If you played "Red Faction: Guerilla" then you know that Volition nailed one thing really well: the ability to destroy the world around you with a great big hammer. It worked brilliantly with the game's open world setting and open-ended mission structure. The upcoming sequel, "Red Faction: Armageddon," is a more linear experience. That doesn't mean you won't be tearing things down though. In fact, we learned today that a newly announced multiplayer mode called Ruin will focus entirely on reshaping the world around you into lovely piles of rubble.
Ruin is basically all about giving you a weapon and an arena filled with breakable objects to use it on. Of course, in "Red Faction" terms, "breakable objects" refers to everything from shipping crates to multi-story structures that reach high up into the sky. The mode will come in two flavors: a score-based challenge mode that rewards your ability to string your destruction into elaborate chains and a free play mode. No explanation needed there, right?
Make no mistake, the same sort of destructive potential is still an element in the game's solo campaign. The narrower focus of the maps simply means there's not as much freeform "let's see what I can tear down to its foundations today" gameplay. It looks like Ruin will provide an outlet for that, especially in the free play mode.
The coming sequel is set 50 years after the events of "Guerilla" and 10 years after a mass exodus off of the surface of Mars and into its mines, following the destruction of the planet's terraformer by a meteor. The protagonist is Darius Mason, grandson of "Guerilla" hero Alec Mason, is tricked into opening a long-sealed shaft, releasing native Martians into the human populace. Chaos ensues. Or Armageddon, as the case may be.
THQ will be demoing Ruin mode at PAX East this weekend, so expect more details soon. Look for "Red Faction: Armageddon" in stores on May 31 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows platforms.