Preview by: Jeff McAllister

The occupation of the United States by a foreign country is not an original idea. While games such as Turning Point and Freedom Fighter have taken place in alternate timelines, the story of Homefront takes place in the yet undetermined future. While Russia is usually the go to villain in these scenarios, Homefront takes place in a future where a United Korea has set its sights on taking over the West. Korea has already landed on US soil, rounding up civilians, and this is where the game jumps in—showing how ragtag bands of civilians form pockets of resistance to deal with the oppressing invaders.

I was able to play a short amount of a ‘Pre-Alpha’ build of Homefront’s singleplayer campaign to get an idea of just what was going on and how it handles as a FPS shooter set in the war torn heartland of America. As the demo starts, you begin in a dilapidated apartment as an unrelenting knocking is heard at the door. Random objects are strewn haphazardly about the room, with tarps over the windows, and clothes strung across the room on a line as they dry in the fetid air. The room has a sense of despair and misery and still the knocking continues, leaving you with only one option. Open the door. As you do, you are greeted by the Occupational Police, three soldiers that quickly fire questions at you and end their short, sharp interrogation with a rifle butt to the head.

As you come to, you are groggily and hastily dragged along the street. As the confusion starts to lift, you are loaded onto a school bus with other civilians, their crime much like yours, is being an American citizen. As you sit in the bus, gazing out the window to view the atrocities that your city is now subject to, there are whispers of mass graves and labor camps from the other passengers that explain the dwindling population. As the ride continues, you witness people being forced into fenced pens, while a husband and wife are separated at gunpoint and dragged to different destinations. It’s like a scene out of an old World War II movie.

A scanner maneuvers ominously overhead on a crane arm as it keeps watch on the crowd below with an attached Gatling gun ready to fire on any unruly residents. As other civilians are loaded into curbside trucks and strung up by their wrists, another couple is gunned down against a wall by a firing squad while their young child cries and runs over to their bullet riddled bodies. It truly is a chilling scene and the lack of compassion shown towards your countrymen is not only terrifying, but also enraging. It is a wakeup call that something needs to be done.