History VideoGame / RedFaction

* AmbiguouslyGay: Quill

* NamesTheSame: Alec Mason's VoiceWithAnInternetConnection for ''Guerilla'' was Sam (short for Samanya). Darius in ''Armageddon'' gets a "Sam" of his own, the "Situational Awareness Module" that also tells him where he needs to go next. It [[AllThereInTheManual mentions in the manual]] that Samanya actually designed and built S.A.M. herself.

* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Every mining operation in ''Guerrilla'' consists of a bunch of people literally digging out the ore by hand with picks and shovels, then carrying it by hand to a loading hopper. The all-powerful EDF has access to energy weapons, terraforming engines, and super-advanced VTOL aircraft, but not mining drills or excavating machines.
** FridgeBrilliance: If you'd just helped a bunch of freedom fighters rebel using sophisticated machinery and weapons, why would you let them have them now that you're an oppressive regime? You wouldn't! The EDF purposefully hamstrung the miners...giving them tunnel-boring machines to dig into your own bases doesn't make for a good defensive strategy! Anyway...manual labor probably kept more Martians from joining the Red Faction, being basically slaves and whatnot.
*** There are advanced mining and excavation tools, like walkers and heavy industrial excavators. The EDF controls almost all of them and confiscated the rest precisely for the reason stated above, and there's a mission based around stealing a walker for the miners to get their support. [[ProperlyParanoid The EDF's paranoia is justified]] since even a light construction walker is capable of smashing an armored staff car to bits in one or two blows, flinging an APC several hundred feet, posing a major threat to a ''tank'', and turning entire military installations into rubble within a couple minutes.

* DragonWithAnAgenda: Richard Gryphon in the original Red Faction is actually the Deputy Chief Administrator. Davis was the the actual Chief Administrator who you don't even have to interact with ([[VideoGameCrueltyPotential though you can kill him]]). The only reason we even know his name is the name plate on his office. We never actually figure out Gryphon's agenda, though. Presumably it was about surviving the chaos of the plague and the revolution. Either way, it turns out that Capek may have been TheManBehindTheMan as the plague is solely his fault. The first game was bare of backstory with the administrative sector of Ultor.
* DropTheHammer: The sledgehammer in ''Guerrilla''. It can can singlehandedly destroy enormous buildings with enough swings and one-hit kill many mooks in the game...

%% * InterfaceSpoiler: The weapon menu in ''Guerrilla''.

* MadeOfIron: Colonel Masako (well, at least if she still has her shield) and Secretary of Defense Molov can both take multiple rocket launcher shots (and your entire stock of small arms ammo, railgun rounds, and... well, you get the idea) to the face before dying, even on the easiest difficulties. This is averted in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', where BigBad #1 [[spoiler: General Roth]] drives a tank to fight you for the game's final battle, and BigBad #2 [[spoiler: Admiral Kobel]] is killed in the ending cutscene. It's very satisfying to shove several rockets up [[spoiler: Roth]]'s tailpipe [[ShutUpHannibal whilst he's in the middle of his speech.]] You can also snipe him with a railgun through the tank's armor. Or [[ShockAndAwe electrocute him with the Arc Welder]].

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: [[spoiler: the nuclear bomb in the first game]]. The clunky overhead-view protect-the-truck-with-artillery mini-game in ''Guerrilla''.

* OneManArmy : The great majority of the of destruction and salvation that occurs in Red Faction one and two is the result of one person. In ''Guerrilla'', NPC Guerrillas fight alongside the player, but Mason is still very much a OneManArmy. Lampshaded in Guerrilla: After purchasing an upgrade, Sam will sometimes say "We'll turn you into a one man army." Darius at least has an excuse: The Nano Forge affords him an array of powers.

* ForTheEvulz: Unlike Capek, who, at least, is all about ForScience with a dose of LackOFEmpathy, Masako and her goons guns down Ultor security and miners because they feels like it. Masako even tells Parker he'll kill his parents, even though she holds no particular grudge against him.

* TranslationConvention / TranslatorMicrobes: Not in ''Guerrilla''! Whilst practically all colonists speak English (or what is presumably English) it is possible to hear Russian, French and other languages as well, usually from the citizens you rescue during House Arrest events. The emergency vehicles have reflective panels that read 'AMBULANCE' or 'EMERGENCY' in three different languages as well, depending on which angle you look at them from.

* WhereDidTheMouseGo : In [[Red Faction II]], after Shrike crashes both the gunship and the tank, he disappears without a trace.
** He also disappears after the betrayal, and doesn't show up again until the last mission.

''Red Faction'' is a video game series developed by Creator/{{Volition}} where Earth has exhausted its supply of natural resources, and depends on mining operations on UsefulNotes/{{Mars}} for the survival of its economy. The main gameplay draw of the ''Red Faction'' series is the Geo-Mod engine, a StuffBlowingUp simulator ''par excellence''. Geo-Mod 1, used in ''Red Faction 1'' and ''Red Faction 2'', was based primarily around terrain deformation: Rock could be torn away with your weapons, but metal surfaces were usually safe. Geo-Mod 2, used in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', reverses this, enabling the player to destroy buildings using a physics system so realistic the game developers actually had to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6XM7NfGr8 study architecture]] to get the buildings to stand up.

All five games take place in the same universe, although ''Red Faction 2'' has very little to do with the others:

* ''Red Faction 2'' is set on Earth, in the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the Commonwealth]], a corrupt dictatorship that has used captured Ultor technology to manufacture SuperSoldiers. [[BewareTheSuperman Fearing the potential]] of these SuperSoldiers, [[EvilOverlord Chancellor Victor Sopot]] orders them killed. The survivors form TheSquad, and join forces with a local resistance named after the Martian Red Faction in an attempt to overthrow Sopot. ''Red Faction 2'' is generally considered a [[FirstInstallmentWins step down]] for the series, due to its unrelated plot, removed features, and Geo-Mod unfriendly terrain.
* ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' is a departure in terms of gameplay - a WideOpenSandbox ThirdPersonShooter similar to Volition's ''Saints Row'', as opposed to a FirstPersonShooter - but a return to the continuing narrative. Fifty years after the original ''Red Faction'', the Earth Defense Force have [[FullCircleRevolution turned from liberators to oppressors]], more concerned with exploiting Mars than helping it rebuild. A newcomer to Mars, Alec Mason, joins the reborn Red Faction to fight against the [=EDF=] after his brother is gunned down by an [=EDF=] gunship.

* ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' is the fourth game in the series and takes place fifty years afterwards ''Guerrilla''. It's a ThirdPersonShooter, but features tighter ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' style corridor-shooter gameplay in contrast to the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' style WideOpenSandbox gameplay of ''Guerrilla''. After the planet's atmospheric terraformer is destroyed by cult leader Adam Hale, a descendant of the defeated [=EDF=] and long-time nemesis of the Mason family, the people of Mars are forced to take shelter underground from the now hostile surface. The game stars Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason, who is tricked into opening an ancient sealed Martian temple by Hale, releasing a long-buried malevolent alien species and unleashing armageddon upon Mars.

In July 2011 THQ cancelled the series, due to dramatically poor sales of ''Red Faction Armageddon''. In late 2012 THQ declared bankruptcy and had its assets sold off: Although Koch Media has bought Volition, they did not buy the Red Faction IP. Instead it was sold off to Nordic Games, along with a few other THQ assets such as ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}''.

* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: ''Guerrilla'' has drivable [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]], mounted with machine guns, [[MoreDakka rail guns]] and other futuristic weaponry, forming an integral part of the enemy EDF's presence on Mars. They are notable for the loving detail of their models and are undoubtedly cool.
* AxCrazy: Jenkins in ''Guerrilla'' seems fairly harmless (albeit [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} completely nuts]]) at first, possibly even a little bit CrazyAwesome. However, the more missions you do with him, and the more he talks to you, it becomes more and more obvious something is ''very'' wrong with him upstairs, and that he is in fact a dangerously unstable individual who is as much a threat to the Faction as he is to the [=EDF=].

