Great weapons can really make a game. I've played countless shooters where I'm using high powered riffle after high powered riffle and that's great and all - but where's the creativity? Red Faction: Armageddon never seems to have that problem as the game features an impressive weapons selection - come on, I fired a gun that created a black hole, how friggin' cool is that? Sadly though, the rest of the game, most noticeably the story and level pacing, fails to live up to the legacy set by its cult darling predecessor, Red Faction: Guerilla.

Set decades after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla, you play as Darius Mason, grandson to Guerilla's Alec Mason. While Alec was viewed as a hero to the people of Mars, Darius just isn't living up to the family name; he's failed to stop the Mars Teraformer (the device that allows the red planet's soil to become inhabitable by humans) from being destroyed by the terrorists and as a result has driven human society underground. As your progress through Armageddon, you'll see just how despised Darius is, as even when saving colonies from total destruction, he faces jeers from the people his grandfather once saved.

"...cheesy dialogue and uninspired characters..."

It's a vast departure from the revolution story from Guerilla, and to their credit, the team at Voilition swings for the fences here. The story features elements of romance, political corruption, intrigue and more, but sadly, it almost always comes off as flat and uninspired; forced even. Thanks to cheesy dialogue and uninspired characters, I never really felt like I was connected or cared about the events of the game.

What Armageddon does get right though is the incredible ability to destroy pretty much everything you see. Much like its predecessor, nearly everything in all of the game's levels can be moved around and destroyed to your liking. See that giant metal beam ahead? Drop it on some enemies. Can't take out some baddies due to them hiding in cover behind a giant wall? Blow it away. Since the vast majority of the game takes place underground this go-round, it's sometimes difficult to see some of your destructive options, for instance I had to play through a section multiple times before I noticed a major piece that could be moved to clear out a ton of enemies faster.

Adding to the fun of the destruction is just how impressively creative some of the guns are. I mentioned the black hole shooting gun earlier, but I really can't say enough about how fun it is to use. Most useful when facing a number of enemies, using the gun causes a huge vortex to open up, swallowing up and in the process dismembering anything and anyone close to it. It's incredibly fun to watch and even more fun to use. Also cool is the magnet gun, which pins two objects together. While this may seem like a rather pedestrian effort, the possibilities are great. Shoot one of the rivets into a giant metal scaffolding and the other to an oil tank sitting on a cliff; the result is pure destructive brilliance. The possibilities are quite near endless with the gun as it can be used for anything from cover to ways to reach new areas. Oh, and there's also a unicorn that farts pure destruction. No, really.

"...the destruction is still cool, but it doesn't serve as much of a purpose as it did before."

While Red Faction: Guerilla was an open world style game, Armageddon chose to skip this route and become a linear, perhaps more driven game. While this isn't bad and a game doesn't need to be sandbox style to be good, it may not have been the greatest choice for the Red Faction series. Yes, the destruction is still cool, but it doesn't serve as much of a purpose as it did before. The game's cave setting features built in cover, and you never get the feeling that it's worth as much as it was before.

Despite its lackluster story, pacing flaws and a few questionable design choices, Red Faction: Armageddon serves its purpose of being an enjoyable and entertaining action game that features a ton of cool and memorable moments. It doesn't live up to the legacy of the last game, but it's a solid action game that's great to spend an afternoon with, or take on your buddies in the multiplayer.