Red Faction

The Red Faction Series has focused its realm and storyline on a distant future of civilization on Mars. The plot usually revolves around some form of oppressing giants that enslave a specific group and an organization known as the 'Red Faction' rise up to fight. The space rebellion started in 2001 with the release of the PS2 and PC original, Red Faction. Following spectacular sales, Red Faction went multiplatform and continued the new hot first person shooter franchise. However, Red Faction II didn't sell nearly as well as the original despite being critically acclaimed. 3 Years later, THQ announced in a conference call that Red Faction 3 was being developed as a PS3 exclusive and was due out in 2007 holiday window. Things quickly changed as it was renamed Red Faction Guerrilla and was being developed across the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. This was the first game in the series to be a third person shooter instead of first person. The THQ franchise continued with the 2011 release Red Faction Armageddon to mixed reactions taking the positively received free roam mechanics of Guerrilla and making a straight forward linear 3rd person shooter. Unfortunatly Armageddon was not as commercially successful as THQ expected and THQ has strongly suggested that it was discontinuing the franchise.

Red Faction touted the "Geomod Engine," which was supposed to be able to allow players to destroy certain types of terrain. For instance, if a blast door closed preventing you from proceeding, you could fire rockets into the surrounding rock walls to blast open a hole large enough to allow you through to the other side. The technology worked for the most part, though some said that its use was limited to levels designed around destroying terrain at certain points--the aforementioned door workaround included--as opposed to allowing truly free-form, dynamic play.

Games

Red Faction

Red Faction

Original Release Date: May 22, 2001

Platforms: PS2, PC

Main Article: Red Faction

The first Red Faction takes place on Mars and puts players in control of a man named Parker who is leading a rebellion against the antagonist, Ultor Corporation. The game is a first person shooter that was one of the first examples of advanced environment destruction and alteration.

Red Faction II

Red Faction II

Original Release Date: October 15, 2002

Platforms: PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC

Main Article: Red Faction II

Red Faction II takes place five years after the first game and is once again a first person shooter. However, it takes place on Earth rather than Mars and the main character is Alias, a super soldier that used to work for Ultor.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Original Release Date: June 2, 2009

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Main Article: Red Faction: Guerrilla

Giant Bomb Review:(Jeff Gerstmann)

The third game in the Red Faction series is set back on Mars, but this time the game is played from a third person perspective rather than a first person perspective used in previous games. The main character is Alec Mason. When he arrived on Mars, he found it under the control of the EDF, who is also responsible for the death of his brother. Mason must free Mars from the EDF. The game has a very high level of destruction; buildings can be completely torn down practically brick by brick.

Red Faction: Armageddon

Red Faction: Armageddon

Original Release Date: June 7th, 2011

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Main Article: Red Faction: Armageddon

Giant Bomb Review: (Brad Shoemaker)

The fourth game in the Red Faction series is set on Mars 50 years after Red Faction: Guerrilla, and once again features a genre shift for the franchise. This game features Darius Mason.Alec Mason's grandson, and also part of Red Faction. Darius unwittingly helps cultist/terrorist Adam Hale in what seems to be a campaign to mostly cause mass amounts of destruction. Darius then spends the majority of the game trying to undo the problems he has accidentally had a hand in.Whereas Guerilla features a more sandbox/open world approach, Armageddon is instead a linear third person action game.

Red Faction Franchise Spin-Offs

On April 26th 2010, THQ and television station SyFy announced that they would be working together to create a television movie based on the Red Faction franchise. If successful, the movie could be used as a pilot for a future television series. The Red Faction movie is a part of a larger relationship between THQ and SyFy involving a Battlestar Galactica MMO and a television project based around De Blob.