* TheCavalry: In the last level of ''Guerrilla'', at the very end of the game, a huge swarm of Maurauders suddenly show up to help you fight the last group of EDF soldiers guarding the route to the final boss. They usually end up getting wiped out by the EDF EliteMooks and their gunship air support unless you intervene, but it's still appreciated.
* CanonWelding: There are several clues (most notably Ultor) that indicate that ''Red Faction'' takes place in the future of ''Saints Row''. For example, in Guerrilla Mount Vogel is named after the BigBad of VideoGame/SaintsRow2. It is also suggested that the ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' series takes place in the same timeline, with a reference to one "Subach Industries" after you destroy the AAX gunships in the Badlands mission ''Air Traffic Control''. On the other hand, it may just have been a passing ShoutOut. (Ahaha... there is a Radio Tag that belonged to Shaundi, a perpetually stoned Saint in Saints Row 2 that essentially acted as the Player Character's intelligence officer. It includes both her portrait and, unlike the rest of the Radio Tags, ONLY her first name. It's unfortunate that the Tag is found on a skeleton, though...)

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The basic alien [[{{Mooks}} Mook]] in ''Armageddon'', [[UndergroundMonkey comes in three different colors]] that denote their abilities. Reds shoot [[FlechetteStorm needles,]] Blues shoot [[ShockAndAwe lighting blasts]] and Yellows shoot [[StuffBlowingUp explosive blasts.]]

** In the Ultor Echo mission, the first building you come across in the Maurauder ruins is the chamber in which Parker fought his boss battle against Capek. Mason will even hear garbled, ghostly speech throughout the level; the speeches are actually lines spoken by Capek in the first game.

** Earth itself by the events of ''Guerrilla'', even. The Council is going ahead with a "Forced Sterilization Act" due to rampant overpopulation, London is now several feet below sea level and relies on a complex network of dams, pumps, levees and reservoirs to avoid flooding (which is becoming ''more and more frequent''), countries that don't join the Earth Defense Council are pretty much on their own ''if'' they aren't ''wiped out and/or annexed by the Council'', a passenger shuttle crashes in the ''"Amazon Desert"'' with the loss of all aboard, rescue operations are grounded due to severe storms... Earth is pretty much a terrible place to be, it's no wonder Alec left.

* FullCircleRevolution: Red Faction 1's revolt wound up not changing much for the poor miners in the long run, as ''Guerrilla'' reveals. This almost, ''almost'' happens in Red Faction 2.

** This also applies to the[[CoolShip E.D.S. Hydra]], given what little we hear and see of it. Sure, it can do anything from kill a single person from high orbit without collateral damage to wipe out all life on Mars ''in one volley'', but when push comes to shove, [[spoiler: it's still destroyed by one {{Nanomachine}} enhanced missile. [[FridgeLogic It doesn't even have adequate point defense systems]].]]

* HighlyVisibleNinja: Both played straight and subverted in ''Guerrilla''. Played straight with the Red Faction's technicals, civilian vehicles openly mounting machine guns, anti-tank cannons or rocket launchers that you can casually drive right through an EDF checkpoint with no one batting an eye. Subverted with Mason himself. By the late game you'll be openly wearing an obvious suit of makeshift body armor over the top of miner's clothes, and you'll be operating in areas of the planet where miners are rare in general - and people ''will'' notice this, with EDF soldiers often treating you with suspicion and eventually firing on you even in entirely safe areas.

* ''Red Faction 2'' is set on Earth, in the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the Commonwealth]], a corrupt dictatorship that has used captured Ultor technology to manufacture SuperSoldiers. [[BewareTheSuperman Fearing the potential]] of these SuperSoldiers, [[EvilOverlord Chancellor Victor Sopot]] orders them killed. The survivors form TheSquad, and join forces with a local resistance named after the Martian Red Faction in an attempt to overthrow Sopot. ''RedFaction 2'' is generally considered a [[FirstInstallmentWins step down]] for the series, due to its unrelated plot, removed features, and Geo-Mod unfriendly terrain.

* MadeOfIron: Colonel Masako (well, at least if she has still her shield) and Secretary of Defense Molov can both take multiple rocket launcher shots (and your entire stock of small arms ammo, railgun rounds, and... well, you get the idea) to the face before dying, even on the easiest difficulties. This is averted in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', where BigBad #1 [[spoiler: General Roth]] drives a tank to fight you for the game's final battle, and BigBad #2 [[spoiler: Admiral Kobel]] is killed in the ending cutscene. It's very satisfying to shove several rockets up [[spoiler: Roth]]'s tailpipe [[ShutUpHannibal whilst he's in the middle of his speech...]] You can also snipe him with a railgun through the tank's armor. Or [[ShockAndAwe electrocute him with the Arc Welder]].

* MiniMecha: ''Armageddon'' substitutes these for ''Guerrilla's'' much larger mining walkers, likely due to the cramped conditions of most of the levels. They may not be quite as destructive, but they do the job well- especially the Leo, a uniquely-styled mecha with flowing skirt-armor, a heavy machine gun and rocket pack.

** There are several "Guerrilla missions" where you are asked to hunt down a traitor who is going to sell out the location of the Safehouses to the EDF. [[spoiler:Interestingly, even if you do all of these, they still know where the Badlands Safehouse is]]
*** Maybe someone at EDF command finally discovered they have a woundrous invention called "satellite imaging."

** In fact, he [[KarmicDeath he tortured her interrogator]].

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: In the ''Path to War'' DLC for ''Armageddon'', the interleaved story of mission 1, 3, and 4 (2 is just a cathartic break to wreak havoc as a Red Faction tanker,) is that of a Cultist lieutenant named "Mallus." His name is one to run away from exceptionally quickly. [[spoiler:At least until you start substituting "Ph" for the "M", which [[InvertedTrope Inverts it completely.]]]]

* NintendoHard: In the first game, some of the late-game levels where you fight against the Mercs can be this, as many of them are armed with one-hit-kill railguns, and even their normal weapons can kill you in just 4 to 8 shots. ''Guerrilla'' can often be NintendoHard, with its large number of [[EscortMission Escort Missions]] and the fact you're often expected to fight 10-20 enemies at the same time with a character who really isn't particularly durable by shooter standards.

** FridgeBrilliance: She uses the same teleportation function that you can buy to warp between safehouses after a certain point in the game.
** Or maybe it's just GameplayAndStorySegregation.

-->'''Admiral Kobel:''' [[spoiler:This is Admiral Kobel of the EDS Hydra. What is your status?]]
-->'''Alec Mason:''' [[spoiler:Just fine, Admiral, but yours is about to go red.]]

* ReVision: We didn't know much about the EDF in the first or second game, besides the fact that they police most of the Earth and that EOS has friends and contacts amongst them. In ''Guerrilla'', they're given a much darker painting - they're a puppet state for a bunch of {{Mega Corp}}s and were apparently brutal fascists even when the Red Faction rebellion occured - Old Parker claims that the EDF were assholes, but Ultor made them the lesser evil.

* SequentialBoss: Particularly annoying in ''RedFaction 2''. The final boss is your SuperSoldier commander piloting a MiniMecha. The mecha has an insane amount of health but its weapons are only of average power. After you blow it up, the boss jumps out to fight you on foot. The annoying part is that he fights with a one-hit-kill railgun, so if he manages to shoot you just once, you die and have to restart the level and fight the mech suit all over again (including sitting through the unskippable pre-boss cutscene).

** There's even shoutouts in ''[[EasterEgg filenames]]''. In ''Guerrilla'', one of the most hyped and previewed missions involved the theft of a [[RealRobot Mining Walker]]. The filename of the briefing video? [[WalkerTexasRanger walker_martian_ranger.bik]]

** The EliteMooks in the first game, such as the guard in the Guard Station level, sometimes yell "Rebel scum!", in reference to ''ReturnOfTheJedi''

** FridgeBrilliance: If you'd just helped a bunch of freedom fighters rebel using sophisticated machinery and weapons (RedFaction), why would you let them have them now that you're an oppressive regime? You wouldn't! The EDF purposefully hamstrung the miners...giving them tunnel-boring machines to dig into your own bases doesn't make for a good defensive strategy! Anyway...manual labor probably kept more Martians from joining the Red Faction, being basically slaves and whatnot.

* MoralDissonance: Colonel Joseph Broga is painfully (and loudly) tortured in the ''Catch and Release'' mission, before being dumped off a cliff. Apparently, this is [[UnfortunateImplications A-okay]], because Broga himself tortured people.

*** There are advanced mining and excavation tools, like walkers and heavy industrial excavators. The EDF controls almost all of them and confiscated the rest precisely for the reason stated above, and there's a mission based around stealing a walker for the miners to get their support. [[ProperlyParanoid The EDF's paranoia is justified]] since even a light construction walker is capable of smashing an armored staff car to bits in one or two blows, flinging an APC several hundred feet, and posing a major threat to a ''tank''.

