Wed, Nov 02, 2011 | 12:40 GMT
Volition: Consistency in Red Faction: Armageddon “was lost” during development
An environmental artist for Red Faction Guerrilla has said said one of reasons Red Faction: Armageddon wasn’t as well-received as other entries in the franchise, was due to interference.
Speaking in an interview published in the latest edition of Play Magazine, Wayne Adams said what players experienced in the released version Armageddon was not how the game started out in development.
“The last game had one flaw and that was interference,” said Adams. “What people play, when they play Red Faction: Armageddon, is not what it started out to be. A lot was changed on the story side of things. Elements were introduced and things had to either be scrapped or re-purposed to keep up with the game.
“In the end hard decisions had to be made, and what could have been was restructured into what the team could do with the amount of time they had. I can’t say whether or not the original ideas would have been better but I think consistency was lost in all of the turmoil of change.”
During its July financial call to investors, THQ president and CFO Brian Farrell noted sales of Red Faction: Armageddon “were below expectations,” and felt this was due to the title not resonating with “a sufficiently broad console,” audience.
Farrell went on to say THQ didn’t “intend to carry forward” with the Red Faction series “in any meaningful way,” claiming that the “two successive versions just found a niche.”
Thanks: NowGamer, Ianos.
Related posts
Volition: We struggled with PS3 Red Faction
Volition: Red Faction series backtrack is an “evolution”, retains “possibilities”
Volition – Red Faction: Guerrilla destruction “five to ten years” ahead of curve
12 
Posted in: Action, Development, THQ
Tags: red faction, Red Faction: Armageddon, volition, Wayne Adams
12 comments
#1
Maximum Payne
27/10/11, 6:42 pm
We could all agree it fails because it was much linear experience unlike Guerrilla
#2
NeoSquall
27/10/11, 7:06 pm
@1 Indeed.
I’ve recently played the game myself to find out why it was judged so poor and I had the lingering feeling that it was almost claustrophobic.
It was a long tunnel where I couldn’t stray from the given path, even the bit of backtracking didn’t help lighten this sensation.
#3
DSB
27/10/11, 7:08 pm
I thought Guerilla was pretty terrible too. Can’t say I was surprised.
#4
The_Red
27/10/11, 7:08 pm
Even if it was a more consistent experience, it would have failed. Action and spectacle based games like Red Faction are like blockbuster movies that need to go bigger and bigger. After going open-world in a massive Mars landscape with lots of huge environments to destroy, that shouldn’t have gone back to linear progress and DEFINITELY not a mostly underground game.
It’s like GTA5 becoming a linear street shooter with lots of sewer levels.
#5
Edo
27/10/11, 7:14 pm
The only good thing in Armageddon was the magnet gun – one of the coolest weapons in video games ever.
#6
YoungZer0
27/10/11, 7:44 pm
Just make Punisher 2 and everything is forgiven.
#7
IL DUCE
27/10/11, 8:43 pm
Volition is just a failure of a dev studio…SR3 will not be well received and will probably lead to their collapse…
#8
DSB
27/10/11, 8:47 pm
@7 You sure you’re not talking about Relic? Saints Row is a strong franchise, and it arguably looks to be one of the most entertaining open world games of the last decade.
I doubt it will manage to save THQ from total ruin though.
#9
The_Red
27/10/11, 9:06 pm
@6 Wow, if they release that sequel with all the violence intact, I’ll worship their altar for a year. That game may have gotten bad reviews but it was brutally fun.
#10
fearmonkey
27/10/11, 11:22 pm
When Red faction went third Person, I completely lost interest….
I liked the previous games, i liked the FPS view. Even if they would have went with dead spaces over the shoulder view, it would have been better. The demo for the last one was boring and I knew i wouldn’t care for it.
#11
NeoSquall
28/10/11, 12:05 am
@7 & 8 you are probably smoking the same shit. Throw it away because it’s just BAD.
#12
RandomTiger
28/10/11, 1:04 pm
The loss of the sandbox was a shame but for me the underground setting and fixing gun were the final nails in the coffin. I wanted to be able to blow up / knock down bigger buildings, not put things back together again.
Its such a shame they have killed off this series, I think they totally approached it in the wrong way, why did they make that XBLA game, and the TV movie? This game just needed a solid sequel along the same lines as Guerilla to expand the fanbase.
Perhaps Guerilla didnt sell as much as they wanted (1.3 mill?) and perhaps a change was needed but Armageddon at (0.4 mill) clearly the new game both alienated the existing audience and failed to connect to a new one.