Retro spotlight: Red Faction: Guerrilla

This column is “Retro spotlight,” which exists mostly so I can write about whatever game I feel like even if it doesn’t fit into one of the other topics you find in this newsletter. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

Volition was never shy about its stances on labor and exploitation. Even before the studio existed under that name, there was Descent, which opens with your pilot opining on how the bureaucrats would replace all the workers with robots if they could even as those robots are infected with a virus that causes them go to haywire and threaten the lives of the actual people who do work out in the stations you now need to destroy. Then, of course, there is 2001’s Red Faction, a first-person shooter that begins with your character, Parker, being tricked into joining the labor force on Mars, which is essentially made up of unwitting prisoners who are worked to the brink of death, at which point they are then actually killed or experimented on, and replaced by the next wave — labor is cheap and replaceable when it is not respected, and the game opens with Parker taking part in a riot that begins when corporate security working for interstellar conglomerate Ultor kills a fellow miner in the midst of a plague the company is doing nothing to stop or protect workers from.

Red Faction: Guerrilla, though, the third game in the series that switched things up from first-person shooter to third-person, open-world experience, is more explicit and dedicated to its message than anything the prior Red Factions managed, and those games were not exactly subtle about the point. It was released in June of 2009, in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, caused by speculation on property values and a secondary market that formed around the mass of loans given out at the time, all designed to fuel consumption and create additional assets for investors to pass around as collateral for additional loans. Once the housing bubble popped and these mortgage-backed securities were no longer so secure investments, the world’s economy suffered even worse than it already was during what was called the “Great Recession;” the irresponsible speculation with American investors at its epicenter exacerbating an existing issue that impacted the entire world with effects that went well beyond the year attached to the crisis’ name.

Whereas Red Faction opened with an explanation of exploitation caused by a corporation’s abuse of workers far from the protections of Earth, in Guerrilla, it’s Earth that is at the center of the issue. The reason? The planet’s natural resources have been churned through and the global economy has collapsed in response, owing to the lack of production of goods and materials combined with a shift in the markets to rampant commodities speculation — again, Volition is not a subtle company. There was no product being invested in by the speculators that bought and sold mortgage-backed securities, merely endless trading on the foundation of a very shaky house of cards in order to juice the economy. In the world of Guerrilla, with Mars a relatively untapped resource owing to the newness of humanity’s presence on it, Earth's corporations and financial leaders saw it as the solution to their problems at home. With Earth's demand for resources it cannot acquire from itself any longer running high, the militarized Earth Defense Force has turned Mars into, effectively, a mass forced labor camp — a move that has reinvigorated Earth’s economy owing not just to the more efficient pipeline of resources from the red planet, but also thanks to heavy investment into the EDF as a security force to ensure that said pipeline is always providing materials, whatever the cost.

Volition is not necessarily explicit about this in terms of dialogue, but it also does not leave you to imagine this is the case. Most of the loading screens in Red Faction: Guerrilla are merely an image of the area that you are loading up, but on pre-set occasions tied to the game’s narrative progression, those screens are a (mostly) still from a news broadcast on Earth, hosted by the EDF itself. These are full of some more obvious nods to what’s going on in the game, like a chyron that says, “Mars development vital to Earth economy,” but also scrolling text that will display items such as, “leaders convene emergency summit, seek ways to pacify Martian laborers” after some particularly damaging bits of worker resistance occur.

The most telling item to track, though, and a brilliant little bit of work from Volition, is the stock ticker at the bottom. These scroll through various stocks that are rising and falling, and more of them fall — and by more — as the game progresses and the guerrilla resistance at the heart of the game finds success. You can see not just how much these stocks are rising and falling by, but what they are trading for. And the Earth Defense Force itself is shown on this ticker.

