By Brian Perry

When looking at Home Front my first impression was, “Gee this looks like that canceled Jaffe project homeland“. After being assured otherwise and sitting down for the tour, you can tell that Home Front is looking to be a beast unto itself. The game takes place around twenty years in the future in an occupied United States, and is supposed to give the players flashbacks to Red Dawn. That shouldn’t be surprising since the team at Kaos studios have been coordinating with John Milius, of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now fame, on the story.

The hands-off demo shown on the floor was definitely impressive, the graphics looked clean, the sound was impressive, and the engine features they were touting showed a lot of potential.

One of those features was the “Drama” engine, a background system that would attempt to give the player that edge of the seat feeling the entire time they are playing. The example from the demo involved shooting a missile at a moving Jeep. When the Jeep exploded the drama engine applied a slight magnetism to the player character drawing the Jeep slightly towards him as it flew through the air; as to provide a near miss on screen.

While immediately impressive Home Front will need to overcome some obstacles before its estimated release sometime in 2010. This includes a cartoony characters facial design and the industry’s endemic shooter fatigue. Despite those obstacles, Home Front appears to be a game to keep your eye on.