Crytek has released a trailer for upcoming sequel to 2011’s Homefront, titled Homefront: The Revolution. This announcement has confirmed that development work on the series is still underway despite the 2012 bankruptcy of Homefront publisher THQ and subsequent closure of Kaos Studios.
The Homefront series is set in a near-future United States which has been invaded and occupied by North Korea following an attack with an EMP weapon that disabled American military technology. The first entry in the series met with mixed reviews from critics and players alike, with fans citing the the single-player storyline and atsmosphere as well as the game’s multiplayer combat while critics panned the game’s short campaign and lack of depth of gameplay due to a lack of diverse weapons, vehicles, and combat styles. The title also drew some criticism for playing on real-world tensions on the Korean peninsula and between North Korea and the United States to market the game, with Japanese publisher Spike going so far as to censor the game’s content to only refer to “a certain country to the North” ruled by the “Northern Leader.”
Despite the lukewarm reception, Kaos studios began work on Homefront 2 soon after the launch of its predecessor; however, their work was cut short by the bankruptcy of the game’s publisher, THQ. Crytek acquired the game’s assets and the rights to its IP for $500 thousand during THQ’s liquidation. At the time, they announced that work on the Homefront sequel would be continued, but given that no further information had been released since many fans of the first game believed the property had been abandoned by its new owner.
The sequel, rebranded Homefront: The Revolution, is being developed by Crytek UK. Crytek’s official press release promises that the game will focus on “ambush, infiltration and hit and run tactics” as wel as “recruiting fellow revolutionaries and building improvised homebrew weapons” to further build on the atmosphere constructed in the original. The game will be set in Philadelphia some amount of time after the original game, after North Korean hegemony has been extended over the entire United States, indicating an environment almost certainly even more bleak than the original. Crytek seems intent on building on the original title’s strengths, which is certain to please fans, although how some of Homefront’s gameplay flaws will be addressed to sate critics has not been announced.
If you’re interested, you can watch Crytek’s Homefront: The Revolution trailer below or on YouTube.