You see one stock, the name of which is partially obscured, trading for 36.43 of whatever the currency utilized in this interstellar world is. Two of the others are trading for less than they were — Colonial Transit LTD. being one of them — thanks to the Red Faction’s decisions to mess with infrastructure established by the EDF that helps keep Mars as nothing but a planet-sized forced-labor camp for Earth’s benefit. The one stock seeing a boost is the Earth Defense Force itself — whereas the obscured stock at the start is trading for just over 36 bucks, and Amrukuo Co. is at 302.67, the EDF is trading at 7,889.24. There’s a lot of money to be made in keeping workers in line, and it’s not just from the labor they produce.

There are, of course, parallels to the present-day here that make Red Faction: Guerrilla continue to resonate well beyond the initial bounds of the 2008 financial crisis. Consider the role that the rampant use and explosion of generative AI has had on computing and energy resources, on available processing power and hardware; data centers continue to spring forth to churn through electricity and water while emitting disruptive, incessant noise pollution, all so that investors can reorient and get theirs out of the economy through a promise of a future that cannot be fulfilled. And as wonderful as it was to see NASA’s astronauts out in space on a mission that saw them go deeper into our solar system than any person has ever been, just for the sheer sense of achievement and wonder, the point of the Artemis II mission was as a test for eventually returning to the surface of the moon itself and establishing a lunar base. There are already investors putting up funds for mining operations, especially for the rare-on-Earth Helium-3, and companies like Interlune are already being careful to call what they want to do “harvesting” rather than “mining” given that the latter is associated with the idea of environmental destruction. Who does the moon belong to? Like what was once a natural starry sky that is now stuffed with an ever-growing number of commercial satellites, the answer is “whoever gets there first.”

And while countries can’t claim the moon (or any celestial object) for themselves owing to a 1960s United Nations treaty, there is nothing stopping a private company from finding its way up there and doing whatever it wants so long as it’s willing to bear the reception to its activities back on Earth. And also, you know. The United States doesn’t exactly listen to the United Nations or anyone basically ever, and especially not at the time of this writing, and there are clear desires to mine the moon and travel through space in an expansionist, capitalist way from American interests both private and governmental. Elon Musk doesn’t want to go to Mars; he wants you to go to Mars, far from the relative safety of Earth and its regulations and oversight, in order to risk your life toiling away producing further wealth for himself and his small army of progeny he plans to live forever through. Jeff Bezos isn’t interested in the scientific exploration of space; that’s a guy who isn’t satisfied with the already nearly nonexistent limits placed on his wealth and abuse of labor and wants even less regulation in his life, which he hopes to find among the stars.

Red Faction: Guerrilla understood this before it could apply the names of today, because it’s not as if this idea of colonization and exploitation started with the likes of Musk and Bezos and their capitalistic ilk. While it’s not a a corporation running Mars this time around, with the EDF in its place, it’s still very much an issue of corporations and capital at its heart: remember the stock ticker display of the EDF’s share price. The exploitation of Mars and its workers is big business on Earth, where the long arm of the planet and its economic and political leaders has decided that violence occurring out of its sight is justified if it allows for the quality of life people planet-side want to exist. There’s a global north vs. global south parallel here, with Mars as the stand in for the latter and Earth as a whole filling in for what others might refer to as “first-world” countries that dominate the economy and control all that can be controlled for their benefit at the expense of “third-world” and “undeveloped” nations; so long as the exploitation of workers and violence waged against them happens out of sight, leaving everyone to go about their days without having to consider the source of all that they possess and experience, then it can continue unimpeded. The Red Faction’s violent uprising against the EDF, its exceptionally expensive and disruptive destruction of property and infrastructure and killing of these security forces that constantly commit what would be considered war crimes if anyone would admit that there was a war happening, forced the issue out into the open.