[[redirect:Franchise/RedFaction]]

[[redirect:Franchise/RedFaction]]

[[quoteright:128:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_faction_guerrilla_logo.png]] ''Red Faction'' is a video game series developed by Volition, Inc, set in the future of [[CanonWelding the same universe as their]] ''SaintsRow'' series where Earth has exhausted its supply of natural resources, and depends on mining operations on [[TheRedPlanet Mars]] for the survival of its economy. The main gameplay draw of the ''Red Faction'' series is the Geo-Mod engine, a StuffBlowingUp simulator ''par excellence''. Geo-Mod 1, used in ''Red Faction 1'' and ''Red Faction 2'', was based primarily around terrain deformation: Rock could be torn away with your weapons, but metal surfaces were usually safe. Geo-Mod 2, used in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', reverses this, enabling the player to destroy buildings using a physics system so realistic the game developers actually had to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6XM7NfGr8 study architecture]] to get the buildings to stand up.

All five games take place in the same universe, although ''Red Faction 2'' has very little to do with the others:
* ''Red Faction'' is about a [[LaResistance miners' uprising]] on Mars against the corrupt [[MegaCorp Ultor Corp.]], the massive, corrupt conglomerate that manages the mining operations on Mars, in the style of the British East India Company ([[EvenEvilHasStandards though that]] ''MIGHT'' [[InsultToRocks be an insult to the BEIC]]). Through the [[OneManArmy heroic actions]] of miner-turned-revolutionary Parker, and the intervention of the [[TheFederation Earth Defense Force]], Ultor's reign of terror is brought to an end.
* ''Red Faction 2'' is set on Earth, in the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the Commonwealth]], a corrupt dictatorship that has used captured Ultor technology to manufacture SuperSoldiers. [[BewareTheSuperman Fearing the potential]] of these SuperSoldiers, [[EvilOverlord Chancellor Victor Sopot]] orders them killed. The survivors form TheSquad, and join forces with a local resistance named after the Martian Red Faction in an attempt to overthrow Sopot. ''RedFaction 2'' is generally considered a [[FirstInstallmentWins step down]] for the series, due to its unrelated plot, removed features, and Geo-Mod unfriendly terrain.
* ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' is a departure in terms of gameplay - a WideOpenSandbox ThirdPersonShooter similar to Volition's ''Saints Row'', as opposed to a FirstPersonShooter - but a return to the continuing narrative. Fifty years after the original ''Red Faction'', the Earth Defense Force have [[FullCircleRevolution turned from liberators to oppressors]], more concerned with exploiting Mars than helping it rebuild. A newcomer to Mars, Alec Mason, joins the reborn Red Faction to fight against the [=EDF=] after his brother is gunned down by an [=EDF=] gunship.
* ''Film/RedFactionOrigins'' is a film interquel between ''Guerilla'' and ''Armageddon.''
* ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' is the fourth game in the series and takes place fifty years afterwards ''Guerrilla''. It's a ThirdPersonShooter, but features tighter ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' style corridor-shooter gameplay in contrast to the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' style WideOpenSandbox gameplay of ''Guerrilla''. After the planet's atmospheric terraformer is destroyed by cult leader Adam Hale, a descendant of the defeated [=EDF=] and long-time nemesis of the Mason family, the people of Mars are forced to take shelter underground from the now hostile surface. The game stars Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason, who is tricked into opening an ancient sealed Martian temple by Hale, releasing a long-buried malevolent alien species and unleashing armageddon upon Mars.
** There's also ''Red Faction: Battlegrounds'', a top-down, twin-stick ShootEmUp for the PlayStation3 and XBox360 designed as a tie-in to ''Armageddon.'' It consists of various challenges narrated by ''Armageddon's'' Sergeant Winters, and multiplayer where up to four players can control a variety of vehicles from ''Guerrilla'' and proceed to blow up ''everything.''

As of the 27th of July 2011, the series [[ScrewedByTheNetwork is cancelled]], due to dramatically poor sales of ''Red Faction Armageddon''. This might not be the end of the franchise - the same thing did happen after Red Faction II - but for the time being it's shelved.

