Homefront: The Revolution
Platform: PC, PS4, XboxOne
Developer: Dambuster Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Release Date: Spring/Summer 2016
Author: Z.M.
You know what? Sometimes staging a revolution is hard. Development hell certainly doesn’t help one bit either. The Homefront series is an odd one for sure, but despite the mixed reviews for the first title, it brought in strong sales numbers. Enough that The Revolution was green lit for a sequel back in 2011. It’s been four years since THQ and Kaos Studios said that it would be coming, and now Deep Silver and Dambuster Studios is delivering in the first or second quarter of 2016. However before we look into what’s coming, why not take a peek at what happened.
THQ certainly was not having fun back in 2011. After promising that development would continue for Revolution, Kaos Studios was closed in June of that year because of corporate re-organization. Despite this it was announced that THQ’s Montreal studio would be taking over development just to be reshuffled to UK Crytek instead. Things got a little bleak for the release after THQ’s filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in December of 2012. This lead to Crytek buying the rights to the game and it’s title in an auction of THQ’s assets and intellectual properties in January of 2013 then slating a release of 2015.
The Revolution was back on and now it seemed that anything was possible in the title now that Crytek had it. It’s a shame the headaches didn’t stop there. Financial troubles seem to have hindered development in June 2014. It surfaced that employees from UK Crytek had missed wage payments and bonuses had been withheld. As a result a number of employees had filed grievances and refused to return to work with some, including Homefront director Hasit Zala, leaving the company all together. In the end, after denying anything was wrong, on the 25th of July 2014, Crytek admitted that they were in a transitional phase as they secured the capital for future projects.
Nearing the end of this nightmarish stroll through development hell, only five days after Crytek admitting their transitional phase, it was announced on the 30th of July the IP of Homefront: the Revolution would be sold to Koch Media, parent company of Deep Silver, due to internal restructuring. In the wake of the purchase, Dambuster Studios was formed assuming the development of Homefront; The Revolution, with Hasit Zala being brough on to lead the studio.
Now that everyone is on the same page, let’s jump right into what’s going on in Homefront: the Revolution. It’s two years after the events of Homefront and four years into the occupation of the Greater Korean Republic. The GKR has lost the western states, including Alaska and Hawaii to American forces after the battle of San Francisco. The GKR has shift their focus towards the eastern states and taken Philadelphia as their central base. The people now live in fear of the Korean people’s Army as the patrol the city districts of New Philadelphia now highly policed and oppressed. A second resistance is rising though. Lead by the Rebel leader Dana and the resistances youngest member Ethan “Birdy” Brody. Follow Ethan and the resistance as they try to take back their city.
Things are looking a little different this time around for The Revolution verses the original game. Where the first game was far more linear to play story wise, they’re taking a more open world approach to game play with random skirmishes unfolding randomly as you go about completing missions. With every mission or killed GKR agent raising the resistance’s reputation, you can choose to join the skirmish or use it to your advantage in furthering your goals. A demo has been released and showed off at PAX Prime to not the best reaction but Deep Silver has announced a delay until early to mid 2016 verses the original 2015 release to give Dambuster’s the time they need to knock this one out of the park.
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