While initially presented as a normal human, a plot twist prior to his battle with game protagonist Raiden reveals Armstrong to be nanomachine-augmented and capable of superhuman strength and durability.

Since his debut, Armstrong has been met with a positive critical response, with many highlighting his role in the game and praise being given to his boss battle, particularly through reactions to his rhetoric in the form of Internet memes.

[1] Designed by Yonghee Cho, Armstrong is a tall man with a long forehead, pronounced chin, glasses, and a pinstripe suit with a yellow tie and white shirt underneath.

At the game's climax, he appears piloting a large hexapedal mech named "Metal Gear EXCELSUS" and reveals his plan to cause a war to jumpstart the American economy to end a recession, and using it as a platform to become President of the United States.

[4] Emerging from EXCELSUS' core, Armstrong reveals himself to be infused with nanomachines, and after absorbing metal from the mech's remains becomes significantly larger and attacks Raiden in hand-to-hand combat.

[6] To promote the game and character, in May 2012 Konami posted a "leaked" audio log, stated to be from a whistleblower website called "WarOnOurShores.com", that featured Armstrong discussing his plans with his speech writer.

He noted that while the series was known for characters that monologued, few did it "while manhandling the protagonist", and combined with his intensity and Duncan's performance made him an effective politician in McCrae's eyes, even if Armstrong's statements were unrealistic and insane.

[15] Comic Book Resources' Sam Rowett, in examining the philosophy behind Revengeance, described Armstrong's ideals as those of philosopher Ayn Rand "taken to their logical conclusion".

Describing him as a "villain of grandeur" and a symbol of "violent Americana", they felt that the character and Raiden's reactions to him provided the series' "most open and honest damnation of political structures."

Armstrong's death represented in MacIntyre's eyes the vanquishing of a "passionate foe corrupted by imperfect beliefs", reflected in the nature of his exposed nanomachine-infused heart before it is crushed, something that "pounds with life but it is still artificial and unnatural".

MacIntyre emphasized the use of "blindly" in "Collective Consciousness", the track used in the EXCELSUS battle, to illustrate the game's condemnation of American politics: how the populace will "ignore the real cost of their happiness, justify the actions that granted it" and instead engage in rampant consumption.

However, despite being able to comprehend each other's viewpoints and knowing violence would only make things worse, Armstrong's ideals are so extreme that the only resolution is violent conflict, and the resulting destruction will bring change.