Homefront: The Revolution

[wuFF]

I love the open world co-op idea.

 

Bring it on. 

[PaulH]

If anyone is in the UK and near enough to Nottingham, consider signing up for this:

 

http://www.dsdambuster.com/headscan

 

You get £50 if selected for 30 mins of your time, plus you get to be an NPC in the game

[Ginger Lord]

Can I get my £50 retroactively now I no longer work there 

[PaulH]

You may not. 

Edited August 7, 2015 by PaulH

[PaulH]

Gamescom Trailer:

 

 

[will2k]

I was a fan of the first despite some shortcomings. Can't wait for this one, keep up the good work Paul

[PaulH]

EDIT: official 1080p gameplay:

https://youtu.be/zHJHQxVstFQ

Also a hands on preview here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-08-04-homefront-the-revolution-is-a-huge-improvement-over-the-original

Edited August 5, 2015 by PaulH

[blackdog]

I am interested and want to see more, but tbh the gameplay is not very exciting, too much running around. Didn't really understand what was happening after the ambush, didn't feel like a really dangerous situation.

For the motorbike I wonder if there are exciting (read: acrobatic) paths to follow (that might work as shortcuts) cos was a bit too many twist and turns without a great sense of progress. I spotted a couple of what looked like ramps going in trashed buildings, so I was imagining what if you have some "platform" driving with some jumping around etc.

[PaulH]

Yep the gameplay is being played by a guy at IGN too it seems, so it's just his experience and I guess he didn't know where to go or how to use the toolkit. It's a difficult game to show off in this respect, which is why for now the previews might provide more information on how the game will play and feel to play.

another here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/previews/14398-Homefront-The-Revolution-Hands-on-Preview

Edited August 5, 2015 by PaulH

[Sprony]

Yep the gameplay is being played by a guy at IGN too it seems, so it's just his experience and I guess he didn't know where to go or how to use the toolkit. It's a difficult game to show off in this respect, which is why for now the previews might provide more information on how the game will play and feel to play.

another here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/previews/14398-Homefront-The-Revolution-Hands-on-Preview

Tell me we are going to do another interview once it's out

[Patrick_H]

This looks great. Really looking forward to it. I worked on the original game and it had so much squandered potential. A lot of cool stuff I am seeing in the sequel was stuff that the design team wanted, but since THQ wanted a Call of Duty style game it wasn`t allowed. Will definitely pick it up.

[PaulH]

Awesome Patrick, I hope we can realise some of that potential

[PaulH]

Well I let this thread gather dust as the game release came and bought to light the fears we had throughout development that this might not be the game we all hoped it would be. There were many contributing factors to that that I won't go into, some of which were in the press, most of which weren't. The worst thing about the release was that it was let down by technical and performance issues that masked the fact that this really isn't the most terrible game in the world, people just couldn't play it properly.  

Anyway, months later a number of patches have been released, the most recent being patch 2.0 which has vastly improved those performance issues across the board. As a result the game is free on Steam this weekend (from tonight), in case anyone fancies giving it a go. I'm not expecting rave reviews, but it'd be nice for people to have a bash and form their own opinions rather than going by the metacritic. The recent batch of steam reviews are actually very positive which is great to see. 

As a studio we are looking to our next project, which I'm quite excited about. There's been some restructuring, a lot of talking and a lot of lessons learnt, and we are looking in good shape for the future as a relatively new studio. Working on something like Homefront and putting so much effort into it only to be hampered at every stage by planning, organisation and other development issues was incredibly frustrating, but if anything I've learnt an invaluable amount from the experience that I wouldn't have got if I had just worked on successful games throughout my career. The project was always too ambitious but I'm proud of the whole team for what we managed to achieve given that and everything that stood in our way on the path to release. 

So yeah, give it a go for free this weekend if you have some free time, you might even have a bit of fun. Maybe

Edited September 9, 2016 by PaulH

[FrieChamp]

Much respect for pulling through and happy to hear that you got a new project lined up!

[Jetsetlemming]

Played it a bunch last night. The plot, both overall and particular beats, is awful. The writer seemed to think "If I use jingoistic shit from America but slapdash it and try to move past it quickly it'll be okay" and that actually makes it way, way worse. Also, the silent protagonist makes a ton of these early scenes super awkward, sometimes hilariously so (like the "beam the guard in the head with a cellphone" moment), sometimes infuriatingly so; why are the supposed good guys kicking me and stomping on my face and about to torture me, until some random dudes walk in the room and make everything fine? Is the game protagonist character actually supposed to be mute? Why am I a specific named guy if I don't talk or interact with the plot at all? Really annoying, to the point where it makes other niggling things lots of fiction gets wrong (you can't just knock somebody out, especially via BOOT TO THE FACE, and have them be fine after a brief transition nap) a lot more apparent, because there's no good will in the audience to flow us over those points.

 

Finally, though once all that very bad first impression shit was out of the way and I was actually in the game, it was super fun and enjoyable! I really like how the vast majority of buildings are open, it doesn't feel like any of these are just decorated boxes to fill up space like in many games in urban environments. It was fun to run around, explore, and fight guys, as I tried real hard to ignore all the racism and ridiculous shit NPCs were saying. I'd bet (hope?) so far that this stuff is leading up to a twist of some sort, like a Korean traitor/sympathizer helping you, or the worst of the rebel guys turning out to be plants/traitors/whatever themselves and become enemies, but so far it's basically the worst I've ever seen in a modern game. A quest giver character literally sent me a message saying "remember, they don't think or feel like us", for fuck's sake. The game basically was lucky it had other issues taking up space in the press when it came out, because this shit could permanently sink a company if it was the focused on heavily.

 

But yeah, the play itself is fun, especially the level design and weapon systems. I like them a lot. Lolled hard at the very obvious Wendy's in the second area, too.