Yet another game appears to have leaked online ahead of E3 2019, and I think it’s fair to say that nobody saw this one coming. Red Faction Evolution looks like it’s going to be announced by publisher THQ Nordic during the LA Expo, if not sooner.
Given the last “new” game in the shooter franchise – Red Faction: Armageddon – was released way back in 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, it’s certainly high time for a return.
It should also come as welcome, if surprising, news for fans of the cult series, especially given the poor sales of Armageddon allegedly led to THQ ditching the franchise. There was also the 2018 remaster of Guerrilla of course, which now seems like it was THQ Nordic’s way of testing the waters for a full revival.
The existence of Red Faction Evolution was first spotted by users on the Metacouncil forum, who noticed the game on a list of compatible games Nvidia’s Asnel, a program which essentially acts as a Photo Mode in various PC games, allowing 360 degree screenshots of various titles, including, it would seem, a new Red Faction.
We also know that THQ currently has no less than 48 games in development, including a rumoured revival for Destroy All Humans, and a Darksiders sequel. With so many games in development, it’s certainly not a stretch to assume that one of them is a Red Faction game.
The Red Faction series has previously experimented with both first person and third person shooting. The last two games in the franchise were third person, though the Evolution part of the new title certainly implies another overhaul could be on the cards. Then again, I could just be reading into something that isn’t there.
While 2009’s Guerrilla was an open world adventure, Armageddon returned the series to a more linear formula. It’s unclear which route Evolution will go down, but I’d imagine the recent remaster of Guerrilla suggests THQ Nordic wants to play around with the idea of an open world Red Faction again.
All we have to go on is a title for now, which of course isn’t that much. With E3 scheduled to kick off in just a few weeks, we’ll hopefully learn more about Red Faction Evolution soon.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.