The multiplayer component of Homefront is focused on large-scale, vehicle-based combat reminiscent of Kaos Studios' first title, Frontlines: Fuel of War. The defining innovation of Homefront's multiplayer is its battle points system, which is an in-game currency that allows a player to purchase weapons, gear, and vehicles. Players can earn points by completing objectives and increasing their amount of kills, and can choose to spend their points between many small purchases such as weapons, missiles, and drones, or larger, higher cost items like helicopters and tanks.
The multiplayer gameplay takes place in the period before the United States Armed Forces were completely scattered. Each copy of Homefront contains an online pass, granting users access to the full multiplayer experience. Although the online pass is not required to play multiplayer, those who play without an online pass will be unable to progress further than level 5 of the total 75 levels.[4]
The online multiplayer function of the game is now defunct due to the sale and closure of THQ in late 2013. Multiplayer is still playable (as of 2017) on PC.[citation needed]
Plot[edit]
Setting and backstory[edit]
Homefront is set in a dystopic United States in 2027. The game's backstory dates back to the 2010s, where tensions are high between North Korea and the global powers due to the country's military aggression, including its successful nuclear weapons test and the sinking of a South Korean ship.[5]
However, in 2013, one year after the death of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, his son and successor, Kim Jong Un, successfully led a peaceful reunification with South Korea leading to the birth of the Greater Korean Republic (GKR), a technological and economic global power that comprises the military strength of the North and the economic power of the South. In 2015, a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia broke out, both becoming nuclear-armed states, devastated the global oil supply, causing gas prices to skyrocket to $19.99 per gallon,[5] leaving many countries in debt and causing mass hysteria. This precipitates extreme economic turmoil and massive social unrest in the United States. Two years later, the U.S. military recalled much of its Pacific fleet. Japan, significantly weakened due to the diminishing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, was easily conquered by the GKR a year later and annexed shortly thereafter, becoming the first GKR-occupied state.[5]