THQ Vice President Danny Bilson says the upcoming shooter Homefront will stand out from games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor because “there’s no steroided-out super-soldier waving the American flag” running around to save the day.
Due out in early 2011, Homefront is set in the year 2027, when a reunited and nuclear-armed Korea invades the United States, which is in the grip of an almost total economic collapse. Players will join the American resistance and engage the occupiers with a combination of advanced, near-future technology and guerrilla tactics. The game will be a military shooter, but THQ’s Bilson said it will be substantially different from its contemporaries in at least one way.
“The most important thing about Homefront is that it completely differentiates from [Call of Duty and Medal of Honor],” he told CVG. “There’s no steroided-out, super-soldier, waving the American flag, saying, you know [puts on gruff Yankee voice], ‘We’re Rangers. Toughest guys in the world.’ You know? It’s like, no interest in that.”
“We’re a global company. No jingoism here,” he continued. “What we’re telling the story of is civilians fighting for their homes. We’ve created this massive world of 2027. And it’s global. We haven’t got there yet but you’re going to see Homefront: London later on in the franchise. This is not just a game in the U.S.”
Bilson actually worked as a writer on a number of earlier Medal of Honor games, including Frontline, Allied Assault and Rising Sun, but he said the “tonality” of Homefront will be entirely unlike that of the current crop of military-themed shooters. “It’s violence with consequence. There is civilian misery in this game,” he explained. “There’s a sequence where you and your guys go into a neighborhood and they want you out – even though they’re Americans. They don’t want the Koreans coming there and they don’t want to get shot at.”
“In last year’s Call Of Duty where they kind of got to America during a Russian invasion, not there were no civilians anywhere. It was like being on a lot in a movie studio,” he said. “Everything was pristine. It was really fun – loved the game, those guys are brilliant. But our mission is to go where the other guys aren’t. We’re using the skills of our team to their best advantage.”
Homefront is being developed by Frontlines: Fuel of War creator Kaos Studios for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Published: Aug 2, 2010 05:20 pm