Overview of the game Homefront: The Revolution

You can list a lot of games, the story of which was based on an alternative story. Remember at least the recently released Wolfenstein: The New Order. According to her scenario, the Third Reich was defeated in World War II, after which the world turns into a fascist anti-utopia. Something like this we see in Homefront: The Revolution. Only here we are not talking about Hitler and his dreams of totalitarian power, but about North Korea, which at some point managed to defeat the United States of America. Today I will tell you about this game, on May 20 released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Let me remind you that Homefront: The Revolution is the spiritual successor of the shooter Homefront, released in 2011 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. However, this is not a direct continuation, but rather a rethinking of the ideas of the original. In the alternative universe, the technological revolution of the 1970s did not occur in the California Silicon Valley, but in the area of ​​the so-called Silicon River (in our world this river is called Ryesong), which is in North Korea. As a result of the technical breakthrough, APEX Corporation appeared in the country, in many ways resembling Apple, headed by the North Korean analogue of Steve Jobs - Joe Tie-Xie. APEX has created great smartphones and other gadgets that the whole world admired. In addition, the corporation began to supply arms to large states, including the United States and Europe. Gradually, it was in the hands of the APEX leadership that all power over the country was concentrated.

After numerous wars in the East, the US government is mired in huge debts to North Korea. And another crisis of 2025 simply destroyed the economy of the country. At this point, the APEX management, using the backdoor, simply disconnected all US armament and completely unimpededly invaded North America. Initially, North Korea claimed that it acts exclusively for humanitarian purposes, trying to help the American people in a difficult crisis time. But it quickly became clear that this was an ordinary military seizure of the territory for the sake of valuable natural resources. Any uprisings against the new regime were brutally suppressed by fire from the Korean military, and the country's authorities were politicians who agreed to cooperate with the enemy. A short history of what happened can be seen in the video below.

The game takes place in Philadelphia in 2029, when the local population is under close surveillance of numerous chambers, flying drones and giant dirigibles, and any free thinking is punishable by death. The North Korean occupation has been going on for four years and from the once prosperous America, there is practically nothing left. People huddle in the ruins of their former homes, the streets are full of homeless vagabonds and prostitutes, and the patrols of the Korean People's Army (KPA) equipped with the latest technology are combing every square centimeter of streets in search of insurgents who disagree with the state of things. Such an exciting alternative story.

The main hero is Ethan Brady, who at the very beginning of the game rescues from the clutches of the enemy rebels led by charismatic leader Benjamin Walker. Walker is seized by KPA soldiers and taken away in an unknown direction. Now all the hope of popular resistance is the newcomer Brady, different from the rest with determination, fearlessness and a lot of useful in battle talents. He needs not only to save Walker, but also to give hope to a bright future for the local population. In the ranks of the resistance he gets acquainted with many colorful personalities. Take, for example, Dana Moore, who nearly jammed him to death at the first meeting, confusing Brady with a Korean spy. Or pacifist doctor Sam Burnett, who believes that the strength of the US problem is not resolved. All of them initially relate to Brady with a degree of mistrust, but then realize that you can rely on him in difficult times.

Homefront: The Revolution is a first-person shooter with an open world. The player is free to go through story assignments that promote the development of the script forward, or carry out secondary missions to free the city from the North Korean invaders, simultaneously helping the local residents. Here, as in the fashionable games of the French publishing house Ubisoft, we are waiting for a kind of "capture towers." To take a separate area of ​​the city under its control, it is necessary to capture a strategically important object, called a "shock point". To capture it, it will not be enough for you to just kill all the guards. You need to perform a certain task, for example - to restore the power supply of the building or to disrupt the operation of its cooling system. After the successful capture of the shock point, you can freely move around the area, since the number of KPA soldiers in it will noticeably diminish.

Weapons of the destroyed Korean invaders for fighters of resistance are completely useless, since APEX produces only guns with biometric sensors, which can only be used by their rightful owner. Therefore, with the bodies of killed soldiers KPA can be collected except that money and cartridges. You can buy weapons for yourself in special weapons kiosks. The game implemented a very cool weapon modification system. Not only can you hang each gun to your taste, for example, by screwing a muffler, a bipod, a collimator sight or an underbar barrel to it, so you can also transform it beyond recognition. If you have the necessary details and technologies, you can turn an ordinary pistol into a submachine gun, and transform the crossbow into a real flamethrower. Each of your weapons can take three different forms, you can switch between them at any time. Such a modular system is quite convenient and effective during the battle. Yes, and it is surprisingly cool.

