Non-Americans Can Like Homefront, Too

[Oilerfan92]

Honestly, being Canadian, were really kinda America lite. Were patriotic, but not as aggressive with it. So I can somewhat relate however I'm supposed to.

And I mean. We have fast food places, Home Depots and Cofee shops, so it's not like I'll wander aroung going "Mercifal heavens. These buildings, thtey scrape the very sky itself". Or "Good gracious. You mean different vendors can establish themselves in this place to hark their wares ? And you call it a... Mall ? Mercifal heavens. This is too much".

 

[Aries_Split]

I love how the big thing here is that everyone's complaining about the game for xyz, and then going on to describe a completely different game.

That's like going to someone's house, and going "I don't understand why you painted it brown, I'm sick of brown, you should've painted it red, you *boring insult*.

I mean, yeah, browns not exciting, but hey, it's not your fucking house, is it?

 

[Giftmacher]

Sounds like it could be an interesting premise to me, and really does it matter that the US is invaded in a bit of far fetched fiction? Surely the point is our, part of the free world has unwelcome visitors and you have to take a stand to defend it?

Had this been a historical game where the invaders were British I doubt anyone would mind, so what's up with a modern equivalent? Seems to me the intent behind choosing a modern day setting is to make the struggle feel more personal by placing it in a setting most people are familiar with...

Admittedly I'm a Brit but they could have set the game in the UK and I'd not have cared, then again that probably wouldn't have had such a broad cultural relevance. After all, US media (Film/Games/TV/internet) is far reaching, and as such I can relate to an invasion of US almost as easily as my home town; it's that familiar to me. Coupled with the larger audience in the US from the outset and it makes more sense to choose the US as a battleground. In many ways you're just seeing the USA as a proxy for the western world, which is hardly that unreasonable and it may even be a positive thing.

-Gift.

 

[Harrowdown]

I do! I'm probably gunna get this game anyway. But the premise IS pretty retarded. Forgoing the idea that North Korea could EVER come up with a working EMP, HOW the hell are they even going to GET HERE? Let alone find enough troops to occupy HALF the United States?

The premise of this game is no less retarded than the premise of any other game. Gears of War is about beasties from under the ground rising against humanity. Mass Effect is about humanity finding ancient space stations and fighting robots from beyond the galaxy. Fallout's premise is that technology went forward in huge bounds over a period of more than a hundred years, yet American culture stood perfectly still. If a game can expect us to believe that Louis Armstrong and company dominated the music scene for more than a century and still have a rockin' premise, then the notion that North Korea could become a political and military superpower in the next 15 years is really not that retarded, particularly not when proposed in the context of speculative fiction.

 

[Darkhill]

The thing that gets me is that, in order to reinvent itself as an actually functional country, let alone one capable of organizing and mounting a successful invasion of the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would have to really 'clean up its act' so to speak. Kim Jong Il's son would have to be a truly great leader to acheive this. The governance itself would have to completely overhauled, trade with the outside world will need to be pursued and sustained, treaties and compromises with other nations need to be established. In general, the same old tyranny and isolation has to be abandoned. Like how China thrives through trade on capatalist markets, moving further and further away from true communism, evolving into a more reasonable and connected member of the global community.

This raises the issue that the Koreans might not really be the villians in the story. In order to be in that position, they have to have done a hell of a lot things right. Vice-versa for the Americans. To have fallen so hard, what does that say about the American leadership? Yes, it's given that a lot of the problems resulted from natural disaster, but in that case, if the catastrophes really broke the United States power base, the ensuing administration can't be very benevolent.

The problem then, is the display of wanton evilness and cartoonish tyranny during the occupation. We can understand military heavy handedness in a counter-insurgency period, like what we've seen in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade, but it seems as though the Koreans will carry on just as they always have, even though that's anachronistic given what would have to happen for the situation to be possible in the first place.

 

[Jaidenator]

I REEEAAALLYYYY wanna play as the koreans on this one.

 

[Druyn]

but the creative director of the game thinks that its themes and values are universal.

It really would have helped if you'd picked a slightly less controversial and slightly more believable scenario. Like Episode 3 coming out on time.

After playing the game, I actually really don't have a problem with the scenario. They present it well, and as he says in the piece, it's completely speculative fiction.

And I'm becoming increasingly convinced that people don't actually read our news posts beyond the headline and the teaser.

I do! I'm probably gunna get this game anyway. But the premise IS pretty retarded. Forgoing the idea that North Korea could EVER come up with a working EMP, HOW the hell are they even going to GET HERE? Let alone find enough troops to occupy HALF the United States?

I think you are taking this a bit too seriously. This isnt trying to make a point, or put down the US, or praise North Korea, its just a game. A game with a unique premise, that looks like it will be fun to play. And honestly, a lot can happen in fifteen years. Who knows where the world we be by that time? I mean honestly, look at the USSR: in what, five or ten years, it dissolved and most of its remnants became far weaker, less influential countries. All that really remains from the era of Soviet strength is Russia. Things change, and it can happen fast.

 

[RamirezDoEverything]

Regardless of economic collapse, I highly doubt on of the world's largest and THE most technologically advanced military will fall...

But it's a pretty sweet concept! Different than rolling around in the sand or Russia..

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

but the creative director of the game thinks that its themes and values are universal.

It really would have helped if you'd picked a slightly less controversial and slightly more believable scenario. Like Episode 3 coming out on time.

After playing the game, I actually really don't have a problem with the scenario. They present it well, and as he says in the piece, it's completely speculative fiction.

And I'm becoming increasingly convinced that people don't actually read our news posts beyond the headline and the teaser.

I've always thought those teasers encouraged not reading the whole article. So really, it's your fault. Yeah, that logic holds soundly.


Anyway, yeah it seems like the guy is saying that this is what he reckons North Korea would do if they had their way, which, is kind of funny that he presumes to know that.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

power fantasies about the small man exercising his 2nd amendment right to rise up & fight the evil occupiers is a rather American thing

Yeah, the focus of this game just doesn't appeal to me since it isn't set in my country, I see the idea of a country being invaded as second amendment patriotic gun-nuts porn, and I am aware that is offensively stereotypical, but with the sheer amount of these types of games coming out, that is the kind of mindset these games are tapping into.

The idea of the familiar being twisted will simply not work as well with other nationalities, because it won't be our familiar. From the accents, flags, placenames etc. the game will be full of constant reminders that we are not fighting for our own countries, but someone elses.

It still could be an awesome game, fun to play and thought-provoking, but very much an American wet-dream.