Unnamed RF:G Sequel

Unnamed RF:G Sequel
Information
Developer(s)	Fishlabs
Cancelled	Week of November 20, 2023

The Unnamed Red Faction: Guerrilla Sequel (internal code name Project White) was a canceled Red Faction series action video game that would have been developed by Fishlabs, who pitched the idea to rights holder Plaion in late 2023. The game would have been a direct sequel to 2009's Red Faction: Guerrilla. No official announcement of the project has ever been made. The potential game was ultimately cancelled in November 2023 following an internal vote.

Overview

The Unnamed Red Faction: Guerrilla Sequel was to feature a female protagonist - the first official title in the series to do so. Players would be empowered to cause mayhem and destruction with their Sledgehammer across a widely terraformed and colourful Martian landscape. It was to take place in largely the same geographical area as Red Faction: Guerrilla, featuring a similarly sized map, and both new and redesigned locations first visited in Guerrilla.

The story was to feature the protagonist player character leading an underground worker's revolution on a Mars that included a range of factions, from predatory corporations to homegrown Martian communities with whom the player might have had to forge alliances to complete their objectives.

Gameplay was to focus on the destruction-focused principles established in Guerrilla incorporated into a more open-ended play experience, including opportunities for stealthy infiltration sequences, player disguises, and vehicle customization. Fishlabs aspired to create a very reactive setting, including dynamic dialogue and characters in the environment commenting on the player's methods of completing missions.

It should be noted however that it is very likely that planned elements of the title would have been changed, or even outright rejected, had the project not been cancelled early in development.

Connection to the Series

According to some reporting, the Unnamed Red Faction: Guerrilla Sequel would have effectively ignored the events of Red Faction: Armageddon, functioned as a direct sequel to Red Faction: Guerrilla, and was slated to be set 100 years after the events of Guerrilla.

“ We were trying to look at what did Guerrilla do right, what did Armageddon do wrong, and how can we marry the two and continue on with it. „

— Unnamed source, in reporting by Rock Paper Shotgun

Background

Development

Project Black was to feature lush and colourful jungle environments, as shown in this concept art from artist Denis Novikov.

Since around 2021, Fishlabs had been working on a non-Red Faction related original title under the internal name Project Black. In April 2023, Fishlabs announced that they had received public funding from the German government for Project Black. Just a few months later however, in September 2023, internal restructuring led to the cancellation of Project Black and layoffs of some Fishlabs staff. Following Project Black's cancellation, some of its developers shifted focus to an internal project referred to as Project White, and, crucially, retained the public funding they had received.

Initially, Project White was an exploratory project which considered utilizing intellectual property such as Lord of the Rings, or even Chorus - Fishlabs' earlier title. Eventually, the team settled on pitching a project using the Red Faction IP, which was owned by Plaion - parent of the recently shuttered Deep Silver Volition, the Red Faction series' original developer.

“ As you might expect, my sources expressed mixed feelings about pitching a new game in a series whose creator studio had just been shuttered, with one describing it as "ghoulish". „

— Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Over time, the Project White team worked on a visual prototype to showcase their plan for the game, using Unreal Engine 5. Reporting suggests that the most elaborate pitch by Fishlabs to Plaion was in mid November 2023, and involved a screening of the visual prototype as well as a cosplay demonstration, with Fishlabs team members posing as characters from the game, including a group of Red Faction resistance fighters hacking a presentation being given by a "sinister corporate agent".

Cancellation

The Unnamed Red Faction: Guerrilla Sequel (code named Project White) was cancelled during the week of November 20, 2023 following an internal vote on the future of the Red Faction-based project. The vote was split 50-50, which resulted in its cancellation. Shortly after, Fishlabs was hit by mass layoffs enacted as part of larger restructuring efforts by parent company Embracer Group.