From found items like fuel, batteries, various electronics and other garbage, a player can make himself Molotov cocktails, throwing bombs and even electronic devices to break into enemy equipment. It is necessary to open the electronic lock - just throw the bug in the control panel and the door will immediately open. Docs the homing turret? Use your hacking skills, and it will for some time become your ally, mercilessly shooting Korean soldiers. Each item useful in combat has several forms. For example, a conventional bomb can be not only hurled, but also provide it with a motion sensor, and then - disguised as an old children's toy. You will put such a bomb next to the patrol route and deal with the hat. There they are, flying through the air pieces of Juche. You can attach the same bomb to a radio-controlled car, then adjust it to an enemy armored car and there already activate the charge. Here everything depends only on your imagination.

Do not forget about other useful items of equipment. In stores you can buy sturdy knee pads, increasing the speed of your movement crawling. Light boots will reduce the sound of footsteps so that you can sneak up to the Koreans from the back without fear of being noticed. A bag for trophies will save you time, automatically collecting ammo and money from the bodies of KPA soldiers being killed. A more spacious backpack will carry more explosives, incendiary compounds and other useful items. The pouch will shorten the time spent on the recharging process, and camouflage clothing will effectively merge with the landscape. What can we say about the bulletproof vest? This is generally the first thing in your case.

The main character has his own smartphone, thanks to which he can read text messages from combat comrades, navigate the map, check with the current tasks, and take photographs in case it is necessary. A lot of side quests are scattered around the city. For example, you will need to arrange minor sabotage, snacking the power wires to the enemy agitational loudspeakers, or to save civilians from the arbitrariness of Korean soldiers who can shoot a passer-by simply for not looking at them. You will need to look for the radio sets spread all over the city and tune them to a wave of resistance troops so that passers-by can hear revolutionary slogans that set them on the right track. Thus, the insurgents gradually seize the minds and hearts of the oppressed city dwellers, after which they rebel against the invaders and join the guerrilla movement. However, not everything here is so rosy, because after several hours of play you will realize that the tasks are essentially monotonous and quickly boring.

The entire territory, available to the player, is divided into zones of three colors. The green zone is an area where privileged persons live in comfort and comfort, resigned to the fact that they were captured by North Korea. Soldiers of the KPA here feel very comfortable, and civilians, at the sight of a fighter of resistance, can easily report to him where he should go. The yellow zone is a kind of ghetto, where all other people live. Such areas are constantly patrolled by Koreans and drones, each building is hung with surveillance cameras, and water and electricity to the local population is sorely lacking. The red zone is the bombed-out part of the city, in which most of the resistance fighters live. There are constantly shooting, explosions are heard, and KPA roadblocks are located at every step.

Here it should be noted that the developers have borrowed the system of "stealth action" from the famous series of Metal Gear Solid. When a player sees a Korean patrol, he can either join them in a senseless fight (the dead soldiers will be replaced endlessly by new ones) or try to hide from the pursuit and hide in some garbage container or unoccupied bio-toilet. It is necessary to wait a while until the alarm subsides, and then gently continue its journey to the intended goal. You can walk on the map of the city on foot or on a motorcycle. Also, you can use the "quick move" from one resistance headquarters to another by simply selecting it on the map. The game provides a change of time of day. Under the cover of night, it is necessary to move around the city very carefully, since the KPA soldiers are especially vigilant at this time and shoot at any suspicious person without trial and effect.

Multiplayer in the game does not imply the existence of competitive modes. Instead, the player is offered to participate in the cooperative performance of various missions, along with three friends or casual partners from the Network. With the story campaign, this mode intersects only indirectly, while you can create for yourself a unique resistance fighter, adjust his class, skills and perks, and also cover with the necessary weapons and additional accessories. Stars from the sky multiplayer mode is not enough, but several evenings behind it you can still hold. I will not deny that in places multiplayer, even to me, far from online entertainment, seemed very interesting. But it's unlikely that he will capture someone for long, like other popular network shooters. After all, modern gamers want to compete with other players. In the cooperative mode, the goals are somewhat different.