One thing Guerrilla’s narrative is brave enough to do is not blame the behavior of these violent imperialists on some magic spell or singular evil entity pushing them all forward. Well, besides capitalism, but that's the idea here: Volition doesn't shy from the point it was making like, say, Ogre Battle or various Fire Emblems have to muddy the waters with demons and ancient curses that change the behavior of a populace from its truer, more benevolent nature. In Guerrilla, the behaviors of the ruling class are nakedly displayed for what they are, which is growth at any cost enjoyed and pushed by the ones who don't even have to consider walking away from Omelas, because here it’s 140 million miles out of view. That distance and the insatiable needs of a planet powered by consumption and capital to the point that it has already pushed itself to ruin drives the EDF here; it was once an ally of the original Red Faction in the sense it could be appealed to in the first game to save miners on Mars from a larger-than-life persona guiding security forces with his hand, but here, it's simply Earth and its global military that is the adversary, with the only unnatural force compelling it capitalism, which dominates and enslaves those living under it on the home world, as well.

Volition not only avoids shying away from these implications, but does not leave them as implied. A late-game briefing outright tells you what the problem is and who is at the root of and benefits from it. “The EDF has organized a top secret economic summit,” the briefing begins. “Our ‘Giants of Industry’ call themselves civilians, but make no mistake. Every EDF massacre and atrocity on this planet is done for their benefit. Mars makes them rich, and brutality keeps their workers in line.” The point of the mission is not negotiation with these “Giants of Industry” or to intimidate them into changing their ways; no, you’re about to kill every major economic leader who happens to be on Mars for a summit to discuss The Red Faction Issue, while they are all in one place, as a message back to Earth that this exploitation of workers is too expensive of an endeavor to keep up, that the lives of those toiling away on Mars might be cheap but keeping them in line any longer is going to be prohibitively expensive.

Big fan of violence as a solution to your problems to the point of investing in its perpetuation abroad, huh? It’s not quite the imperial boomerang in action; maybe more like the one that Wile E. Coyote throws violently whipping back to harm the one who wielded it in the first place. And considering that we currently exist in a world where the crimes of the financial crisis that occurred during the development and release of Red Faction: Guerrilla went largely unpunished, if anything allowing for similarly brazen tactics to continue right out in the open to the world’s further detriment, it’s difficult to look upon this game’s mission statement with anything besides Alonzo Mourning Acceptance face.

There's never a “this is wrong!” narrative device or conflict in Guerrilla — the one time that protagonist Alec Mason is upset with what the Red Faction is doing follows a botched mission where he’s feeling down about their chances; he’s concerned that this revolution isn’t a winnable one, that the endless resources of Earth and the EDF will eventually kill them all. There is hope, though, as you are reminded by your commanding officer again and again, in making this war too costly to win as many revolutions have managed before, but it’s going to take dedication and destruction.

Everything you do to the EDF, everything an NPC does to them, is assumed to be deserved. Mason is concerned for the safety of his brother’s illicit, revolutionary activities and wants to put his head down and work upon his arrival on Mars, but when his brother is almost immediately murdered by EDF forces in broad daylight rather than apprehended, Mason picks up his hammer and starts looking for nails. The mid-game torture scene, where a named Red Faction member literally pries information from an EDF officer while you fire at EDF forces giving chase from the turret atop your vehicle doesn't get so much as a blink out of your character, who just does his job in the mission and does it well. That officer, as is made very clear by the recollection of the torture he himself inflicted on the Red Faction member currently returning the favor, had it coming. You attack targets in the city of Eos where commanding officers and VIPs reside, getting them where they live, not just work, and making EDF sympathizers enjoying the comforts of the urban setting, far away from the mines and labor, feel as unsafe as you and your people do. It's nasty work, that is not denied, but it’s also seen as necessary in a battle against an entire world and its interplanetary military that has effectively enslaved an entire population for its enrichment.

It is also made clear that your side, for all its violence, is righteous and the one with its humanity left. An early mission has you going to a peaceful worker rally to protect it because the EDF will absolutely turn it into a violent encounter with guns.  “If we fight for them, they'll fight for us.” Before you can even reach the destination, the EDF has already begun firing on the crowd; the mission successfully concludes only if you manage to protect these protesting workers from further harm, and if you chase down and kill the escaping officer who has a noted history of inflicting violence like this upon workers.

