I’ve met very few people who don’t consider the first two red faction games to be essential early 2000’s first person shooters. One of Volition’s most-loved IP’s, the destruction-based FPS has been met with reception of both kinds, with the original being penned as an essential title for the PS2, and Armageddon being blamed for not only the demise of the series, but also being cast as the beginning of the end for THQ.

Not only have there been four incredible core entries into the miner simulator series, but there have been quite a few cancelled titles, weird ports, and spin-offs. For every Red Faction: Guerrilla, there’s a Red Faction N-Gage, and for every Red Faction II, there’s a Red Faction Battlegrounds. There’s a very interesting mix of titles out there under the RF umbrella, and without further ado – here they are.

Red Faction (2001)

The original game, how I loved playing through this on my PS2 for the first time just a few years ago. Volition’s sophomore effort onto Sony’s powerhouse console quickly rose to the top of people’s to-do lists when it first shipped in 2001. A console exclusive, publications like IGN and GameSpot lauded the game as a “Must-Have” for the system.

Not only was the original Red Faction notable for being a fantastic first-person shooter for consoles, it also served as the introduction for the Geo-Mod technology. This tech allowed players to blast chunks out of their environment in order to pass through blocked passages or burrow through the floor of a room with shotgun blasts in order to land on top of their enemies.

Red Faction features a short, but incredible campaign about an industrial rebellion on Mars, and contains some pretty nasty boss fights and thrilling vehicular sections. The single player is incredibly varied, and for the most part this acts as a strength, though ask anyone who has played the game about the forced stealth mission and they’ll likely roll their eyes in disgust. It featured an incredible arsenal that still stand out as innovative in today’s gaming climate. The RF Railgun still sits at the top of a lot of peoples favourite video game weapons lists, and rightly so.

It’s interesting to note that Red Faction began as Descent 4, which would’ve acted as a prequel to the series. Descent 4 was unfortunately cancelled as the team wanted to instead work on a fantasy role-playing title, which ultimately turned into Summoner. A lot of the technology Volition had created for Descent 4 worked its way into Red Faction, and the main character, Parker, donned his mining gear and grabbed a rifle instead of flying through the familiar cave systems of the 6DOF FPS.

The game would see a port to Windows later in 2001, followed by a Mac port in 2002. This is in fact my favourite game in the series, and I feel nostalgic weep over me whenever I see that iconic pickaxe logo. As of 2016, the game is available to play on PS4, with full trophy support and widescreen resolutions.

Red Faction II (2002)

Upping the ante of the first game, but following suit by being a first-person shooter, RFII was a great follow-up. Red Faction II is in fact one of the few games that are compatible with the PS2 Mouse. Again, starting out as a PlayStation 2 exclusive, the game still received some pretty decent review scores upon launch, yet it didn’t have quite the same impact as its predecessor.

Red Faction II, weirdly enough, was set on Earth, and featured the vocal talents of Lance Henriksen and Jason Statham. The sequel centered around a group of mercenaries out to overthrow The Commonwealth, a dystopic military state that have been creating super soldiers using the nanotechnology research of Axel Capek, the villain of the original game.

The arsenal was shaken up considerably, with a new take on the railgun being a fun, yet poorly received change – and the introduction of dual-wielding taking the gunplay to new heights. Coupling this with the extended use of Geo-Mod was fantastic, as you’d be able to blast away the cover of your foes and then empty barrels into their faces.

Red Faction II is unfortunately one of the entries in the series that many fans disliked, and is therefore left out of the conversation more often than not. After its timed exclusivity to Sony’s console, Red Faction II came to the PC, OG Xbox, and GameCube, and was in fact the only game in the series you could play on a Nintendo system prior to the Guerrilla remaster in 2018.

Red Faction N-Gage (2003)

Although it was horrifically received upon release, the Nokia N-Gage’s debut FPS followed in the footsteps of the original game, casting you as a miner during the uprising and having you shoot men on Mars in the face. Developed by the little-known Monkeystone Games, a short-lived Texas-based studio, Red Faction N-Gage happens to have ties to FPS Royalty and Genre Pioneers John Romero and Tom Hall of id Software fame.

Underneath it’s poor framerate, Red Faction N-Gage is a pretty awesome entry in the series. The graphics are fantastic for the time, and rival the early 3D titles on the DS. The gameplay itself is pretty fun, and it’s interesting to see how the developers adapted the Geo-Mod technology to work on the ill-fated handheld console/mobile phone hybrid.

