Following is their excellent work on Desert Combat (a mod for Half-Life), the young guys at Kaos Studios have found a publisher’s foremost – THQ – for their next production, a Frontlines: Fuel of War. Despite the result in below expectations, this collaboration continues today with a new action game for THQ subjective invited to discover the local New York studio, Homefront.

The war at home?

If the initial information concerning Homefront date back to over a year, THQ has decided to let the developers go at their own pace in order not to repeat the hasty exit of Homefront. As a result, expected on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the title of Kaos Studios should not land until at least six months. Ample time for developers to refine things and THQ to gently raise the pressure. Indeed, as you can imagine, THQ we have not revealed everything during the brief presentation that has been made in the game .. and it was eg not possible to test things by ourselves.

The first trailer to “set the stage”

To stay in the (relative) disappointment, we should note that the multiplayer has hardly been addressed. Despite these limitations, recognize that people of Kaos have been very receptive to detailing many aspects of the game solo. But first things first, with the scenario of Homefront. It is therefore to take part in a future in which the United States struggle to recover from recurring economic crises and a certain distrust of its partners. Meanwhile, North Korea moved closer to its neighbor to the south before crystallizing around her resentment of many countries in Southeast Asia against the United States.

Within 15 years, Korea is unified and managed to make Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and even China in its draft that led to the naked invasion of U.S. territory. The single-player campaign Homefront begins when our future best friend, a Jacobs, wakes up in a camp of American resistance located in Montrose, Colorado in full. In a land where the Mississippi hopelessly irradiated, became an impassable barrier for the few armed forces still held the U.S. government, the camps of the resistance are the only islands of safety for objecting to Korea.

In short, it’s pretty much what we said site manager, Boone. Through the beginning of Chapter 2 of the single player campaign, it is showing us “his” camp. He shows us how the “survivors” contrive to survive, how few solar panels and the oil extracted from oil sands are to meet their energy needs. Those few minutes of nice souvenirs to remind players of Metro 2033 and the portrait that America is entering … But then that only lasts a few minutes, because we must get down to business and in this case in Chapter 3.

“The camp is actually a former shopping mall and you can see some American brands such as the famous Hooters”

Not too spoil the game’s story, saying that it allows us to see an operation of the Resistance. The player, assisted by Connor and Rianna, must wield a sniper rifle and eliminate many Korean soldiers when a truck loaded with explosives is to force the enemy camp. The power of the explosion was such that many enemy soldiers light up like torches. Visual effect guaranteed! Particularly striking, this is highlighted on several catches that illustrate this preview: the camp is actually a former shopping mall and you can see some American brands such as the famous Hooters.

After the firing sequence where we obviously have to judge either the aim or ballistics, our trio of heroes must take refuge in a tower while a helicopter makes a real enemy raid. Again, the big show at the rendezvous, but the developers have focused on placing the player at the heart of the action. To do this, Dave Votypka – studio boss – told us that the Drama Engine was used: it is a technique called “magnetism” that blend classic scripts and events “procedural” for the player has a real feeling of always being the point around which everything else revolves.

Impressively, this scene bodes better for the single player campaign

The helicopter raid ends more or less by the arrival – reinforcements – an impressive engine Resistance mounted on six wheels, the Goliath. It is also an opportunity to show us a second style of gameplay a little different from traditional gunning sequences: it is a kind of marker to use laser to point to the enemy that should eliminate the Goliath. .. After a few shots, the helicopter then returned and our host has not missed the opportunity to make him bite the dust involving the Goliath firepower. Thus, the brief presentation Homefront ended gameplay.

A display that is visually impressive, although the game – then Xbox 360 – still suffering from a lot of approximations in the management of textures in the character models or antialiasing. So many points on which the developers are still working while the output should not take place before – no doubt – the beginning of next year. A presentation that we subsequently allowed to ask many questions of the young guys in Kaos. Dave Votypka eg income is the variety of missions offered to players throughout the single player campaign.

“The heart of the action will consist of multiple pieces of bravura cherished FPS
If, as expected, the heart of the action will consist of multiple pieces of bravura dear to FPS, Kaos promises something more varied. There will therefore be referred to the sequence of the Goliath and a passage where – at the controls of a helicopter – the player must destroy a convoy. There was also a mission where – more than the gamplay – this is the scenario that makes the difference. Here it comes to Americans – recluse – who do not want to hear about Korea or the Resistance and then the player must retreat to an area inhabited by civilians and thereby put at risk while they posed no threat to the Koreans.

These two examples illustrate perfectly what Kaos tries to show with this invasion of the United States: the plight of people who had no idea about the war on its own soil and population responses. When some are resigned, others were outraged, and requires action game is of course the side of the revolt that examines the heart of our heroes … We would still have plenty to say about this particular Homefront and we could talk about the arsenal available to the player, an arsenal designed to show the lack of technological advances on both sides as the crisis Economic research has blocked.

We could also return in greater detail on the course of a campaign – once will not hurt – do not ask us to save the world: here, there is already the center of the Korean operations of San Francisco! Finally, there is still much to say about the multiplayer mode: it is a game Kaos stamped anyway. Unfortunately, THQ prefer to wait several weeks before revealing the characteristics of a mode that is limited to two opposing factions (Korea / USA), which would obviously take over the class system in vogue at the now. While Call of Duty and Medal of Honor would fill in October and November, Homefront seems able to occupy the beginning of 2011. Stay tuned!