One of the metrics we informally use for assessing the quality of a game is a simple count of how many people come over and watch the reviewer play, or who ask for . On this front, Red Faction: Armageddon is clearly a stellar title, having proved itself capable of enthralling passers-by with ease...

Armageddon is the fourth instalment in the Red Faction series, and once again follows the tried-and-true formula of destructible environments and alien intrigue.

Fun, satisfying gory third-person shooter; Some excellent weapons; Graphics are really quite pretty

Storyline is a little lacklustre; things are linear and repetitive

Imagine you're a colonist on Mars. You work the Martian soil without a space suit, breathing oxygen and living under an atmosphere, thanks to a terraformer your ancestors established and maintained. Now colonist, imagine that a group of terrorists attack the terraformer and bring it down.

When I first saw an ad for Red Faction: Armageddon I immediately thought "didn't this game come out a couple years ago? Doesn't it seem a little late to be advertising this game almost 2 years after the release?" But wait, I realized, this is a different game!

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?

Volition's Red Faction: Armageddon has been out for a few days, surprising many with the direction it's taken for its hammer/magnet based destruction. Having smashed every last thing from beginning to end, I'm now in a position to tell you Wot I Think.

Red Faction: Armageddon is a dumb, stupid game. Not in the way Gears of War is either. That game is intelligently stupid, wearing its absurd machismo proudly. The problem with Red Faction is the same problem with most games of this kind – it aspires to be something it tragically isn't.

Confronted with a monster twice my size, I shoot it quickly with the first bolt of the magnet gun then, aiming casually at the ceiling of the cavern, I shoot in the second bolt. The monster is suddenly pulled from its feet and smashed against the ceiling before plummeting to the ground with a thud.

Despite its forgettable story and pacing issues with the campaign, Red Faction: Armageddon is good fun for letting out your inner destructive child. They ability to tear apart and repair the environments at will is a hook that keeps working, and when the campaign gives you plenty of stuff to tear...

Armageddon is at its best when you can destroy everything around you, and is at its worst when you are required to simply dispatch hordes of aliens with your pistols. Yes, the story is a bit bland and the dialogue is downright odd at times, but the core action is pretty fun.

Using the environment as a weapon; The massive weapons; Online Ruin mode is a blast

The main campaign and story are a bit dull; Too many linear sections; The limited online modes