----
!!The game series provides examples of:
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In the middle of a ''Guerrilla'' mission, the game pulls a swerve: [[spoiler:without warning the mission is aborted and you have to race to save a safehouse from a full-on assault. The safehouse is wrecked and your commander is killed.]]
* AmbiguouslyGay: Quill
* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler:In ''Guerrilla'', General Roth is just a mook in a tank. The final fight is over in seconds. Hell, you can kill him before you even ''see'' him if you bring a railgun.]]
** Masako, the [[InformedAbility reportedly]] {{Badass}} leader of the [[PsychoForHire Mercs]] from the first game, is the last person you fight before the finale. She has a boss nanoshield as well as a custom rifle that kills you in 3 hits on Normal difficulty, as well as being the fastest enemy in the game once she loses her nanoshield. Still, she's no [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Cyberdemon]] and goes down relatively quickly.
* ArtificialAtmosphericActions: In ''Guerrilla'', civilians and EDF soldiers will go about their business normally if the alert level is green. Civilians will shop, eat, hang around talking, go home and rest, work at one of the various industrial sites scattered around, or mine ore deposits, dumping the mined rock into hoppers. Soldiers will patrol, talk, take inventory of supplies, change guard shifts, rest, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick administer beatings or summary executions to insufficiently deferential civilians.]]
* AscendedMeme: A photoshopped image on the [=NeoGAF=] gaming forum of the hammer looking like an ostrich resulted in the developer [[CrowningMomentOfFunny actually adding the "ostrich hammer"]] to Guerrilla as an unlockable.
** A popular game mod contained a modded gun that fired the explosions from singularity bombs. ''Armageddon'' contains a weapon that does the exact same thing.
* AsYouKnow: In Guerrilla, Samanya is all about this trope. Because you'll be popping in to buy upgrades roughly every twenty to forty minutes throughout the campaign, the game feels that this is a good time to remind you of vital plot points. Unfortunately this can lead to Sam telling you that the Hydra is coming and that we're all [[DoomyDoomsofDoom doomed]] about thirty times, and Mason demonstrates repeatedly through his actions that he's aware of the plot points in question.
* AwesomeButPractical: In ''Guerrilla,'' the sledgehammer is your best friend. It does more damage than any other weapon, insta-kills infantry (even multiple infantry, if they're bunched together) and can usually smash both the cover and the guy hiding behind it in one swing. In addition, it prevents the noble Martian people from being constrained by the enemy's fascist walls. It's also one of two silent weapons in the game -- the Nano Rifle being the other -- allowing you to take out lone patrolling soldiers without alerting their comrades.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: ''Guerrilla'' has drivable [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]], mounted with machine guns, [[MoreDakka rail guns]] and other futuristic weaponry, forming an integral part of the enemy EDF's presence on Mars. They are notable for the loving detail of their models and are undoubtedly cool.
* AxCrazy: Jenkins in ''Guerrilla'' seems fairly harmless (albeit [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} completely nuts]]) at first, possibly even a little bit CrazyAwesome. However, the more missions you do with him, and the more he talks to you, it becomes more and more obvious something is ''very'' wrong with him upstairs, and that he is in fact a dangerously unstable individual who is as much a threat to the Faction as he is to the [=EDF=].
** Some of his crazy talk is even his own made-up Martian language; one of the things he says when you attack him (being the indestructible NPC he is, you can keep doing this) is "Zooblah-bee-bop!".
* BadAssLongcoat: Mason's outfit in ''Guerrilla'', apparently a thick safety coat of the type worn by firefighters and certain miners and construction workers. In ''Armageddon'', your ''PoweredArmor'' has one.
* BaldOfAwesome: A completely shaved head seems to be the cultural norm for all men in the 22nd century, including all of the heroes and villains of ''Guerilla'' and ''Armageddon''.
* BareYourMidriff: Quill, your sniper in ''Red Faction 2''. Also, the Team Blue Female and Team Red Female (multiplayer only) have a variant on the CleavageWindow - except in this case, it's a belly window.
* BeeHiveBarrier: In ''Armaggeddon'', Darius can use the [[NanoMachines Nano Forge]] to create a projectile-reflecting [[DeflectorShields energy barrier.]]
* BondOneLiner: Alec Mason in ''Guerrilla'' cracks a few of these, usually after completing certain guerrilla actions.
* BloodierAndGorier: ''Armageddon'', as opposed to ''Guerrilla.''
* BlowYouAway: The visible effect of the "Impact" power in ''Armageddon'', which causes anything in front of you to be blasted away by a wave of {{Nanomachines}}.
* BugWar: In ''Armageddon''. They are even [[LampshadeHanging referred to as such.]]
* TheCavalry: In the last level of ''Guerrilla'', at the very end of the game, a huge swarm of Maurauders suddenly show up to help you fight the last group of EDF soldiers guarding the route to the final boss. They usually end up getting wiped out by the EDF EliteMooks and their gunship air support unless you intervene, but it's still appreciated.
* CanonWelding: There are several clues (most notably Ultor) that indicate that ''Red Faction'' takes place in the future of ''Saints Row''. For example, in Guerrilla Mount Vogel is named after the BigBad of SaintsRow 2. It is also suggested that the ''{{Freespace}}'' series takes place in the same timeline, with a reference to one "Subach Industries" after you destroy the AAX gunships in the Badlands mission ''Air Traffic Control''. On the other hand, it may just have been a passing ShoutOut. (Ahaha... there is a Radio Tag that belonged to Shaundi, a perpetually stoned Saint in Saints Row 2 that essentially acted as the Player Character's intelligence officer. It includes both her portrait and, unlike the rest of the Radio Tags, ONLY her first name. It's unfortunate that the Tag is found on a skeleton, though...)
** The gear and vehicles that the secondary antagonists of ''SaintsRowTheThird'', STAG, use, are identical to the stuff the EDF uses in ''Guerrilla''.
* CatchPhrase: The Faction has "Better Red Than Dead". The EDF troopers throw back [[DialogueReversal "Better Dead Than Red!"]] to taunt the miners.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The basic alien [[{{Mooks}} Mook]] in ''Armageddon'', [[UndergroundMonkey comes in three different colors]] that denote their abilities. Reds shoot [[FlechetteStorm needles,]] Blues shoot [[ShockAndAwe lighting blasts]] and Yellows shoot [[StuffBlowingUp explosive blasts.]]
* ContinuityNod: ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' has many references to the original game. The major cities are all named after ''Red Faction 1'' characters, the defunct Ultor corporation plays a role in the game's plot, and there's an EasterEgg where [[spoiler:Parker]] from the original game has a cameo appearance as an old miner.
** An old miner who [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass keeps a stockpile of singularity bombs hidden in his house]].
** In the Ultor Echo mission, the first building you come across in the Maurauder ruins is the chamber in which Parker fought his boss battle against Capek. Mason will even hear garbled, ghostly speech throughout the level; the speeches are actually lines spoken by Capek in the first game.
** Capek is mentioned often in ''Armageddon''. You even encounter a holographic bust of him early on. Also, there are a number of implications that the plague miners suffered from in the original ''Red Faction'' stemmed from ''Armageddon's'' aliens.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit: ''Guerrilla'' would like you to think Red Faction missions are urgent. They aren't.
* CoolStarship: The Hydra, what little we hear and see of it.
* CoopMultiplayer: ''Armageddon'' introduces "Infestation" mode, similar to the "horde" or survival modes seen in other shooters. Up to four players can battle against increasingly nasty waves of aliens, using whatever upgrades they've obtained in the campaign thus far. In addition, you earn salvage for killed enemies and can purchase more upgrades, which then can be used in the campaign. These battles depict events that [[GaidenGame apparently occur concurrently with the campaign.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Both literally and figuratively: Darius can use a melee finisher on some enemies, such as the scurrying Creepers. On them, he simply stomps their heads in for a OneHitKill.
* CrapsackWorld: Nothing ever really gets better in this series; Earth is starving for resources so we mine Mars... but the corporation with a monopoly on it has zero interest in basic human rights. Parker brings them down... and then Earth itself puts things right back where they were. Mason liberates Mars...then the terraformer goes down, forcing everyone to live underground while everything Parker and Mason fought for on the surface is buried in red dust. Then the underground is harboring a SealedEvilInACan and it turns into something that looks a little like Franchise/DeadSpace. And if you take the [[CanonWelding shared universes]] into account? Everything you did in SaintsRow is irrelevant, because all of ''this'' comes next. Everything you do ''here'' is just going to lead to [[{{Freespace}} Sol being cut off from the rest of the galaxy,]] [[FridgeBrilliance thus exacerbating the resource problem,]] while five-legged omnicidal aliens destroy everything else.
** Earth itself by the events of ''Guerrilla'', even. The Council is going ahead with a "Forced Sterilization Act" due to rampant overpopulation, London is now several feet below sea level and relies on a complex network of dams, pumps, levees and reservoirs to avoid flooding (which is becoming ''more and more frequent''), countries that don't join the Earth Defense Council are pretty much on their own ''if'' they aren't ''wiped out and/or annexed by the Council'', a passenger shuttle crashes in the ''"Amazon Desert"'' with the loss of all aboard, rescue operations are grounded due to severe storms... Earth is pretty much a terrible place to be, it's no wonder Alec left.
* CrazySurvivalist: Jenkins from ''Guerrilla''. While the player performs RailShooter missions from the back of Jenkins' trike-car, Jenkins relates his survivalist philosophy. He wants total independence of Mars from "them" (Earth), to the point of inventing his own "Mars words" to replace English. He also claims he has [[YouFailBiologyForever "taught himself" to breathe carbon dioxide]] and thinks mankind will eventually merge with ''their cars''. Upon blowing up a target he will frequently cry out that he is "Clean and Righteous." At other points he announces that while everyone thinks he is crazy, he is the only sane man, and that "they" are always watching. [[spoiler:Jenkins eventually goes right over the edge, deciding the Earth forces exist because of the rebellion, so the only way to be Clean is to betray the rebellion.]]
* CriticalExistenceFailure: In the original game, no matter how many bullet holes your envirosuit acquires, as long as it has 1 unit of armor left, it will still protect you from the Martian atmosphere. Once it hits 0 units of armor, though, you can kiss goodbye to oxygen.
* DeadCharacterWalking: A glitch in multiplayer mode when the invincibility cheat was active; the flamethrower's alternate attack would set CPU-controlled players on fire, but never let them die. They would run around forever screaming in agony until you turned the cheat off. It was possible to inflict this cruelty on an entire level's worth of bots.
* DeadpanSnarker: Alec Mason. His grandson Darius also. Runs in the family.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: In ''Guerrilla'', all death does is subtract a mere four morale points and send you back to the nearest safehouse. When you die, you get credited for current kill streaks, property destruction and so on. It is common to have the "death penalty" refunded with interest before you even respawn. The only real penalty is losing progress on a difficult mission.
* DestructiveSaviour: All of the games to some extent, but especially ''Guerrilla'', where StuffBlowingUp pretty much advances the plot. It lowers EDF control in the region, which unlocks main story missions.
** The best part is ''the game actually permanently saves every bit of damage you do'' to the various buildings and structures scattered around the game world. By the end of the game the Mars colony may very well be a smouldering wreck thanks to you.
** "The best part?" That's the ''worst'' part! It means you can't go back and [[StuffBlowingUp destroy it all again.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Guerrilla's finale, in which the ragtag Red Faction take out ''the most powerful space-faring vessel ever designed'' with a single missile. This vessel has sufficient firepower to "cleanse" entire planets and weapons accurate enough to hit individual people from orbit, yet can't shoot down a missile.]]
* DisasterScavengers: The Marauders in ''Guerrilla'' live like this, with structures, weapons and vehicles that appear to be cobbled together from bits and pieces of scrap. [[spoiler: It is however, [[{{Masquerade}} a facade.]] They do this to hide their identities as former [[MegaCorp Ultor]] scientists, and descendants thereof. And they know very well how their LostTechnology works, thank you very much.]]
** ''Armageddon'' turns this UpToEleven.
* DiscOneFinalBoss:
** Just so you know, [[spoiler: Victor Sopot]] is NOT the BigBad of the second game. The game's second half, after your successful [[spoiler: assassination attempt]], is spent fighting and killing [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn half of your former teammates.]] ]]
** Likewise, in ''Armageddon'' [[spoiler: BigBad Adam Hale is killed about 1/3rd of the way through the game, with the rest of the game spent trying to put a stop to the alien apocalypse he unleashed on Mars.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: ''Red'' Faction? Mars, the ''red'' planet? The rebel symbol being a clenched fist?
* DoomMagnet: Darius Mason, ''hard.'' Lampshaded by Frank Winters:
--> '''Sgt. Winters:''' You ever notice how when bad things happen - I mean the absolute '''WORST''' things imaginable. ''Horrible'' stuff - there's always a Mason around? Now I'm talking about shit you couldn't even ''dream'' of happening... y'know, it never fails!
* DragonAscendant: Masako in ''Red Faction''.
* DragonTheirFeet: Capek, the BigBad of ''Red Faction'', dies about halfway through the game, with the rest of the game being spent fighting Colonel Masako and her Merc soldiers.
* DropTheHammer: The sledgehammer in ''Guerrilla''. It can can singlehandedly destroy enormous buildings with enough swings and one-hit kill many mooks in the game...
* EliteMooks: The Elite Guard and Merc soldiers in the original ''Red Faction'', and the Sopot Elite Guard and Nano Elite in ''Red Faction 2''. The Merc soldiers in [=RF1=] are ''particularly'' elite. As in, you could be running around with a shotgun and an assault rifle gunning down Ultor guards left and right, and you'll be just fine, but when the Mercs roll in, it's a severe shock to the system when half of them are carrying [[MoreDakka Heavy Machine Guns]] and the other half carry the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Rail Driver]], which can kill you ''with one shot, through walls and on any part of your body''. [[CriticalExistenceFailure Apparently, Parker has vital organs in his feet.]]