There's nothing particularly revolutionary about Red Faction: Guerrilla's missions and game structure, unlike Volition’s other open-world experience, Saints Row, which at least plays on expectations a bit with some real goofball setups like the ragdolling insurance fraud and its clear Grand Theft Auto Parody foundations. In this sense, Guerrilla is very by the numbers for its time. However, the way in which you play and complete these missions is what's refreshing. Being able to play stealthily and place some charges in specific locations for maximum impact and minimal violence, or go in swinging a hammer to drop structures and soldiers alike, means you can play to your own strengths and desires rather than playing out a more scripted sequence. Use a gun if you must, but maybe wait until you have the one that obliterates molecules so you can make clean, explosion-free holes in buildings — more on that weapon in a bit. Load a car up with charges and drive it into or through the walls of a reinforced base of the EDF, jump out, then hit boom when you're safely away. Load up a car with fellow guerrillas, then attack fortified towers built outside what should be civilian offices or residential areas to take them down and back. Just use your hammer to start breaking whatever is holding up EDF structures or the skulls of members of the EDF itself. You've just got a lot of freedom here that reminds you that these are the same devs that make Saints Row, in that regard, and that they applied those lessons of player freedom and imagination to the revamped destructible environment tech, GeoMod, of Volition’s PS2-era gem. Now a third-person game instead of a first-person shooter because, despite the presence of guns, this one isn't really a shooter anymore than the game where you can equip a dildo baseball bat is.

Also refreshing is how deeply intertwined the narrative mission and gameplay missions of Guerrilla are. The first mission is called “Better Red Than Dead” just so you don’t miss what you’re getting into here, and is about erasing traces of your past, pre-game hideout to avoid being tracked to your new one, which gives you both an opportunity to play around with the explosive charges miners are authorized to carry, and to see what happens when the EDF descends on your position once you’ve caused a little mayhem. Speaking of mayhem, there’s an actual tracker labeled “Mayhem” that pops up when you’ve managed to cause enough destruction in a certain stretch of time. A combo counter for racking up destruction bonuses, measured by the financial cost of said destruction, is a fun video game-y thing, naturally, but it also serves as a reminder, narratively, that driving these EDF forces out can be accomplished by making it too expensive for Earth to justify continuing the fight any longer. Blowing up some tanks full of fuel is one thing, but taking down entire stretches of infrastructure that provides power to EDF forces while also exploding APCs and shooting down expensive aircraft or taking down their landing pads while they are on them? That’s going to really leave an impact on the next quarterly financial briefing.

There are story-progression missions aplenty, but Guerrilla leaves much of the decision about what to do and when to do it up to you, as there are myriad “Guerrilla Actions” that are repeating missions that wrest control of an area from the EDF, lessening their presence there during future gameplay, while also boosting the morale of Mars’ non-military populace. “If we fight for them, they'll fight for us,” indeed. A higher morale gives you additional scrap bonuses after a successful mission that can be used both for upgrades and at a couple of points to advance the plot, but it also means more and more Red Faction members rolling up with weapons to help you out and keep Guerrilla from being Alec Mason vs. the EDF. There are also missions that don’t initially appear on your map that come over your radio, asking for help defending an apartment complex or chasing down a courier or finding a traitor and dealing with them before they can turn over a list of names to the enemy. These are optional, and while useful for building up control of a region and morale of the Red Faction, they also serve a narrative purpose of making the revolution feel like, again, it’s more than just Alec Mason being told what to do by a commanding officer. You get to play with the big fun guns because you’re trusted and eventually proven, but you are far from the only freedom fighter out there on Mars.

The revolution takes all kinds, too. Mason, for all the destruction he causes, is rather level-headed — he can’t have too much personality, after all, as the playable protagonist of a game that emphasizes player choice and freedom, or else that might get in the way of the player’s immersion in the world of Guerrilla. There are those in the Red Faction who won’t go as far as he does in a number of ways, but there are also those who make him seem moderate in comparison. Like Jenkins, for example, who occasionally calls out to Mason from his personalized ride that’s equipped with a massive rocket launcher primed for taking out extremely visible targets to announce to the EDF and anyone else watching that the Red Faction is here.

