Red Faction players take on the role of an alienated mine worker, slaving away in the endless tunnels and shafts deep beneath the surface of a futuristic Mars. As the proletariat mine workers are continuously pushed harder and further by the heartless corporation that owns the mines, a deep resentment grows. When a strange malady known as "the Plague" breaks out in the mines, the workers finally begin to revolt. As the game's hero Parker, it is the player's first objective to simply survive the violent coup.