** Try multiplayer mode on impossible and watch the comp get a sniper rifle, I didn't know computers could hit you with their back facing you so well... [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard yea...]]
** ''Guerilla'' have [=EDF=] Heavy Troopers, 7-foot tall guys in white power armor. They have twice as much health as standard [=EDF=] soldiers, and only show up in the final region of the game, Eos.
** ''Armageddon'' has the Wraith, capable of [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking]] and [[InterfaceScrew blurring your vision]] with a psychotropic cloud. Also the Berserker, who aside from having a bit too much health has a nasty habit of [[ActionBomb exploding]] when you kill one.
* EnemyMine: At first, the EDF, Red Faction and the Marauders are all at each others throats. Samanya's status as the [[spoiler: sister of the Marauders leader, Vasha, helps to convince her]] that the Faction and Marauders need to work together against the EDF.
* EverythingBreaks: One of the main draws of the series is its detailed graphics engine.
* ExpositionFairy: ''Armageddon'' has one in the form of Darius' wrist-computer AI, S.A.M. He's frequently exasperated with her. To her credit, she occasionally snarks ''back.''
* FacelessGoons: The EDF drones of all types. The field officers wear the least headgear, but even then they have berets, goggles and a mini gas-mask.
* FanNickname: In Guerilla, Mason is capable of using a sledge hammer to tear gaping holes in solid concrete, dislodge steel girders, and send people hurtling through the air. They are jokingly referred to as Thor and Mjolnir respectively.
* TheFederation: The Earth Defense Force, although they gain [[TheEmpire Imperial]] tendencies in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla''.
* FollowTheLeader: Some have criticized ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' for taking a lot of cues from Microsoft's ''GearsOfWar'' and [[ElectronicArts EA's]] ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' franchise.
** It also takes some cues from ''Singularity''
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Unknown if it's intentional or not, but the old coot in the Badlands ([[spoiler:Parker]]) mentions that there aren't any monsters left on Mars, unless you look real hard. While there are none in ''Guerrilla'', guess exactly what happens in ''Armageddon''...
* FranchiseKiller: THQ has officially announced that ''Red Faction Armageddon'' did so amazingly poorly in sales that they're officially scuttling the franchise.
* FullCircleRevolution: Red Faction 1's revolt wound up not changing much for the poor miners in the long run.
* GameMod: What enterprising users are doing with the PC version despite the lack of official tools. It's pretty primitive right now, but they're starting to make some headway. What's more fun than [[WreakingHavok destroying that gigantic bridge]] in the Badlands? Painstakingly rebuilding it piece by piece as the EDF try to kill you, and then [[StuffBlowingUp blowing it up all over again!]]
* GogglesDoNothing: Darius, though he does actually put them down over his eyes when he's out in the Martian air.
* GondorCallsForAid: The eponymous faction in ''Guerrilla'' is forced to ask [[spoiler:the Marauders]] for help after the events described in AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs above.
* GoryDiscretionShot: An absolutely bizarre one in Armageddon. [[spoiler: After Darius battles Hale's spider tank to a standstill, Hale is shown sitting still in the cockpit, apparently without severe physical injury. After a brief cut to show Darius standing outside the tank wondering if the battle is over, Hale's head suddenly rolls out from under the tank. No explanation is given for this, although it most likely is a visual joke regarding the character's StayingAlive tendencies and the sudden expiration of his JokerImmunity.]]
* GravityScrew: The wondrously entertaining "Magnet Gun" in ''Armageddon'' allows you to hurl almost anything through the air using two "anchors". The first does nothing until you shoot a second, at which point whatever was shot the first time (such as an unfortunate enemy) will be hurled headlong at the second target. There's also the "Shockwave" power, which hurls nearby enemies into the air and suspends them there temporarily.
* GunsAkimbo: Darius can do this in ''Armageddon'', either with a pair of low-damage pistols or Banshees, which are high-damage, but slow-firing [[HandCannon Hand Cannons.]]
* HandBlast: ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' has this, coming from the nano-forge.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Averted with the rebel leader in the third game; he appears in several cutscenes, and you can also see him in-game at the rebel camp in the Badlands, where he has an office.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Listening to the radio operators at Red Faction bases in ''Guerrilla'' will reveal that the Faction has several lone agents much like Mason out in the populace, doing much the same thing he's doing (it's possible to hear an individual being called in to attack a convoy, for example, or track down a courier). You never actually see them, though.
* HitAndRunTactics: ''Guerrilla'' heavily encourages this. In fact, some structures and bases are nearly impossible to take down without using such tactics, as unless you're using [[HumongousMecha a Walker]], the EDF ''will'' swarm you and gun you down, even with the best weapons and armor, and given [[StuffBlowingUp the nature of this game]], cover never lasts long. As opined in ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''[[hottip:* :"You get enough ammo to worry half a scout troop."]], you run out of ammo in long battles when starting out. Even later, you tend to run out of the [[{{BFG}} good stuff]].
* HumongousMecha: Mining Walkers are very fun whenever you can get them. Heavy ones trash buildings like a walker through a butter factory. There's also the Light Walker, which is a fun runaround and has jumpjets, and the Combat Walker, which is... pretty much a MacrossMissileMassacre on legs, what with the rocket pods.
* IdiotHero: Parker in ''Red Faction'' is pretty damn dense, not to mention rather hotheaded. Funnily enough, [[InformedAbility he was accepted into Harvard]] before the events of the game. He decided to become a miner to spite his parents. In ''Guerrilla'', it is fortunate Samanya is the brains of the outfit. Mason has the hitting power and intellect of a sledgehammer. This introduces an odd note of humour when giving him the nanoforge is seen as putting it "in safe hands."
** FridgeBrilliance: If the EDF knows Mason have it, they'll devote more of their resources going after him instead of the rest of the Faction. His erratic movements between sectors and strikes using civilian vehicles as cover force the EDF to stay alert and not commit too much to any one offensive because they never know where he will strike next. He is also the best equipped and most experienced combatant in the Faction, by the sounds of things.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Kara]], in ''Armageddon.'' [[spoiler: She appears to have been KilledOffForReal, though Darius [[NeverFoundTheBody never finds her body...]] It's a relatively small impalement, as they go.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Much of the Red Faction's own weaponry in ''Guerrilla'' is like this. Some of the Marauder's weapons are too. Examples;
** The Arc Welder, which shoots [[ShockAndAwe streams of electricity]], incapacitating enemies and letting you hijack vehicles. Upgrades include ''allowing the streams to discern friend from foe'', and an additional stream for extra damage.
** The Grinder, which shoots dinner-plate sized sawblades fast enough to take your head off. It can be upgraded to charge faster, and to make its [[StuffBlowingUp sawblades explode on impact.]]
** The Rocket Launcher, which shoots ''rocket-propelled mining charges'' using an initial burst of compressed gas. It can be upgraded with heat-seeking capabilities and the ability to shoot multiple rockets/missiles at once.
* InterfaceSpoiler: The weapon menu in ''Guerrilla''.
* InVehicleInvulnerability: Even if you are one shot away from death, the moment you get into a vehicle, it takes all the damage which comes your way. Don't be inside a vehicle that is taken to zero hit points though: it will explode and hurt and/or kill you.
* IwoJimaPose: In ''Guerrilla'', an Iwo Jima-like monument can be found in Eos, commemorating the [=EDF=] soldiers who died liberating Mars from the Ultor Corporation, complete with a plaque listing all their names. [[KickTheDog There's a mission to]] [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized blow it up.]]
* JetPack: Mason gets one in ''Guerrilla'' after liberating Oasis, and the Light Walker has one. Nope, sorry, it doesn't play Dixie when you hit the jets. Both of them have limited flight time, but automatically recharge.
* KaizoTrap: In ''Guerrilla'', after you kill General Roth in the game's final battle, you need to clear the missile launch tube to finish the game. If you just dick around, maybe taking cover to regenerate the health you lost fighting the General, a pair of airships will appear behind you and riddle you with bullets, forcing you to restart the entire 20-minute long level over again.
* LaResistance: The eponymous Red Faction.
* LethalJokeItem: Mr. Toots in ''Armageddon'', the shoulder-mounted, dog-sized unicorn pony that farts a destructive rainbow beam.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe. The first game features a bullet proof shield.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: The Missile Tank and Combat Walker in ''Guerrilla''. The Combat Walker fires a constant hailstorm of rockets from its mounted rocket pods, and the Missile Tank can unleash a long, staggered barrage of missiles over a few seconds, pulverizing vehicles, buildings and infantry alike in a Katyusha-esque fashion.
* MadeOfIron: Colonel Masako and Secretary of Defense Molov can both take multiple rocket launcher shots (and your entire stock of small arms ammo, railgun rounds, and... well, you get the idea) to the face before dying, even on the easiest difficulties. This is averted in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', where BigBad #1 [[spoiler: General Roth]] drives a tank to fight you for the game's final battle, and BigBad #2 [[spoiler: Admiral Kobel]] is killed in the ending cutscene. It's very satisfying to shove several rockets up [[spoiler: Roth]]'s tailpipe [[ShutUpHannibal whilst he's in the middle of his speech...]] You can also snipe him with a railgun through the tank's armor. Or [[ShockAndAwe electrocute him with the Arc Welder]].
* MadeOfPlasticine: Enemies in ''Armageddon,'' especially the aliens.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: You can upgrade your rocket launcher in Guerrilla to fire up to 3 rockets that home onto a target. AwesomeButImpractical because of the tiny ammo repertoire.
* MagikarpPower: The Grinder in Guerrilla. Mostly useless at first, but far more effective with rapid charging and explosive blades. In online play however the grinder is more immediately effective and affectionately referred to as a giant sniper rifle.
* MeaningfulName: Alec ''Mason'' carries a big hammer. Captain ''Gunnar''sen meets protests with lead. General Bertram ''Roth'' is not calm and reasonable.
* MegaCorp: Ultor is the most prominent example, but there are several smaller Mega Corps, primarily the [=AmRuKuo=] Corp. and [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Kuroari Industries]].
* MiniMecha: ''Armageddon'' substitutes these for ''Guerrilla's'' much larger mining walkers, likely due to the cramped conditions of most of the levels. They may not be quite as destructive, but they do the job well- especially the Leo, a uniquely-styled mecha with flowing skirt-armor, a heavy machine gun and rocket pack.
* TheMole: In ''Guerrilla''. An interesting case as the "traitor" is not actually a member of the other side, but simply [[spoiler:batshit insane. It's Jenkins: see CrazySurvivalist, above.]]
** There are several "Guerrilla missions" where you are asked to hunt down a traitor who is going to sell out the location of the Safehouses to the EDF. [[spoiler:Interestingly, even if you do all of these, they still know where the Badlands Safehouse is]]
*** Maybe someone at EDF command finally discovered they have a woundrous invention called "satellite imaging."
* MoralDissonance: Colonel Joseph Broga is painfully (and loudly) tortured in the ''Catch and Release'' mission, before being dumped off a cliff. Apparently, this is [[UnfortunateImplications A-okay]], because Broga himself tortured people.
** In fact, he [[KarmicDeath he tortured her interrogator]].
* NamesTheSame: Alec Mason's VoiceWithAnInternetConnection for ''Guerilla'' was Sam (short for Samanya). Darius in ''Armageddon'' gets a "Sam" of his own, the "Situational Awareness Module" that also tells him where he needs to go next.
** It [[AllThereInTheManual mentions in the manual]] that Samanya actually designed and built S.A.M. herself. This troper likes to think that S.A.M.'s personality, such as it is, is based off Samanya's, so Darius spends the whole game [[NeverMessWithGranny getting bossed about and snarked at by his gran.]]
* {{Nanomachines}}: The Nano Forge, a key MacGuffin in ''Guerrilla'', is among other things what enables the Red Faction to [[spoiler: destroy the EDF Flagship Hydra at the end of the game.]] It returns in ''Armageddon'', now strapped to Darius' left arm, and can be used to repair destroyed objects as well as granting him various abilities. In both games it's also the basis for the Nano Rifle, a powerful weapon that can disassemble whatever it hits.
* NintendoHard: In the first game, some of the late-game levels where you fight against the Mercs can be this, as many of them are armed with one-hit-kill railguns, and even their normal weapons can kill you in just 4 to 8 shots. ''Guerrilla'' can often be NintendoHard, with its large number of [[EscortMission Escort Missions]] and the fact you're often expected to fight 10-20 enemies at the same time with a character who really isn't particularly durable by shooter standards.
** The final two regular levels in ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' qualify as this. With truly countless enemies spawning left and right (including at least one Behemoth boss) and being stuck to tight corridors with little environment to destroy, playing the levels, ''even on normal,'' can be enough to induce a lot of rage. Some even consider the final boss to be a BreatherLevel!
* NoOSHACompliance: What did you expect from an evil corporation with no regard for human safety, anyway?
** Seen again in the underground shanty-towns in ''Armageddon.''
* NoticeThis: In ''Guerrilla'' a wave of shine will highlight scrap on the ground. Periodic shine also occurs on dropped weapons. This effect can be [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief jarring]]: while target arrows look like HUD symbols, this is inexplicably "in world".
* OffscreenTeleportation: In ''Guerrilla'', no matter how fast you drive between safehouses, Sam will be there to exchange salvage for goodies.
** FridgeBrilliance: She uses the same teleportation function that you can buy to warp between safehouses after a certain point in the game.
** Or maybe it's just [[GameplayAndStorySegregation]].
* OneManArmy : The great majority of the of destruction and salvation that occurs in Red Faction one and two is the result of one person. In ''Guerrilla'', NPC Guerrillas fight alongside the player, but Mason is still very much a OneManArmy. Lampshaded in Guerrilla: After purchasing an upgrade, Sam will sometimes say "We'll turn you into a one man army." Darius at least has an excuse: The Nano Forge affords him an array of powers.
* TheOtherDarrin: Averted in ''Origins'' and ''Armageddon'', where BigBad Adam Hale (the only recurring character) is played by the same guy in both the movie and the game, and his in-game character even looks like an older version of the actor.
* OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture: ''Guerrilla'' does a good boxy gun. It does several good boxy guns. Boxiest would be the assault rifle, which looks like it hasn't been unpacked from the box it came in. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/RFG_assaultrifle.jpg]]
** Fits with the general angular theme the EDF has going on.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: What happens during ''Catch and Release'' in ''Guerrilla''. You might ''almost'' end up feeling sorry for Colonel Broga, but given that he seems to have done a lot of torturing of the kind he is now receiving, it's a bit of sorely overdue {{Revenge}}.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Darius Mason decides to wait until after the miners are riled up and ready to kill him to try to explain his side of things. Of course, these miners are already ''very'' surly and they might have taken it out on him anyway, which is why he held back in the first place.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Mason breaks out a wonderful one in the grand finale of ''Guerrilla''.
-->Admiral Kobel: [[spoiler:This is Admiral Kobel of the EDS Hydra. What is your status?]]
-->Alec Mason: [[spoiler:Just fine, Admiral, but yours is about to go red.]]
* PropagandaMachine: The Voice of Mars Broadcasting System. The loudspeakers scattered around work for the EDF as well, until the EDF are driven out and the loudspeakers begin saying to join the Red Faction. And oh what a propaganda machine it is...
* {{Pun}}: Achievement and Mission names in ''Guerrilla''.
* RailShooter: The missions on [[CrazySurvivalist Jenkins']] trike-car, popping off rockets at EDF assets while the game controls the car and keeps count of the damage cost to the EDF. In ''Red Faction 2'' you occasionally take the gunner position in a tank or aircraft.
** ''Armageddon'' has a few sequences like this, most notably while riding a barge down [[ConvectionSchmonvection river of lava.]]
* TheRedPlanet: No, really. In ''Guerrilla'' it's a blueish, greenish and yellow planet, too, with perplexingly distinct mood lighting boundaries. You may occasionally forget you're on Mars in ''Armageddon'', as a large portion of the game is spent underground in [[AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield Amazing Technicolor Caverns.]]
* RedshirtArmy:
** In ''Red Faction'' your allies have literal red jumpsuits. And yes, in both of the first two games, your allies are beyond completely useless. Enemies will kill off your buddies before they can fire off a shot. Even if they somehow survive the gunfight they'll contrive to [[ScriptedBattle drop dead]] for no reason anyway.
** In ''Guerrilla'', your fellow rebels can occasionally hold their own. Still, the average rebel devotes much of their time to a) shooting other rebels by accident, b) complaining because another rebel shot them, c) walking into the player's line of fire, or d) seeking cover by huddling in front of the vehicle you are driving. They get cover -- from the top as you bump over their brave rebel skulls. Rebels in ''Guerilla'' actually have more than twice as much health as [=EDF=] soldiers, but they're usually outnumbers at least 10 to 1, not to mention the fact that [=EDF=] have seemingly limitless reinforcements.
** Armageddon continues [[SarcasmMode this proud tradition,]] for the few times you have allies.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVillified: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Red Faction 2''. Played straight everywhere else. In ''Guerrilla'', most of the Red Faction's actions are either in self-defense or attacks against legitimate military targets of the cartoonishly evil EDF, but there are a couple missions in the last area where you blow up a shopping mall and a coffee shop that are popular with civilian supporters of the EDF. Granted, the targets are the buildings themselves rather than the civilians, who are smart enough to run the hell away as soon as the shooting starts.
* RewardingVandalism: In ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', upgrades to your weapons and other assorted things, such as body armor and safehouse warps, are earned by trading in scrap metal for it (presumably used to improvise weapons and armor). This scrap is earned by destroying EDF buildings, their vehicles, hell, anything that says EDF on it. Since damn near everything short of the environment is destructible in this game, there are also some indirect ways that the game rewards you for vandalism, such as destroying a wall separating you from EDF soldiers to ambush them, busting a hole through a wall to escape through if you find yourself trapped, or cracking holes into pipes in order to find a safe way into otherwise well-guarded structures.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Darius Mason in ''Armageddon'' has a more powerful, arm-based version of the Nano Forge, and he's able to repair or rebuild just about anything (except explosives or explosive machinery) in a matter of seconds. This is actually quite ''necessary'' since odds are good you'll wind up destroying a bridge or staircase you needed to get to the next area.
* {{Roboteching}}: The Missile Tank can fire its rockets like this.
* StickyBomb: In ''Guerrilla'', mining charges can be stuck to EDF soliders, who then flail about in a panic before the player sets the charge off. ''Armageddon' gives the player a GrenadeLauncher that fires similar charges, up to four at once.
* ShockAndAwe: The Arc Welder in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla''. Quite a useful little weapon, since Mason seems physically incapable of hijacking vehicles.
** It's realistic, in the sense that high-end military vehicles like tanks etc. should have ''some'' kind of door lock to prevent people from exactly that. And hey, without that, you wouldn't have an incentive to use the welder to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential electrocute an entire APC worth of troopers]].
* ShoutOut: References abound to other Volition games, movies and so on and so forth in mission names, dialogue and news reports.
** There's even shoutouts in ''[[EasterEgg filenames]]''. In ''Guerrilla'', one of the most hyped and previewed missions involved the theft of a [[RealRobot Mining Walker]]. The filename of the briefing video? [[WalkerTexasRanger walker_martian_ranger.bik]]
** One of ''Armageddon's'' new vehicles is the [[CoolShip Inferno GX]] space fighter, so named and designed (it even has the same aiming reticule and twin lasers) as a nod to the legendary space shooter ''{{Descent}}''. Not surprising considering Volition's origins as Parallax Software, which they shared with [[AuthorExistenceFailure now-defunct]] ''Descent 3'' and ''Red Faction II'' developers Outrage Entertainment.
** An achievement in ''Armageddon'' is "What is best in life?" It's for [[ConanTheBarbarian crushing enemies beneath your feet]].
** The EliteMooks in the first game, such as the guard in the Guard Station level, sometimes yell "Rebel scum!", in reference to ''ReturnOfTheJedi''
* SpiderTank: Two in ''Armageddon'', both belonging to the Marauders. The Scout Walker, armed with [[LightningGun Lightning Projectors]] and a [[EnergyWeapon massive laser cannon,]] and the much larger Mantis, armed with [[EnergyWeapon plasma guns]] and a weapon that first allows you to paint a line with a targeting laser before lighting that area up with [[StuffBlowingUp explosions.]]
* SpikesOfVillainy: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by the Marauders, [[spoiler: as it's part of their {{Masquerade}}]]. Played painfully straight by Hale and his cultists in ''Armageddon.''
* StuffBlowingUp: A major raison d'être for ''Guerrilla''. The storyline may as well be "Save the planet, here's a rocket launcher"
* StopHelpingMe: In-Universe, Darius tells SAM to remain silent several times.
-->'''Darius''': ''Would you stop detecting!?''
* StuffedInTheFridge: Even [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], who's about as far down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism as you can get, found it jarring how quickly Kara goes from being upgraded to love interest to being gruesomely killed off in order to give the hero something else to angst about, remarking that the elapse in time between the two events (probably less than 15 seconds) must set a new record.
* [[StuckItems Stuck Item]]: In ''Guerrilla'', Mason's sledgehammer fills up a slot and can't be exchanged for a more useful weapon. This is because there isn't a more useful weapon. It [[AvertedTrope becomes unstuck]] in ''Armageddon''.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: In ''Red Faction'' and ''Red Faction 2'', injured enemies may turn around and start to run away, but after a few seconds they'll immediately spin around and resume shooting at you as though nothing had happened. In Guerrilla, trying to attack a base head-on like Master Chief will leave you and your idiot friends dead before you even get into firing range. Mason himself doesn't help matters: when an army comes in to help him at the end, he whines "I thought I was the attack force." The aliens in ''Armageddon'' [[AttackAttackAttack never retreat.]]
* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The matter-dissolving Nano Rifle in ''Guerrilla'', which contains the one-of-a-kind Nanoforge which is the Martians' only hope of defeating the EDF. Your female sidekick outright states "It's not just a gun; it may be the future of Mars". [[hottip:*:"So... can I have my gun back?"]]
* ThereWasADoor: ''Guerrilla'' provides the player with a sledgehammer of unlikely power. You have the option of bashing your way through walls and windows rather than go through the doorway. This can be a lifesaver when rescuing hostages, running from a horde of drones, and so forth.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: [[spoiler: the nuclear bomb in the first game]]. The clunky overhead-view protect-the-truck-with-artillery mini-game in ''Guerrilla''.
** Depends. The amount of destruction you can unleash on the EDF with the artillery is well worth the clunk.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Most apparent in ''Guerrilla'', a wide-open sandbox-style game in which literally anything built by human hands can be destroyed. In fact, the Cruelty Potential is so blatant in ''Guerrilla'' that it's actually had a song written about it: ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUBI-YVRY8 Space Asshole]]'' takes the point of view of a colonist who is afflicted by Mason rampaging though Mars.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: None in the original ''Red Faction''. ''Red Faction 2'' had a KarmaMeter, and killing too many civilians would get you the bad endings. In ''Guerrilla'' killing civilians results in a minor morale penalty.
* VulnerableCivilians: In ''Guerilla'',EDF patrols will randomly stop civilians for questioning. These encounters inevitably escalate to the EDF troops just mowing down the unarmed civilians, unless you intervene.
* WalkItOff: ''Red Faction 2'' has regenerating health, although it's justified by your character's status as a nano-augmented SuperSoldier. It's noticeably slower than the regenerating health seen in more modern FPS games picking up medkits, usually, restores lives not health as such. ''Guerrilla'' has straightforward regenerating health: Mason regenerates health very fast once he can catch his breath.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: In ''Red Faction 2'', your vehicle specialist Shrike never wears a shirt.
* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: To a limited extent in ''Red Faction 1''. Played full-tilt in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla''.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The aliens in ''Armageddon'' have but one weakness: [[spoiler: Earthlike air. Reactivating the dormant terraformer is the killing blow.]]
* TakeYourTime: Generally, the player advances the action when they want to in ''Guerrilla''. The commander thinks Sam might be walking into an ambush... get over there right now! Or later! When you feel like it!
* ThirdActStupidity: In ''Guerrilla'', when you start the final invasion of Eos. You're ''in'' Eos to start with, but your commander first sends you to Dust as you can go to pick up a no-name band of Rebels to join you (in the south), then sends you to meet the army in the Badlands (''way'' in the east). Both areas are about as far as you can get from your goal in the northwest. Sure enough, while you're running around the boondocks of Mars [[spoiler: the Badlands base is attacked and the Eos attack called off. You race to its defense to no avail: AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs.]] As a result of this stupidity the ending gets stretched out for a few more hours.
* TournamentPlay: Since the addition of the Major League Gaming Playlist to Red Faction Guerrilla.
* TranslationConvention / TranslatorMicrobes: Not in ''Guerrilla''! Whilst practically all colonists speak English (or what is presumably English) it is possible to hear Russian, French and other languages as well, usually from the citizens you rescue during House Arrest events. The emergency vehicles have reflective panels that read 'AMBULANCE' or 'EMERGENCY' in three different languages as well, depending on which angle you look at them from.
* WarpWhistle: By the time you reach the 3rd zone, you can purchase an upgrade that lets you instantly travel to any safehouse, as long as you haven't triggered an alert level. It dramatically cuts down on the transit time, although you still have to slow-travel to all non-safehouse locations.
* WeaponsThatSuck: The Singularity Cannon in Red Faction: Armageddon
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Try murdering your brother in ''Guerrilla's'' prologue.
* WideOpenSandbox: ''Red Faction: Guerrilla''. One of the nice features is the modicum of active events such as EDF raids and spontaneous firefights that break up the usual passive sandbox mission-supermarket vibe.
* WreakingHavok: In one mission, you have to assassinate a group of corrupt government officials. You can sneak in and stealthily take them out, attack from long range with a sniper rifle. Or you can destroy the roof supports from long range and watch a growing cascade of rubble smoosh your targets.\\
\\
Or you can attach a shitload of demolition charges to a truck, crash the truck into the building, blow up the truck, then fire off rockets in every direction until the building is a pile of smouldering rubble, then hijack an enemy APC and drive off into the Martian sunset. Basically, ''Guerrilla'' doesn't often tell you how to do something. You want to smash a back door into an enemy base and steal a tank or two? Sure why not? You want to charge into an outpost and hammer away at the support struts until the entire thing comes tumbling down with you inside it? [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Go nuts]]. Just try not to die in the process.
* WrenchWench: Samanya.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Every mining operation in ''Guerrilla'' consists of a bunch of people literally digging out the ore by hand with picks and shovels, then carrying it by hand to a loading hopper. The all-powerful EDF has access to energy weapons, terraforming engines, and super-advanced VTOL aircraft, but not mining drills or excavating machines.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters
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** The final two regular levels in ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' qualify as this. With truly countless enemies spawning left and right (including at least one Behemoth boss) and being stuck to tight corridors with little environment to destroy, playing the levels, ''even on normal,'' can be enough to induce a lot of rage. Some even consider [[spoiler: the FinalBoss]] to be a BreatherLevel!

