Homefront Inspired By Half-Life, Children of Men; Has 8+ Hour Campaign

The developers at Kaos have made my month by revealing that two of the major sources of inspiration they drew on for their upcoming America-under-siege shooter Homefront were Valve’s industry defining Half-Life series and Alfonso Cuaron’s brilliant film Children of Men. Thankfully they didn't mention Woody Allen or Bob Dylan for some reason, because my head would have honestly exploded with mash-up delight.

"Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are definitely the two big influences on the work that we've done," Kaos senior single-player designer Zach Wilson recently told CVG. "A lot of first-person shooters don't just let you walk through the world and appreciate the world. That's something that Half-Life 2 does really well.”

PREVIEW: Homefront Multiplayer Preview: Meet the Battle Commander

In addition to expressing the exact feelings that numerous gamers, including myself, have towards Half-Life, Wilson went on to say that while the team drew on HL for its design prowess, they looked towards the gritty, semi post-apocalyptic Children of Men for thematic and stylistic tones.

"In addition, we looked a lot at the work that John Milius did as an inspiration and we looked a lot at Children Of Men - which was a big inspiration thematically. I'm sure you can see that in parts of the game. We wanted to create a consistent world that is evocative and makes sense."

Wilson also revealed that Homefront’s story campaign lasts about eight hours on a typical playthrough but can last a bit longer, since “there’s a varying level of challenge depending on the skill of the player.”

VIDEO: Homefront "Fight For Freedom" Trailer

In a time when gamers are often to treated four-to-six hour single-player campaigns in their shooters, this is definitely good news. As for the game being something of a Half-Life meets Children of Men meets Red Dawn? I was excited about Homefront before, but it just jumped several spaces on my most anticipated games of 2011. What about you? And feel free to turn this into a discussion solely about how amazing Children of Men is. Seriously, I won't mind.

Source: CVG

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