The original Homefront had an interesting story premise, as well as shocking imagery to back it up (the mass grave scene being a prime example), but unfortunately the end result was a barely coherent mess that suffered from the worst sin in gaming, it was simply boring.
However, if the recent gameplay and story trailers for Homefront: The Revolution are any judge, there seems to a genuine effort on the developer's part to make the Homefront series in to something unique, and hopefully fun to play. One such trailer released a couple of hours ago, and it details how exactly the resistance plans to retake the entirety of Philadelphia, have a look:
While I don't know the details behind The Revolution's open world, I have to say that this method of slowly capturing a city, block by block, is far more interesting than the standard Ubisoft formula of just running around and climbing the tallest thing you can find. But the best part of the entire trailer is the idea of influencing the hearts and minds of the oppressed population in order to get them to join your side, and fight against their oppressors in various ways, from simple sabotage to more open uprisings. I'm not sure how this will work in terms of gameplay mechanics, but as far as ideas go, its one that I can appreciate.
What I don't appreciate, however, is that the graphics feature a return to the good old gunmetal gray, puke green, and sludge brown, the main colors of modern military shooters of old. Just because there is a foreign occupation in a city it shouldn't mean the entire place is constantly blanketed by smog, all the trees are ripped out, and the only officially allowed color is gray. For some of you this complaint might be incredibly petty, but staring at the same washed-out color pallet is going to get really old, really quickly, so here's to hoping I'm wrong and these scenes were chosen simply because of their dramatic effect.
Homefront: The Revolution will be releasing on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on May 17, 2016.
Hard choices, which gray house to clear first