Red Faction: Guerrilla is the third entry in the Red Faction series and deviates from the first-person shooter genre featured in previous games, incorporating an open-world sandbox environment similar to other popular franchises such as Mercenaries , Grand Theft Auto , or Saints Row . Set 50 years after the events of the first two games, Mars has been liberated from the devious Ultor Corporation by Red Faction and the E.D.F. (Earth Defense Force) has stepped in to help the Miner Community get back on their feet. However, the E.D.F. has become an occupying force, taking over the planet, executing citizens and imposing martial law on the planet. As a result, a new Red Faction element has been formed to fight the E.D.F. and bring peace and freedom to the Martian landscape. The player takes control of Alec Mason, a recently arrived dissident of Earth hoping to make his new life on Mars with his brother Dan, only to be swept up in the Revolution and free Mars from E.D.F. control. To do this, the player must complete missions and destroy E.D.F. vehicles and property, lowering their control on each sector and raising the morale of the resident population.
The missions range from story missions that advance the plot to other missions such as Transporter, Guerrilla Raid, Heavy Metal, Demolition Master, and House Arrest. Players must drop the E.D.F. control of an area to zero and complete the story missions to liberate each sector. The player can also use a variety of vehicles, ranging from cars to trucks, dune buggies, and tanks, as well as a range of weapons such as pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and remote mines.
The game features an updated Geo-Mod 2.0 game engine, allowing players to virtually destroy buildings realistically, and the physics engine Havok for character physics. Players can use this to their advantage against enemies, destroying buildings and causing them to collapse with enemies on top.
There is also an offline two-player mode called Wrecking Crew where two friends take turns playing different modes such as Barrel Dash, Total Chaos, Rampage, and Escalation to win an event. Online multiplayer games are present, including Anarchy, Team Anarchy, Capture the Flag, Damage Control, Siege, and Demolition, which awards players experience points that they can use to customize their online players and acquire more advanced weaponry. The PC game comes with the DLC Demons of the Badlands included, previously only available for the Xbox360 and PS3 consoles.