After five years of silence, THQ has announced that they’re bringing back the Red Faction franchise in the form of a third installment named Red Faction: Guerilla.

RF: Guerilla is set on a terraformed Mars, 50 years after the events of the original game, and is ambitious enough to want to redefine the limits of destruction-based gameplay. The game will be a third-person shooter this time around and will feature a “full cover system that allows for guerrilla style tactics”. Mike Kulas, president of Volition (the developer), says the destruction in the game is brought to a level where the player can “literally tear down the enemy EDF presence brick by brick.” We’ll keep that quote in mind, Mike.

Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay.

The game is being developed for the 360, PS3 and PC, with a vague release window of fiscal ‘09.