of Kara

Getting into a mech suit, Mason was directed to go down an elevator to where they are digging, in some old abandoned tunnels. Working with no questions asked unfortunately left little room for questions, so down he went. Now equipped with a Magnet Gun (it fired two projectiles which drew each other to themselves), he cleared the way through to a huge ornately carved stone pillar.

Worryingly, the pillar was close to a huge hologram of Capek, the Ultor scientist from Red Faction who experimented on people with nanites and inventor of the original Nano Forge. Mason radioed to the guys in charge and they told him that they wanted what was underneath the seal, and to remove it.

Just as creepy looking like this...

Once it was destroyed they lowered me down -- and cut the cable. It was Hale and his men who had hired Mason, and there were lifesigns headed right for him. He backed away blindly and toppled off of a cliff...