Video Game / Homefront

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Homefront is a 2011 game developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ.

The game is set in an occupied USA in 2027, where the entire free-market world has more or less gone to hell. The USA and China have collapsed in on themselves in the years after 2012. In the USA, the economic collapse served to promote great social unrest verging on but never quite spilling over into civil war^note  think the The Great Depression times a hundred. A rejuvenated Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un (son of Kim Jong-Il) quickly seized the day. Within the space of two decades of annexation and gunboat diplomacy, all of Asia except subcontinental India and China answers to the Government of the Greater Korean Republic.^note Though The European Union seems to be doing fine.

Looking to secure further resources in support of their domestic industries, Korean High Command determines the Americas to be the best option - the obsolescent US military is much weaker and the country's internal problems are far greater than either China's or India's, and the country is far more sparsely populated and resource-rich to boot. In 2025, the GKR detonates a high-yield nuclear weapon deployed from orbit over North America, the EMP killing electronics across 75% of the continent. This is followed up by an invasion and occupation of the Pacific Coast of the USA and the securing of strategic sites further inland for resource extraction. The politicians in Washington finally stop bickering as they realize that the situation is truly beyond their control. With the partial invasion well underway and the remnants of the central government and military in total disarray, the USA has effectively been dissolved overnight. Everyone west of the now-irradiated Mississippi River find themselves living under Korean Quislings, in crazed survivalist enclaves or in total anarchy - and it's not quite clear which of those options is worse.

You are put in the shoes of former Marine pilot Robert Jacobs, a man the occupying power is very interested in employing, forcefully if necessary. Fortunately for Jacobs, he is liberated when his prisoner convoy is hit by the local resistance chapter, who needs his piloting skills for a dangerous mission that, if successful, could help the struggling remnants of the American military retake San Francisco.

The game itself is a First-Person Shooter, similar in gameplay to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. Like the Call of Duty series, the single-player campaign makes heavy use of scripting, and most levels involve the player following and taking orders from a small squad of fellow resistance fighters. The multiplayer is notable for featuring dedicated servers, with gameplay similar to the studio's previous release, Frontlines: Fuel of War.

