While the KPA presence is still heavy, players will run into resistance troops, weapon caches, and traps set up to take out enemy patrols. The landscape is barren, though. Heavy shelling and frequent street battles have left most the buildings in rubble and there is a constant haze of brick dust. It is the Forbidden Zone, so if the KPA catch anyone out there, they will shoot on sight — and call in back-up.
Unlike the first Homefront, which features a competitive multiplayer mode, The Revolution features a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode. This mode, known as the "Resistance" mode, is separated from the main campaign and has its own characters, progression, classes and perks. Dambuster Studios promised that this mode would have a difficulty level that is similar to the Dark Souls games.
Plot
Setting and backstory
Homefront: The Revolution is not a continuation of the original Homefront, but rather a re-imagining of the premise. The story takes place in an alternate history setting in which the digital revolution of the 1970s took place in North Korea's "Silicon River" (Ryesong River in our timeline) rather than the "Silicon Valley" of Northern California. In 1977, North Korea's communist government falls out of favor after a series of devastating floods and Kim Il-sung resigns from office and is replaced with a more moderate Premier, Lee Dong-won. As a result, the now capitalist nation of North Korea has become the most powerful and influential nation on Earth, controlled by the APEX Corporation and led by a Steve Jobs-like figure named Joe Tae-Se. The United States, meanwhile, after years of multiple conflicts in the Middle East under Presidents George W. Bush and John McCain, is a pariah state amongst the international community as well as suffering from massive war debt from purchasing weapons technology from APEX and is in severe economic conditions. In 2025, the United States' economy collapses, forcing the USA to default on their debt to North Korea. Joe Tae-Se's son, APEX CEO and North Korean Premier John Tae-Se, (with the approval of the international community) uses this as a pretext to invade and occupy the country, using a backdoor installed in all APEX technology to shut down the United States military. Although initially presented as an international humanitarian effort to restore stability to the United States after the economic collapse, the Koreans proceed to strip mine the country for its natural resources to repay the debt, and proceed to brutalize the populace in response to a national resistance movement against the occupation. The game takes place in Philadelphia in 2029, four years into the occupation. The new Philadelphia is a heavily policed and oppressed environment, with civilians living in fear as the Korean People's Army patrol multiple districts in the city, aided by American collaborators led by Mayor Simpson.
Story
The game follows Ethan Brady, a new Resistance member whose Resistance cell is expecting a visit from Benjamin Walker, "The Voice of Freedom" and leader of the national Resistance against the KPA occupation. Brady's cell is attacked in a KPA raid, and every member of the cell except for Brady are tortured to death by the KPA. Walker arrives, saving Brady and killing the KPA, but ends up wounded in the fight. Brady leaves to make contact with another Resistance cell, but while he's gone the KPA raid Walker's safehouse and capture him. Brady attempts to rendezvous with the new cell, but is mistaken for a Korean spy, beaten unconscious, and nearly tortured by the Resistance, being saved at the last moment when his identity is established. Brady joins the new Resistance cell led by the big-hearted, blue-collar Jack Parrish, whose field commander is volatile, ruthless former criminal Dana Moore. Two other key figures in the cell are Dr. Sam Burnett, a pacifist medical doctor who believes in nonviolent resistance but works with the Resistance anyway in order to treat the victims of the KPA's brutality, and James Crawford, a Resistance spy operating within the KPA ranks as an American collaborator. The Resistance's primary focus is finding Ben Walker and rescuing him.
Brady is sent to work for Ned Sharpe, the Resistance's armorer. However, the armory is raided by KPA forces, during which Ned is killed and the Resistance's weapons stockpile destroyed by a Goliath robot. Brady succeeds in destroying the Goliath and stealing its robot brain, and Parrish comes up with a plan to reprogram the brain and use it to take control of a Goliath, with which the Resistance can break into Independence Hall where Walker is being put on trial by the KPA. Resistance technician Heather Cortez successfully reprograms the robot brain, while Parrish and Brady steal a Goliath from the KPA. However, the Goliath is sabotaged by a mole within the Resistance, ruining the plan to break into Independence Hall.
Crawford comes up with an alternate plan, in which he will pretend to capture Brady so he will be taken inside Independence Hall for the trial, at which point Brady can break free with Crawford's help and disable the Hall's defenses from inside. The plan seems to work, and the Resistance storms into Independence Hall, only to discover there is no trial occurring and the courtroom is actually a sealed trap. Mayor Simpson appears on a video projector to show that Crawford has betrayed the Resistance, and also that the KPA have mentally broken Ben Walker, who gives a national speech calling for the Resistance to surrender. The Resistance manages to escape the trap thanks to Heather storming the Hall with the repaired Goliath, but in the resulting fight Heather is killed and the Goliath destroyed. The KPA proceeds to launch retaliatory strikes against all Resistance outposts in Philadelphia, resulting in the Resistance's near collapse.
