Preview by: Jeff McAllister

If developer Kaos Studios and publisher THQ have collectively and eerily predicted the future in Homefront, the upcoming first-person shooter scheduled to arrive in March 2011, then the forthcoming years of the United States of America are dire and troubling—if not downright frightening. According to the timeline, in the year 2012 Kim Jong Il dies and his son Kim Jong Eun takes over as ruler of North Korea. In doing so, he unites both North and South Korea to become the Greater Korean Republic which then uses its military might to first spread across Japan, and then across the world, including the economically crumbling United States. Good times.

How the single player campaign of the game plays out and the in-depth analysis of its story is still a well kept secret, but I was able to get my hands on the multiplayer facet of Homefront and played a few rounds of 16 player battles that showed both promise and originality in a genre that is quickly becoming saturated and stale.

The game type that was up and running for us was called Ground Control, an 8 vs. 8 battle (up to 16 vs. 16) between US militia forces and the Korean invading army in the rugged countryside of Colorado. Other modes will be included when the game is launched but for now Ground Control, where each team fights to capture points scattered the map, is what we were treated to at the press event.

As rounds begin, each team starts by selecting their load out, the norm for most team based FPS titles, from different classes ranging from Assault, Sniper, Stealth and so forth. As is quickly noticed though, the class selection isn’t the important part of the spawn menu. The ability to select how you want to spawn is. Players can spawn as a regular infantry or in a vehicle. Obviously every time you spawn you won’t be able to choose one of the vehicles to cause chaos in or else the skies would be filled end to end with attack choppers. It all depends on the amount of Battlepoints you have accumulated and this is where the crux of the multiplayer comes in.