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Homefront was released just a scant six months ago and, as you are probably aware, did little to live up the gigantic marketing blitz THQ spent on it. While 4 Player didn't do a review at the time I did and I can tell you straight off that the potential to be the third great shooter, standing alongside Call of Duty and Battlefield, was a squandered, lackluster affair that can only be described as a terrific concept that ended up in failure.
THQ isn't about to let the franchise die however. How could they? After all, they put so much effort into marketing it to the press and public that they can't afford to let it die the death it deserves. With Kaos Studios gone now it seems that THQ doesn't feel that they have enough talent in-house and have decided to have third-party developer Crytek give it a shot.
Crytek, known for their award winning series Far Cry and Crysis (as well as their affinity to anything involving the word 'cry'), released Crysis 2 this year a week after Homefront and was clearly the superior title of the two. Given Crytek's current release schedule though it seems that the responsibility for developing the sequel to Homefront has fallen on Crytek UK, a studio formerly known as Free Radical. You might remember them from a little last-gen shooter franchise by the name of Timesplitters and if you don't then you probably are recalling the abysmal 2008 title Haze.
The change from an in-house dev to a third-party like Crytek certainly is interesting but where the responsibility has landed intrigues me even more. Crytek UK has been quite quiet ever since their acquisition in 2009 and many have made the supposition that they were working on Timesplitters 4. This probably means that the wacky shooter is on indefinite hold.
For those who actually enjoyed Homefront: don't get your hopes up for a quick turn around. Given that all Crytek titles are made on the CryEngine and that the announcement wasn't made until this week, unless the game's been in development long before the original title was released, we probably won't see a full sequel until at least the back half of 2013.
Comments
12 years, 7 months ago
Good article, However i think it's kinda odd that timesplitters 4 would be put on hold for a homefront sequel. Also third great shooter? Don't forget Halo if you're speaking for console! Whilst reach kinda sucked that game pretty much defined FPS games last and current gen.
12 years, 7 months ago
Homefront 2: Cry the Cry of Liberty.
Seriously though I had high hopes for Homefront.when it was first announced. The scenario seemed interesting and a first person shooter that actually is focused on the single player campaign is pretty much unheard of these days. Also despite the single player focus, the multiplayer element looked interesting and fun. We all know what we got instead though so I won't go there.
I hope Crytek can do something good with this series, especially if they have to put Timespliters 4 on hold. Allegedly.
12 years, 7 months ago
Maybe if they ditched the entire laughable premise of a piss poor country who's existence is maintained solely by foreign powers (China's support and the occasional American aid) invading America (however weakened it may be in that universe) and just went with a more realistic second Korean war theme (commies marching down the DMZ towards Seoul and it's up to a combined US/South Korean force to stop them) then maybe I'd be a bit more interested. Until then I'll just continue reading news articles about how even the soldiers are starting to starve in North Korea.
12 years, 7 months ago
Cry Front? Home Cry? Either way this was kind of surprising. I'm guessing they approached Crytek because of the whole New York City thing in Crysis 2, doesn't mean it will be a good shooter though, at least it will be pretty if there's no brown.
12 years, 7 months ago
I played the 1st Homefront and it does have an interesting backstory to it. Where it kinda failed is that the gameplay felt very generic. There wasn't really anything that wow-ed me.
Having said that, I think it will be interesting to see where the sequel will take players next. With another studio taking over, it could mean Homefront might live up to the hype.
12 years, 7 months ago
While Homefront did a lot of things wrong...I still think the game had some merit to it. They did a lot of interesting things with the MP, and the battle points system. Hopefully with Crytek behind the wheel now we'll see some much needed improvements, such as a compelling story or characters I could give a shit about
12 years, 7 months ago
Didn't expect this turn of events to happen. I thought this series would die with its developer to be honest.
12 years, 7 months ago
Eh, hope they turn it into something decent
12 years, 7 months ago
They were wanting this game to not be lackluster, so they go to the company that made Timesplitters and Haze?
Could you make more irony?
12 years, 7 months ago
I want another timesplitters naow!
12 years, 7 months ago
I think Homefront would've been a great shooter if it had more content and had been polished more. They just kinda gave us half a game.
Hopefully the devs learn from their mistakes, and give us a better Homefront, because as people on this site would mock me for it, I always kinda liked Homefront.