E310: Red Faction: Armageddon bringing focus to narrative

4:00 PM on 06.15.2010   |   Nick Chester

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"Our first tendency for Red Faction: Guerrilla was 'have at it, have fun destroying everything.'," says Volition creative director Jacques Hennequet, speaking of last year's title, which brought unprecedented destructibility to games with its update GeoMod technology.

The upcoming Red Faction: Armageddon, which is set to hit shelves in March of next year, brings more focus to the series.

"Now we're refining this a little bit and we are integrating the destruction into the gameplay more," he says. "So the game is no longer just about destruction, it's about how you use destruction to accomplish goals, server purposes and advance the story."

Armageddon takes place over 60 years after Guerrilla, with those living on Mars are forced to live underground after the planets surface has be rendered inhabitable. Compared to the narrative of Guerrilla, Armageddon's storyline will be more linear and focused (while maintaining open-world gameplay).

In fact, THQ and Volition say they're blowing out the fiction and world of Red Faction across multiple mediums -- it won't simply begin and end with the game. Rumors have previously linked the IP and THQ to the SyFy Network. While they're tight-lipped on details, we're told to expect more to be revealed at Comic-Con in July.

Red Faction: Armageddon is playable on the show floor here at E3. We'll even get our first hands on the game's Magnet Gun, which let's players snap any two in-world objects together like magnets. How about connecting a vehicle to an enemy, sending the two objects smashing together, for instance? Ouch. You won't want to miss our first impressions.