Your performance in any mode of Armageddon - even the main campaign - grants you salvage points, which can be used to upgrade your abilities. The only catch is: even if you’ve unlocked them, they can only be used in campaign levels and Infestation waves that are designated as being high enough. So, basically, you can’t unlock every ability while playing the campaign, and then go sweep through the beginning Waves of Infestation. It keeps things challenging.
Also: once you’ve reached a certain Wave on a certain map, you can always start back there again. If you join an online match and beat a Wave that you hadn’t before, then it marks that one off on your map select screen, but you still have to beat the Waves before it in order to use it as a starting point. With thirty Waves on eight maps, there is plenty of reason to keep coming back.
For rainy days without the internet, Ruin mode is a neat distraction. Choose your weapon and annihilate as much as you can, as fast as you can - it’s that simple. Online leaderboards showcase the best scores. My time with it was pretty much just a trial run to witness the awesome destruction that the Geo Mod engine can wreak. Nick seemed to have a lot more fun with it. Currently, Ruin mode is only available by purchasing the game new.
For now, Red Faction: Armageddon remains a keeper. Which means that I won’t be giving it to my younger brother, nor trading it in for retail credit. The gameplay is airtight, Geo Mod has raised the bar on destruction, and persistent character progression makes every mode worth playing, even if the lack of campaign co-op stings yet again.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Infestation is an online co-op swarm mode. 4 players can join together to take on increasingly difficult waves of enemies.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.