My Body Is Ready For...Homefront: The Revolution

I intentionally left the new Homefront off of my E3 roundup. It deserves its own post. I know what you're thinking. The original Homefront had a few problems. It is the only game I've ever played that literally gave me headaches from the low texture resolutions and draw distances. I didn't think an Unreal Engine 3 could have poor visuals. Still, the premise of America being occupied by Korean armed forces in a very near future and average Americans having to become resistance fighters is a pretty solid concept. So, after THQ was broken up, Crytek purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise. After reading the previews and watching footage from E3, I am confident that Crytek is doing all that they can to make the most of this renewed opportunity.

Homefront is about an everyman becoming a resistance fighter, but to be honest, I couldn't care less. That's not to say I won't come to enjoy the story down the line. Its just that my focus so far has been on the details of the gameplay. The Revolution is about Guerrilla warfare in an open world environment, so the idea is not for the player to destroy the enemy all by themselves, but to employ more subtle tactics. The footage I've seen involved raiding explosives and an RC car from a hidden resistance stash. The player then assembled a mobile bomb from the components, and used their in-game cell phone to drive it up to the entrance of the local police station. Apparently, the KPA are holding prisoners there. The player pressed the "call" button on their phone, and the bomb exploded, setting all of the Korean forces into motion. Gunfire erupted from the defensive positions in front of the station, and the player utilized the game's cover system to hide behind a concrete barrier, and then pop up to fire bursts from their assault rifle. Later on, the player swapped the entire upper receiver of their rifle for one that functioned like a light machinegun. Interestingly enough, this is an actual feature of the AR-15 platform, and only requires that two pins be pushed out, although the thought of carrying around multiple upper receivers is a tad unrealistic.

At its core, the new Homefront doesn't seem to do anything that other first person shooters don't do already, but the context and the smaller details, combined with the open world playground inject quite a bit of potential into this. Being the underdog, crafting my own equipment, and tackling objectives in a manner I see fit all sound like a good deal to me.