Red Faction Armageddon is a GREAT addition to the series. Just plain fun.
You have the standard melee, assault rifle, and shotgun, to the energy blasting plasma thrower, disintegrating XNG-5000, laser pistols and a slew of others. A new introduction to the series is the magnet gun. This gun boasts no need of ammo and despite the traditional sense of magnets; this gun will stick to anything, even humans. With all of this weaponry, one can go about pulverizing his enemies in a variety of ways, and it also helps that Darius can keep 4 different weapons equipped at all times in the game. But it's not all left to guns. Another introduction to the series is player upgrades. Darius can draw on the power of the nanoforge to blast enemies, reconstruct buildings, shield him from enemy fire, and a number of other abilities. But in order obtain them, salvage must be collected. Everything is unlocked through salvage; it's the currency of Armageddon, but it's not hard to find. On my first play through, I was able to gather enough salvage to get all the upgrades except for three. Not bad for not having a strategy guide.
You'll notice that almost everything is destructible here. From the tallest building to the smallest ramp, destruction plays a huge part in Armageddon, as it did in Guerilla; I imagine THQ realized this to be a strong feature in the series and decided to continue with it. Kudos THQ, kudos. While so much is destructible, at the same time, it can all be fixed as though never being touched. While admittedly this feels to be a bit of a cop out, it is necessary since, theoretically, you can destroy the only route available to progress within the game. This destruction can play a huge role in gun battles as well. I can't count how many times I pounded an enemy with walls and support beams of nearby structures using the magnet gun. With that said, Armageddon has you taking on an enemy that hasn't been seen previous Red Faction titles. The native creatures inhabiting Mars' underground have surfaced and they threat anyone that resembles a human. They like to attack in swarms in an effort to overwhelm you. This may seem bothersome to some, but with the right weaponry and upgrades, one can easily crush their swarms into space dust. However, when a battle is won, there isn't much in the way of satisfaction, as the battles aren't very challenging, even with the swarms of enemies. I played on Hard difficulty my first time through, and felt the challenge at maybe one or two spots in the game. The final boss fight was actually one of the easiest fights, and at the end of that fight, I felt a bit confused as to everything that had just taken place.
The story left much to be desired. I wasn't really aware of WHY I was doing everything I was doing, and it was a bit hard to follow at times, but the compass made sure that I never got stuck wondering what to do next. Which is something that could potentially make me put down a game and not play it for weeks, so I did find the compass to be of a great relief.
The story isn't what would draw one to this game; overall, Red Faction Armageddon has plenty of action and creative ways to kill an enemy. It takes you on a venture through Mars and has many exciting points throughout Darius Mason's exploration. It'll take you about ten hours to complete, but it does have some online features and modes that add to the game's some replay factor. If you're a fan of previous Red Faction games, I highly recommend Armageddon.