Red Faction might not be the best FPS on the system, but it’s cool to play none-the-less. X-Play reviewed it poorly at the time of release, and Eurogamer also slated it, going as far to say that people were supposedly bored by primitive, action-heavy shooters like Romero’s past work. In my opinion, this is a very intriguing piece of history for the series, and a must-play for N-Gage owners around the world.

Red Faction Mobile (2005)

Taking the reins of the series, developer Blue Beck thrust the game into a top-down shooter. Red Faction mobile did away with the story, characters and environments of the first game, and threw the player into quite the thrilling plotline.

Red Faction Mobile puts you into the space-boots of one Kava Xarel, a member of the titular Red Faction, who along with another member, Angus Brute, have been instructed to steal weapons and ammunition to aid in the revolt against the Ultor Corporation. After being spotted, you are forced to leave your wounded friend and make a daring escape onto a supply ship headed for Earth.

The game carries a fantastic art-style and is one hell of a looker, especially considering the limitations of the platform and the year of release. Red Faction Mobile is unfortunately lacking in some areas, and the Geo-Mod tech is completely absent in this entry. There’s a big issue in RF Mobile with a lack of a save function, and no matter when or where you die, you’ll have to start again from the very beginning. Overall, it’s fun, but not an essential part of the franchise in any respect.

It’s possible to emulate this entry on Android using J2ME Loader, and that’s absolutely something you should look into if this entry has at all piqued your interest. You can read up on how to do this here.

Red Faction II Mobile (2006)

A continuation of the first mobile title from 2005, Red Faction II Mobile built on everything that made the first enjoyable. Big Blue Bubble took over development duties from Blue Beck, changed the art-style to be more realistic, and ironed out most, if not all of the issues present in the first mobile game.

Featuring some really awesome weapons, including a much squigglier take on the Railgun. RFII Mobile is choc-full of great combat situations and puzzle pieces, all mixed together with a pretty bare-bones, but still rather interesting storyline that pops you back in control of Kara Xarel from the first mobile entry.

Unfortunately, the mobile sequel is also lacking in Geo-Mod, and although I thought it was going to be introduced a few times, especially when I was given access to a grenade launcher and entered a room where the walls were lined with explosive barrels, it never happened.

Again, it’s possible to emulate this entry on Android using J2ME Loader, and that’s absolutely something you should look into if this entry has at all piqued your interest. You can read up on how to do this here.

Red Faction B.E.A.S.T. (Cancelled – 2008)

What would have been a Wii exclusive entry in the series, Red Faction B.E.A.S.T. was set to be the series’ first foray into the third person on a home console. The fourth console entry was developed by Locomotive Games, who had recently released their other THQ spin-off in the same year – Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed.

It would’ve emphasized the Geo-Mod technology even further than Red Faction II, and would’ve used Wii MotionPlus technology, which leads me to believe it would’ve actually been rather competent on Nintendo’s arm-waving simulator. It drew comparisons to Gears of War and was shaping up to be quite the project, but unfortunately it would never come to fruition.

Due to corporate restructuring, Locomotive Games would close in November 2008, and the rights to the project reverted back to THQ, who did not pursue the Wii any further for the series.

Red Faction Guerrilla (2009)

The series’ turning point. It was with Red Faction Guerrilla that the series did away with the first-person perspective. This entry severely amped up the destruction, and combined it with a brilliant, explorable open world. I spent about six hours just playing the demo alone on my trusty PS3, and this was actually my first exposure to the series.

Guerrilla received a few DLC packs, but only one of these added any form of narrative content. Demons of the Badlands brought in a more tribal aesthetic, and focused on a group of humans who had remained on Mars following the events of the original Red Faction. It’s interesting to see for sure, and it’s cool to see some brand-new weapons, characters and environments in this expansion.

Most fans of the series would cite Red Faction: Guerrilla as the series high point, the ultimate game in the series. Many fans have stated that it was with this game that Volition really came to understand what people wanted from a Red Faction game, and it has become evident that THQ Nordic share this sentiment, considering that this was the title they chose to remaster in 2018.

Red Faction Guerrilla Mobile (2009)

Cover based shooting from an isometric perspective is hard to pull off, but this G5 Entertainment project managed to do it, and do it well. Releasing just a couple of weeks after its big brother, Red Faction: Guerrilla Mobile was definitely the most polished title in the series to hit the handheld market, and also the most remembered.