Jenkins is a true believer. His obsession with leaving Earth behind — coming up with a Martian language, his disgust for terraforming because it makes Mars “juuuust like Earth” — highlights a truly radical point of view that embraces Mars and Martians as their own thing instead of an extension of Earth. A truly new beginning for humanity free from the vestiges of its origin. “You want to know why they're doing what they're doing? So they can screw it all up one more time!” Sure, he won't learn to breathe carbon dioxide like he wants to, but this viewpoint signals a willingness to change humanity itself rather than bend Mars to its will, like was done to Earth.

Despite holding the most extreme views on display in Guerrilla, no one treats Jenkins like a madman, either, not in-mission or not in random chatter you pick up from other Red Faction members while walking around camp. That’s important — he's simply part of the Red Faction, like anyone else committed to a New Mars, and his dedication is to be respected and embraced. And this same discipline means traitors to the cause are dealt with, permanently, by you or, as is implied by the radio calls, by whoever decides to answer the request to intercept those who try to name names to the EDF to protect themselves at the expense of the revolution.

Jenkins’ point of view harkens back to the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, within which an early and central conflict among the scientists and engineers sent to Mars to figure out how to make it a thriving resource for a failing Earth is how to treat the planet. Should it be a Mars for Martians, its natural state maintained as much as is possible, with people molding themselves to their new home rather than the other way around? Or should it be quickly and violently terraformed and transformed and mined and exploited, existing both in subservience to Earth and its demands as well as a lesser Earth 2 redesigned to solve the problems of its parent? While themes like this don’t play out in Guerrilla as explicitly as they do in, say, hidden gem Lack of Love, there is still a clear nod to the ideas of Robinson and those that he was inspired by in the treatment of Mars and the idea of what being Martian means, both through Jenkins and through the “Marauders,” a high-tech civilization of Martian-born humans who put on the appearance of being straight out of Mad Max despite their scientific acumen. This group broke off from the version of Mars forced upon the planet by Earth, and serve as the closest thing a story about another planet without a native population can get to having one, much like how in the Mars trilogy this scientific dispute among colleagues ends up resulting in not just separate settlements but civil war and revolution.

Also thematic, but missable in the same way that something like Gundam has inspired the “Wow, cool robot!” meme, is Red Faction: Guerrilla’s Nano Forge. This sci-fi rifle, developed with Marauder tech found by Mason in-story, breaks anything down — buildings, vehicles, even people — molecule by molecule until it just isn’t there anymore. This isn't just a GeoMod 2.0 idea put into action, a showcase of how much more powerful Volition’s destruction capabilities had become since the start of the aughts when it was focused on making new doors and pathways with explosives through tunnels, nor is it just another in a long line of inspired weaponry from the developer. The Nano Forge rifle also serves as a metaphor for what needs to be done to rid the forced labor of Mars of its enemies. Leaving behind any traces of the power of the old won't finish the job; breaking them back down into atoms, however, will.

This game felt revolutionary back in 2009, thanks to its themes and lack of subtlety. In 2026, with truly revolutionary media so difficult to come by in the mainstream, with so much toned down to appease shareholders and keep anyone from getting any ideas about the problems of the world or where they come from, with the news itself under the control of the wealthiest and most powerful in the world to a degree of consolidation that makes 2009’s levels look like child’s play, Red Faction: Guerrilla basically feels impossible even to someone who was around for and impacted by it the first time around. It’s a game worth playing for the first time or revisiting, and not just because it feels great to play, or that its open world is of a comfortable size that takes a couple of dozen hours to get through rather than hundreds; it’s that it is an exceptionally considered, thematic game with a message that resonated both at the time of its release and into the present, a brilliant piece of art with something to say and an audience more receptive to what it is saying than at any point in its existence. “Wow, cool gun,” of course, but it’s the meaning behind that gun that sticks out most in the present, and has now outlived Red Faction and Volition itself.

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