Preview: Homefront

Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

By Travis Moses / Tuesday, September 01 2009

Homefront is an upcoming first-person shooter developed by Kaos Studios (Frontlines: Fuel of War) and published by THQ. The story is written by famed screenwriter, director and producer John Milius who worked on movies such as Apocalypse Now, Dirty Harry, Red Dawn, and Conan the Barbarian just to name a few. Homefront takes place in the year 2027 and tells the story of a foreign-occupied America and the group of survivors who will liberate the country from the invading North Koreans.

The demo showing of Homefront at E3 Expo 2009 is loud and impactful. The game reminds me of Black mixed with Half-Life – explosive gunplay and excellent first-person narrative. Kaos Studios said the three pillars of the game are the global crisis setting of 2027, in-game cinematic action with high intensity, and high-tech military hardware.

In Homefront, players take control of an American survivor somewhere in Colorado fighting to build a new life in the wilderness. Unfortunately, the camp is compromised and the North Koreans are moving in fast to attack. During our demo, I witnessed an intriguing narrative told in-game through other characters talking to the character you play as. Something about you being a risk to have around, as if you’re an escaped prisoner of a North Korean POW camp. One grisly survivor shows you around the small encampment, in which people are already rebuilding houses, circulating a water supply, and have working windmills for electricity.

All that changes in a flash after you are handed an adaptive combat rifle and the fight breaks loose. The North Koreans drive in on jeeps, you’re shooting, stuff blows up, and then you take control of the Goliath. The Goliath is a six-wheeled unmanned combat vehicle that you guide with a red laser site mounted on your weapon. It appears that most structures are destructible in Homefront because the Goliath just crashes through with ease. Point the red laser site at anything you want destroyed and the Goliath will either run it over or blast it with high-tech weaponry.

The demo ended with a bang as an unmanned aircraft fired a rocket at the player, hitting a nearby vehicle and everything goes black as sparks fly and cars explode. I can’t wait to see more Homefront, especially the multiplayer that was confirmed during our demo.