All five games take place in the same universe, although ''Red Faction 2'' has very little to do with the others. ''Red Faction 1'' is about a [[LaResistance miners' uprising]] on Mars against the corrupt [[MegaCorp Ultor Corp.]], the massive, corrupt conglomerate that manages the mining operations on Mars, in the style of the British East India Company ([[EvenEvilHasStandards though that]] ''MIGHT'' [[InsultToRocks be an insult to the BEIC]]). Through the [[OneManArmy heroic actions]] of miner-turned-revolutionary Parker, and the intervention of the [[TheFederation Earth Defense Force]], Ultor's reign of terror is brought to an end.

''Red Faction 2'' is set on Earth, in the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the Commonwealth]], a corrupt dictatorship that has used captured Ultor technology to manufacture SuperSoldiers. [[BewareTheSuperman Fearing the potential]] of these SuperSoldiers, [[EvilOverlord Chancellor Victor Sopot]] orders them killed. The survivors form TheSquad, and join forces with a local resistance named after the Martian Red Faction in an attempt to overthrow Sopot. ''RedFaction 2'' is generally considered a [[FirstInstallmentWins step down]] for the series, due to its unrelated plot, removed features, and Geo-Mod unfriendly terrain.

''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' is a departure in terms of gameplay - a WideOpenSandbox ThirdPersonShooter similar to Volition's ''Saints Row'', as opposed to a FirstPersonShooter - but a return to the continuing narrative. Fifty years after the original ''Red Faction'', the Earth Defense Force have [[FullCircleRevolution turned from liberators to oppressors]], more concerned with exploiting Mars than helping it rebuild. A newcomer to Mars, Alec Mason, joins the reborn Red Faction to fight against the [=EDF=] after his brother is gunned down by an [=EDF=] gunship.

