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Homefront is back! Developed by Crytek on CryEngine 3 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC – The Revolution is set in Philadelphia in 2029, after the outcome of the original game, following Ethan Brady, a regular civilian who, out of circumstance, gets drawn into the local resistance.

Across the course of the game, Ethan will be tasked with helping the resistance secure enemy weapons and technology to tip the tide of the occupation in their favour and wage guerrilla warfare against all odds.

We were lucky enough to get eyes-on an early demo for Homefront The Revolution before heading out to E3. The Revolution features a persistant online world which changes and evolves as the game progresses and it’s a world which you can share with up to 4 players at any one time in co-op.

Our demo started in a dingy resistance base, dust fills the air, lights flicker and light is cast moodily over the room and the people in it. It’s clear right from the get go that CryEngine 3 is a force to be reckoned with and the guys and girls at Crytek are pumping it for every morsel of visual juice – it doesn’t just ‘look’ good, it also creates a real mood and underground feeling right off the bat even before any character tells you what’s happening. The environment tells a story all of its own.

As the demo continued and Ethan’s mission to ‘procure’ an enemy Goliath Drone unfolded, we couldn’t help but be taken in by the magnificent open-world city and its populace and equally by how the world depicts the truly sad, hopeless state of the situation.

Ethan navigates using a modified PDA, which acts very much like Fallout’s PipBoy. The PDA can be used to create markers on your map and hack enemy surveillance towers to unlock area information and missions. You’ll also be able to use the camera functionality of the device to tag enemies on your map.

As you progress you’ll pick up weapon modifications which you can use on the go, silencers, laser sights and torches are just a few of the augmentations you can fix to your guns.

Revolution’s world also enforces a curfew system. Head out at night and you’ll have to sneak around as to not get caught by the curfew guards on patrol, this will make certain missions harder, but will also open up new world interactions that may only happen at night.

Before the demo came to a close we were shown how gunfights would play out – pretty much however you want them to. Use your PDA to hack and confuse enemy drones, use other resistance members as a distraction whilst you sneak around from behind to take enemies down or just to sneak on by.

We’ll be checking out more on Homefront: The Revolution at E3. Make sure you check back for further impressions on the game later this week.