What Homefront did right and what CryTek need to do with Homefront 2 – Part 1
It has been a few months now since THQ released their take on the first person shooter genre with their gritty title, Homefront. The game went on to receive mixed reactions from everyone who played; some hailing the fact that it dared to be different, while
others slated the graphics and the almost endless stream of bugs. It became a case of Love it or Hate it.
Yet, when news broke that CryTek, the studio behind the visual spectacles known as the Crysis and Crysis 2, had taken over development of Homefront’s sequel, it raised a number of questions as to where the series was headed.
Before one moves on and dives into speculation about Homefront 2, it would be wise to first take a look back at the original game and see which nails it managed to hit on the head and which it missed completely and landed on the thumbs of those hammering.
Starting off with the strengths of Homefront, and there were plenty. The first thing that gamers would experience is the feeling of being oppressed by someone who should not be there, namely North Korean forces.
The single player kicked-off with the game’s protagonist, Jacobs, being forcefully taken from his home and stuffed onto a bus. The sequence that followed is one that will go on to become something gamers will talk about for quite some time.
While violence in first person shooters is nothing new, Homefront took things a step further by bringing the gritty nature of war a step closer. Confused by those words?
To put it simply, while games like Modern Warfare and Killzone showed violence against soldiers and restricted the action to military forces, Homefront brought things closer to home and dumped it on every American’s doorstep.
One could see executions out of their bus window, including a father and mother being shot in front of their young boy, who could not stop crying. It was fairly disturbing, as was the scene where Korean forces were dumping bodies into a mass grave. It was
that personal level of violence which gave the game an edge over the others. It really hit home.
While the storyline was weak overall and the ending rather abrupt and sudden, the build up and the opening few chapters were really what the game was all about. The game stood out on that front, as well as one other area: shooting. The feel and sound of
the weapons were satisfying enough to rival any triple ‘A’ first person shooter.
Every gun felt different, sounded different and the damage dealt would vary according to where the enemy soldiers were fought and from what distance. In fact, the first time we fired the M4 Assault Rifle, which is common in almost every game these days,
it was almost like a revelation and we fell in love with it instantly. It felt real and visceral, raw and untamed, yet refined and accurate at the same time.
Same was the case with every weapon; they all felt unique and were a real joy to shoot; a foundation which every solid first person shooter is built upon.
Read on in the next part of the article: What Homefront did right and what CryTek need to do with Homefront 2 – Part 2
Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com
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