There's also ''Red Faction: Battlegrounds'', a top-down, twin-stick ShootEmUp for the Playstation3 and Xbox360 designed as a tie-in to ''Armageddon.'' It consists of various challenges narrated by ''Armageddon's'' Sergeant Winters, and multiplayer where up to four players can control a variety of vehicles from ''Guerrilla'' and proceed to blow up ''everything.''

The fourth game in the series, ''Red Faction: Armageddon'', follows directly from ''Guerrilla'', taking place fifty years afterwards. Like ''Guerrilla'', it's a ThirdPersonShooter, but features tighter GearsOfWar style corridor-shooter gameplay in contrast to the VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto style WideOpenSandbox gameplay of ''Guerrilla''. After the planet's atmospheric terraformer is destroyed by cult leader Adam Hale, a descendant of the defeated [=EDF=] and long-time nemesis of the Mason family, the people of Mars are forced to take shelter underground from the now hostile surface. The game stars Darius Mason, the grandson of Alec Mason, who is tricked into opening an ancient sealed Martian temple by Hale, releasing a long-buried malevolent alien species and unleashing armageddon upon Mars.

There is also a film interquel between ''Guerilla'' and ''Armageddon'', called ''Film/RedFactionOrigins''

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Most apparent in ''Guerrilla'', a wide-open sandbox-style game in which literally anything built by human hands can be destroyed. In fact, the Cruelty Potential is so blatant in ''Guerrilla'' that it's actually had a song written about it: ''[[[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUBI-YVRY8 Space Asshole]]'' takes the point of view of a colonist who is afflicted by Mason rampaging though Mars.

[[quoteright:128:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_faction_guerrilla_logo.png]] ''Red Faction'' is a video game series developed by Volition, Inc, set in the future of [[CanonWelding the same universe as their]] ''SaintsRow'' series (and possibly the past of their ''{{Descent}}'' series,) where [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet Earth]] has exhausted its supply of natural resources, and depends on mining operations on [[TheRedPlanet Mars]] for the survival of its economy. The main gameplay draw of the ''Red Faction'' series is the Geo-Mod engine, a StuffBlowingUp simulator ''par excellence''. Geo-Mod 1, used in ''Red Faction 1'' and ''Red Faction 2'', was based primarily around terrain deformation: Rock could be torn away with your weapons, but metal surfaces were usually safe. Geo-Mod 2, used in ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', reverses this, enabling the player to destroy buildings using a physics system so realistic the game developers actually had to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6XM7NfGr8 study architecture]] to get the buildings to stand up.

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: At the end of ''Armageddon'', it turns out Darius could have repaired the terraformer at any time, completely avoiding all the crap that ended up going down in the game. This is even lampshaded in one of the game's audio logs, in which an engineer remarks that they actually have the technology to repair the terraformer, and speculates the Red Faction leaders are suppressing attempts to repair it in order to consolidate their power over the Martian people by keeping them underground.

A LiveActionAdaptation called ''Red Faction: Origins'' aired on SyFy on June 4, 2011. The movie bridges the gap between ''Guerrilla'' and ''Armageddon'', with Robert "[[TheTerminator T-1000]]" Patrick as Alec Mason. [[Series/StargateUniverse Brian J. Smith]] plays his son Jake Mason, the main protagonist. The movie's plot has Jake tracking down the mysterious White Faction, [[spoiler:a secret [[TheRemnant remnant]] of the defeated [=EDF=],]] who are plotting to take Mars for themselves.

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!!The film provides examples of:
* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: The White Faction kidnapped Jake's sister prior to the series. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that many more were kidnapped. The White Faction needed the children to maintain acceptable genetic diversity once they took over again.]]
* TheRemnant: [[spoiler:White Faction is a leftover group of EDF in hiding.]]