A little step away from the gameplay and talk about the development of Homefront: The Revolution. This game literally went through fire, water and copper pipes, before getting to the store shelves. Originally it was developed within the walls of the British studio Crytek UK under the wing of the publishing house THQ. In 2012, about a year after the development began, THQ announced its bankruptcy. Work on the game was suspended for a whole year, until in 2013, the right to the series Homefront was not purchased by Crytek. But the game seemed to be haunted by a curse. Immediately after the acquisition, Crytek had financial difficulties, as a result of which the rights to Homefront: The Revolution were resold to the Deep Silver publishing house. Studio Crytek UK was disbanded. Former employees founded Dumbuster Studios and, finally, were able to continue work on their long-suffering game. On this the misadventures of the project did not stop. By 2015, the developers realized that their game is too raw to release it for sale, so it was decided to postpone the release date for a year in advance. And, finally, we can see with you, over what the British developers have been working for five very difficult years.

Frankly, I was looking forward to the game with great impatience. The thing is that I made my contribution to the localization of this first-person shooter for Russian players. Together with other translators of the publishing house "Buka" in his spare time, I painstakingly translated the phrases of key characters and NPCs, trying extremely carefully to adapt them to the features of the Russian language, while not losing the original meaning and emotional coloring. The work was truly colossal. For comparison: in the fourth episode of "Star Wars" the text of the dialogs has about 49 000 characters. In the game Homefront: The Revolution, the text volume is more than 1 800 000 characters. Now you can imagine how much effort you need to spend so that we can play novelties in the gaming industry in your own language. By the way, I was quite surprised that in the final version of the translation there were real Russian mats. When I was working on the translation, they made it clear to me: we will not swear. And in the final game, literally from the first shots the guerrillas, without hesitation in expressions, send Koreans in a certain direction, which amused me a lot. It's just a magical feeling when you hear one of the main characters saying the words that you once wrote for him. It was a very interesting and unforgettable experience for me, which I do not regret in any way.

It's a sad thing to admit, but the numerous difficulties with the development did not go to the game for good. Literally everything in it in one way or another is felt unfinished and raw. Despite the use of the advanced engine CryEngine, the graphics in the game language does not turn to be called impressive. No, there definitely is something to see, but more often there are moments that you want to forget as soon as possible. Carefully traced in the game, only key characters, but passers-by on the streets look like ugly Buratins with a curve animation. When the protagonist opens the door, his hand falls into the textures, and when he climbs down the stairs from the roof of the building, his head is for a second on the other side of the wall. But the clipping is not the most terrible problem of Homefront: The Revolution.

Virtual objects are loaded with chunks, and sometimes they are not loaded at all. You can stumble upon a fire hanging in the air, as the barrel of garbage simply did not boot into the console memory (I got a copy of the game for Xbox One), or on the face of a person without a body. The game suffers from creepy "friezes" for 2-3 seconds at the time of recording, and these hangings happen so often and in such inappropriate situations that they soon begin to frankly enrage. The frame rate does not even reach 30 fps and suffers from serious subsidence, and the resolution for Xbox One is fixed at around 900r, which also does not honor the developers. Constantly twitching textures, unpleasant artifacts images, numerous bugs and flaws - all this completely destroys the atmosphere of the game and spoils your mood.

Pros:

• Not the worst attempt to start the course of history in an alternative way.
• An open world where you can entertain yourself, if you want.
• Curious system of modular modification of weapons and crafting.
• Interesting cooperative multiplayer for four players.

Minuses:

• From the abundance of bugs and flaws it becomes really uncomfortable.
• Very mediocre graphics, which even CryEngine does not save.
• The game is well traced and animated only key characters.
• Sidesquests in the game are incredibly monotonous and tedious.
• In moments of automatic progress, the game simply freezes.
• The frame rate suffers from terrible subsidence.

In that Homefront: The Revolution turned out to be a very raw game, it's not so much the developers that are to blame, but the uneasy fate of the project and the extremely unfortunate coincidence of circumstances. A great idea with North Korea, which seized the US, literally drowns in the ocean of graphic bugs, causeless brakes and low frame rates. To play "this" today you can only grind your teeth and quietly swear. Nevertheless, the game can be very carefully advised fans of sandboxes and dedicated fans of the very first Homefront. With a heavy heart, I put the game 5 points out of 10 and I very much hope that in the near future developers are rehabilitated in my eyes, releasing a patch fixing most of the technical flaws.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/games/obzor-igry-homefront-the-revolution.html.