Preview – Red Faction: Armageddon’s “Ruin” mode
Words by: Jeff Barker | Posted: 2 years ago | Filed under: Previews.
During our hands-on with Red Faction: Armageddon this week we got our teeth into the title’s brand new Ruin mode, which is similar in execution to Red Faction: Guerrilla‘s Wrecking Crew de, whereby you attempt to bash up a whole map-full of stuff as quickly as possible to try and bag the highest score.
The game we played was linked to the other machines taking part in the Press Event, which equalled about 20 of us (at a rough guess) linked up via Xbox Live. Although we were playing solo on our individual consoles, the highest scores were constantly updated in the top right of the screen, and with Eric Barker (Volition’s Studio Manager) and Drew Holmes (Designer) walking the room and spurring everyone on it made for a real competitive atmosphere. Needless to say, the room was full of whoops of joy and defeat as our own high scores were replaced as we fought drastically to remain at the top.
In this sort of competitive setting, Ruin mode was ace – the constant threat of being beaten by the guy next to you spurred us on to keep trying again and again, but after a while we began to realise that it was simply that atmosphere that drove us to keep playing. Put it down to the fact that we were stuck on the one map or perhaps we didn’t have all the tools available to us, but after a while it began to feel more of a chore than anything else. We had around 30 secondseach time to get as high a score as possible, with 15 extra seconds added for causing a massive amount of destruction in a short space of time, but it generally felt like each attempt was over a little too quickly.
Don’t get us wrong, the mode has the potential to be a lot of fun, and we imagine that with the extra unlocks and weapons the amount of different tactics and strategies to be had for clearing a map would be nigh on endlesss, but there’s only so many water towers you can watch topple before boredom begins to set in.
Again, the mode showcases the fantastic abilities of the GeoMod engine and watching the world crumble around you could be satisfying after a particularly stressful day, but we imagine that only the super-competitive or those looking for a fun distraction for a while would return to it time and again.
About Jeff Barker
Jeff has been with the Xboxer360 team since April 2009. He is well known for his love of sandals and frequently exhibits Rainman-like behaviour, which is even more amazing now he's a Dad. He prefers third person action/adventure titles and RPG's, but will happily turn his hand to pretty much anything.
