14 DAY TRIAL // Homefront was launched last week and promised to deliver a great first-person shooter experience with the likes of a story unique to the genre.
The game takes place in the near future, and sees the USA invaded by a united Korea and forced under a totalitarian regime where its population is enslaved and only resistance cells remain with the help of splintered army forces.
The story, while having a pretty unique premise when compared to the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Battlefield: Bad Company, still seems a bit old.
This is largely because it's penned by John Milius, the writer and director of 1983 movie Red Dawn, which saw a group of high school students try to stand up against a Soviet invasion of the USA in a small Colorado town.
Basically, Homefront's own story is a rehash of the Red Dawn plot, this time being refurbished with a new villain, in the form of Korea (which was originally slated to be China, actually) and with characters worthy of a more dynamic game.
There are even a few nods to Red Dawn present, with the action taking place in another Colorado town and with its levels portraying locations like a football stadium belonging to the Wolverines team, which was the nickname the teenagers used when trying to foil the plans of the Soviets.
Still, even if it may seem like a rehash of the movie, the story is much better told and manages to paint a pretty grizzly picture of how a subjugated USA would look like under a harsh foreign rule.
The Korean enemies, even if they're barely characterized, are a welcome change from the same old Russian rebel groups we met in both Modern Warfare or Battlefield: Bad Company.
The story touches both on how Americans are trying to survive under Korean rule, but also on how other citizens, located away from any settlements, are content to just seeing the rest of the country be taken over as long as they're left alone.
In the end though, factoring in the length of about 4 hours, the story of Homefront feels like it was made for a movie, a sequel to Red Dawn, if you will, not for the single-player campaign of a video game.
Check out the Homefront's introduction and parts of its first mission in the video below.