How is the campaign shaping up?
Yesterday I got to try out the first level of Homefront, the upcoming FPS from Kaos Studios and THQ. After a rather impressive multiplayer preview last month, I was looking forward to seeing how the single player was coming along…
In the story you play as Jacobs, a former pilot caught up in the resistance of the ongoing war. You begin just by leaving your apartment just to be captured by Special Forces and crammed onto a bus that drives through the streets of Colorado. As you do, you can see the carnage going on outside like civilians being tortured, even shot. There was a heart wrenching moment when a child’s parents are gunned down and the kid just starts weeping. It’s powerful to say the least.
But it isn’t long before a truck collides with the bus and you are rescued by a small resistance group. You are handed a pistol and follow your new allies as you try and reach the resistance camp, but there are plenty of enemies and ambushes along the path. The game handles like COD in terms of the control scheme, but it feels like a very different game and seems to focus on the cost of war. The entire story is shown from a first person view and obviously takes inspiration from the likes of Half-Life. It works incredibly well but clearly has its own feel to it compared to other FPS’ on the market.
After surviving the odd ambush and running across the streets, you end up at the resistance base, which ends up under attack almost immediately. You enter a house to dig in against the attack and despite all the gunfire going on around, all you can hear is this baby screaming its heart out. It’s yet another example of how the game stands out and shows you the true cost of war. After a while, the house is gassed and you run to the next building…
This is where you are introduced to a huge beast tank called Goliath that you can make target absolutely anything for utter devastation, it can be used as much as possible and you can use it for cover too. It made things perhaps a bit too easy, but take into account that I was playing on Normal difficulty and didn’t have an option to adjust it. As a result, I breezed through the level to the point where I had enough time left to go through it a second time (Yes, I’m showing off because I was quoted as being the fastest to get through the level so far, which I’m pretty proud of!) The level ends with a huge explosion that knocks you back and the screen goes black. Is Jacobs dead this early on? I seriously doubt it, but it’s interesting to work out how he survives after this…
The code I saw was Alpha, so it’s still fairly early on. But it does look impressive, the framerate rarely dropped and the only bad thing visually was the odd ugly textures. Given a few more months of polishing up, I reckon that Homefront will look amazing. Voice-acting is great and I’m intrigued with where the story will go as a sequel has already been announced. Keep a close eye to see any further developments on Homefront in the future…