Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open world third-person shooter video game developed by Volition and published by THQ.

The player takes the role of Alec Mason as he assists the Red Faction to overthrow the oppressive Earth Defense Force (EDF) on Mars.

This allows a degree of creativity in approaching a given objective, such as breaking or crashing through structures, or leveling multi-story buildings and large bridges or catwalks to thwart the enemy.

Each area also contains one or more safehouses staffed with Red Faction guerrillas, where the player can re-arm or change their weapon loadout, and spend salvage to purchase upgrades to their weaponry and equipment.

Navigation is provided by a mini-map with a GPS indicator which can be set to direct a player to a location of their choice using a zoomable full-screen map mode.

At the same time, the player can complete various side missions, such as rescuing hostages, destroying enemy-held facilities, defending locations from attack, and delivering vehicles.

Although initially supportive of the Martian miners, Earth's natural resources have run scarce, and as a result, its economy has collapsed from rampant speculation of commodities and lack of production.

The newly-reformed "Red Faction" arises to revolt against the EDF, drive them off the planet, and begin fairer negotiations with Earth.

Alec Mason, a mining engineer,[5] arrives on Mars Tharsis Region[6] to reunite with his brother Dan and begin a new life.

Alec is rescued by Red Faction guerrillas and reluctantly becomes a freedom fighter for the group alongside avid inventor "Sam" Samanya, rambling psychotic Randy Jenkins, and commander Hugo Davies.

The campaign against the EDF continues in the Dust sector, and Alec is eventually assigned to routine surveillance of the Marauders, a mysterious and violent warrior tribe living in the inhospitable Badlands, in hopes of recovering stolen weapons.

Alec temporarily loses faith in the movement, citing that no matter how determined their efforts are, the EDF will simply bomb them to submission.

However, the EDF stages a spoiling attack against the Red Faction, resulting in the abortion of the offensive, the annihilation of the Badlands camp and the death of Commander Davies.

They learn afterward that the Hydra is nearing Mars, with Kobel intending to use its firepower to put an end to the Red Faction and, if necessary, all planetary life.

Sam requests the usage of the Marauders' particle accelerator technology, with plans to combine it with the Nano Forge, creating a weapon capable of destroying the Hydra.

Vasha agrees to let the Red Faction use their technology in exchange for possession of the Nano Forge once the war is finished.

Vogel to assemble the machine, however a surprise EDF blitzkrieg led by General Roth wipes out the Marauders guarding the summit end of the accelerator and Vasha along with them.

As the survivors of Mars celebrate, Sam declares the war over, but Alec responds that the EDF will return, stating "We'll be ready for 'em".

Taking place 8 years before the main campaign, Demons of the Badlands has the player assume control of Samanya as she and the marauders drive the EDF out of Mariner Valley.

The sisters clash after Vasha orders all "outsiders" in the valley to be killed, including prisoners in EDF internment camps.

The demo showed off the game mode "Team Anarchy", and "Damage Control", as well as some backpacks that the player can equip for certain powers.

[8] In February 2008, preview screenshots were leaked to the Internet, causing members at various game forums to come to consider one weapon shown to be an "Ostrich Hammer" based on its shape.

Over one year later, on April Fools' Day 2009, Volition released a video commenting on the forum posts, and jokingly implied that the Ostrich Hammer would be a weapon in the game.

[19] A remastered version of Guerilla, called the Re-Mars-tered Edition, was released by THQ Nordic on July 3, 2018, for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

[2] Timothy Michael Wynn composed the cinematic score to Guerrilla's pre-rendered CGI cutscenes, while Jake Kaufman handled the majority of looped micro-scores that play dynamically during "ambient" and "combat" gameplay – material including contributions by Raison Varner and Dan Wentz.

[citation needed] However, since the unlicensed re-cycling of the majority of Kaufmann et al.'s compositions in 2011's Red Faction: Battlegrounds, the soundtrack is no longer available for purchase.

[43][44][45] On July 28, 2009, at the Q1 earnings conference call, THQ Director Brian Farrell confirmed that Red Faction: Guerrilla had then sold more than 1 million units.

[31] GameTrailers criticized the Xbox 360 version's pace, environment, and difficulty particularly in the later missions: "you'll be lucky to get out of the most heated battles alive.

"[34] IGN reviewer Charles Onyett cited the fun gameplay, but said that the storyline, graphics, and voice acting were weak.

[64] Red Faction: Armageddon, a sequel to Guerrilla that follows the events on Mars many decades later via Alec Mason's grandson Darius, was released for major video game platforms on June 7, 2011.