Guerrilla departs from the top-down viewpoint of the previous Red Faction Mobile titles, in favour of an isometric viewpoint, and a 3D art-style – once again boosting the realism in terms of environments and textures. This entry puts you in the boots of Alec Mason, the playable character in the main game, and takes you along a linear storyline that hits a lot of the same beats as its console counterpart. There’s fun to be had here for sure, and some fantastically implemented cover-shooting that rivals the best the platform has to offer.

This title performed pretty well with critics, with mobile giant PocketGamer awarding the game a Bronze (3.5 Stars) stating that G5 Entertainment had ticked all the boxes when it came to creating a solid shooter.

Once again, it’s possible to emulate this entry on Android using J2ME Loader, and that’s absolutely something you should look into if this entry has at all piqued your interest. You can read up on how to do this here.

Red Faction Battlegrounds (2010)

A vehicular combat title developed by THQ Digital Studios UK (Juiced), Battlegrounds was an interesting turn for the series, albeit as a spinoff. Functioning as a twin-stick vehicular combat title, Battlegrounds is a game that will eventually be rendered unplayable due to the nature of digital-only games restricted to consoles.

Battlegrounds featured a twenty-mission long single player campaign, as well as local and online multiplayer. DLC Packs were also created for the game to add in vehicles depicted in both Armageddon the year after, and Red Faction: Origins – a made-for-TV movie from Syfy.

Unfortunately, reviewers weren’t smitten with this budget title. IGN gave it a score of 5/10, stating the single player missions were too brief and too repetitive to justify a $10 purchase. Due to the poor reception, Battlegrounds never found its way to PC, and is largely forgotten by the gaming community as a whole.

Red Faction: Armageddon (2011)

The black sheep of the series, a lot of people hated Armageddon, but I think they just didn’t get it. Featuring a pretty awesome time manipulation mechanic reminiscent of Singularity, Armageddon took the huge level of destruction from Guerrilla and blew the bloody doors off.

Armageddon unfortunately lost the huge open world of its predecessor and crammed your character into a cave network for the vast majority of the game, losing the sandbox appeal and putting some of the previous games features on the backburner, such as vehicular combat and exploration.

Red Faction: Armageddon basically grabbed Guerrilla by the horns, and added in a splash of horror, with the majority of enemies being alien creatures. It also added in the joy of a fantastic new weapon, the Magnet Gun. The game brought a lot to the table and should really be renowned for its innovations, instead of put down by series fans.

Armageddon received a sole narrative DLC expansion, titled Path to War, which included four individual missions centered around the Terraformer from the main game. These missions featured a few new weapons, and a multitude of vehicular segments, making up a little bit for their lesser presence in the core campaign.

The fourth core entry didn’t review too poorly, but the sales didn’t live up to THQ’s expectations. Fans of the previous game were not keen on the return to linearity, and voiced their opinions with their wallets. It can be speculated that the game was a catalyst for THQ’s demise, though it’s much easier to blame decisions like the U-Draw for their downfall.

Red Faction: Guerrilla ReMarstered (2018)

Released in 2018, Red Faction: Guerrilla ReMarstered is a full graphical remake of the 2009 title. Featuring upgraded shadows, lighting and physics, this was the first result of THQ Nordic’s acquisition of the IP following the bankruptcy of THQ after the flop that was the U-Draw.

Developer Keiko Games were tasked with remastering the game, and did a stellar job of bringing the destruction to a brand-new audience.

Despite being almost ten years old, Guerrilla’s remaster reviewed very well and had some strong sales figures. Hopefully it’s success will prompt THQ Nordic to revive the series in form of a reboot or a sequel, and who knows – maybe Red Faction: Evolution will be just that.

Red Faction: Evolution (TBA)

Whilst still somewhat of a rumour, Red Faction Evolution is supposedly an upcoming game in the series. The speculation kicked off when NVIDIA released a list of games that would be compatible with their Ansel technology, which happened to feature the name Red Faction: Evolution. This was quickly removed, and THQ Nordic have not made any public comments on the matter.

We know for sure that if this game does exist, it will not be developed by Volition, as they went on record at the time THQ Nordic acquired the rights to the series stating that they would not be developing any further games in the series, but felt it was in good hands.

I’d love to hear what you thought of this iconic series, as well as when you started playing the Red Faction games. Which is your favourite? There’s still an active community for the series on discord, which you can join here.

A while ago I covered Volition’s other hit franchise, Saints Row, in a similar article – check that out here.

Craving some more obscure gaming content or just want to read something interesting? You can click HERE to go to ObscuReviews Archives and delve deep into games you didn’t know existed. You can also join the ObscuReviews Discord here.

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