After the game came out, Kaos Studios released several DLC packs before being shut down by THQ. Crytek, responsible for the Crysis series of games, picked up the rights. For the longest time, it seemed like the franchise was dead. A sequel was announced before the closure of THQ, and eventually released as Homefront: The Revolution, where you play as a counter-totalitarianist, using Guerrilla tactics to fight back the invading Korean Republic in the heart of where the USA began - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Homefront provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Set in 2027, but the world has been in recession since 2009, so technology has mostly stagnated during most of the interim.
• Action Girl: Rianna is the only female member of the resistance group and is an active fighter in the missions.
• A.K.A.-47: For the QBZ-03, known as the T3AK. The Panzerfaust 3 is simply called "RPG Launcher". Averted with almost everything else since they have their proper names.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The website has a timeline that shows how the United States' economic and military superpower status collapses while North Korea conquers the world.
  • The game lets you know that Jacobs was a pilot, but the game never mentions he was a Marine pilot.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After the successful Resistance raids, the 718s attack the Resistance hideout and kill everyone.
• Alternate History:
  • Type III. The reunification of Korea under the rule of Kim Jong-un is portrayed as a result of a veritable perfect storm of global socio-economic problems and Jong-un's clever appeal to Korean nationalism, all of which are at least plausible. The real issue comes from the rise of the newly formed Greater Korean Republic as a super power capable of supplying and equipping the immense army that it would take to invade and occupy the US, all of which happens without any apparent opposition by any other nation, which would not be very happy about the belligerent new power on the block. While China might be convinced to go along with it and is described as a balkanized warlord-racked nation anyway, and every other country is apparently facing trouble, that doesn't explain the complete lack of a response to the progressive annexations.
  • Also, newspaper clippings in the game that you can find scattered throughout the levels reveal that a number of the annexations were actually voluntary or at least done without an invasion.
  • The setting relies on Kim Jong-Un being much smarter, more cunning, and less batshit-crazy than his father, which was decidedly plausible at the time of release, when he was still relatively unknown, only for him to since prove to be anything but.
• Anti-Hero: Connor is this in spades.
  Hopper: (after Connor's Berserk Button has been pressed and the team has to kill a rather large platoon of soldiers where the original plan was simply to sneak by) Everyone's dead. You happy now?
  Connor: Yeah. I am.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Partially averted. Your fellow members of La Résistance can easily take on small to medium pockets of enemies by themselves (it helps that there are at least 2 of them with you always) and are invincible in normal gameplay.
  • Also subverted with Korean and Survivalist enemies, who take cover, toss grenades, and fire with aimbot-level accuracy.
• Atrocity Montage: In the opening level "Why We Fight", Robert Jacobs, the player character, is arrested by the Korean People's Army and transported to a reeducation camp in Alaska. During the ride, he sees the horror of the Korean occupation, such as the separation of children from their families, people being deported to labor camps, and parents being gunned down in front of their children by KPA troops.
• Armor Is Useless: Interestingly, the mostly unarmored Crazy Survivalists can take more hits than the armored KPA soldiers. Probably why they don't strip and use the armor of the captured KPA troops.
• America Saves the Day: Averted. The game ends with a BBC report saying that The European Union has called an emergency meeting of the Defence Council to plan a military relief of the USA.
• Artistic License – Linguistics: North Korea takes the name of the Great Korean Republic upon expanding. In reality, "Great Korean Republic" is a term used in Korean, but for South Korea, so it is unlikely the North would adopt it.
• Artistic License – Military: Almost every piece of US military gear is hardened to withstand EMPs, and has been since the 50s, when mushroom clouds rising over the Fulda Gap were a very real possibility.
• Asian and Nerdy: Hopper is the cell's "tech guy" and is clearly much more into computers and robots than fighting. The other Asians in the game are the sort of folks much more likely to stuff people into gym lockers than be stuffed into one. Hopper can still kick some serious ass as well, looking not remotely like a stereotypical nerd in any respect.
• Assassination Attempt: Collectible #55 is a news report describing the worsening racial conflicts in Japan after Korean agents tried to assassinate the country's royal family. While it also reports that the Naicho pinned the attempts on nationalists, the general public still blamed the Korean agents, leading to Zainichi Koreans having their shops torn down and lit on fire, with a local store-owner and his son being both dragged onto the street and beaten up by demonstrators.
• Author Appeal: This game is written by John Milius. Yes, the very same guy who made the original Red Dawn (1984) film.
• Ax-Crazy: The Survivalist group which Boone was acquainted with is revealed to be a bunch of psychopaths with no moral restraints — they futilely attempt to kill Connor and have their way with Rianna when trying to recruit them, and their hatred for the North Korean regime extends to anybody who even looks remotely Asian regardless of position or alignment.
• Big Bad: Kim Jong-un and the Greater Korean Republic.
• Big Blackout: The KPR's "message of peace" satellite broadcast, which is actually an EMP that kills power to 90% of the North American continent.
• Big Damn Heroes: Goliath, the semi-autonomous combat robot vehicle, will show up when your squadmates are in grave danger. However, while it can fire .50 caliber rounds by itself, its rocket launcher is completely reliant on human input via the targeter device.
  • Near the end of "Why we Fight", Hopper gives you Goliath's targeter to face off the incoming Korean Humvees, as it can fire rockets that can destroy them. After you destroy the last of them, Goliath will fire away at all Korean soldiers stationed there as you flee.
  • After the failed white phosphorus attack in "Fire Sale" culminates in your team being approached by a KPA soldier after an attack helicopter topples down the tower you took shelter in, Goliath shows up to run over the soldier and help you neutralize the rest of the platoon in the fuel depot. However, you must neutralize enemies armed with EMP-rocket launchers that can temporarily disable Goliath on impact.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In this alternate timeline, North Korea pursues a policy of peace and progress under Kim Jong-Un rather than doing the usual in the early 2010s, which allows it to unify with South Korea and make Kim Jong-Un popular amongst the populations of both Koreas. However, once the South is under his control as well, the reunified Korea becomes increasingly expansionist before dropping the act altogether with its invasion of America.
• Black Dude Dies First: Twice in fact. The first black dude is a Red Herring.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: The KPR follows the rules of the mandated cliches of oppressive forces by executing people on front of their children, sending those who cannot be indoctrinated into the KPR to labor camps, and brainwashing children into child soldiers. The Resistance is the... Well, resistance against the KPR, who, while focused on freeing the oppressed, follow the ideology of "If you're not helping us, you are a traitor" and frequently abandon others in need to rescue high-priority targets only. The U.S. Military is far less morally compromised than the Resistance, however.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Pretty much most of the Great Korean Republic propaganda is like this. For instance, a news clip shows that the North Korean launched a satellite that supposed to bring a "message of peace", immediately before the satellite fires an EMP over the United States so that the Greater Korean Republic army can invade countries easily and massacre the local population of the country they invaded.
  • When the Greater Korean Republic invades the United States, booklets and propaganda photos show that they came to "help" the Americans in their bad economic situation. Mind you that "helping" them involves labor camps, execution squads, and mass graves.
  • One propaganda broadcast claims that civilians were killed in the crossfire after resistance fighters took shelter from a Korean patrol in their neighborhood. It's almost true, except the broadcast claims the resistance killed the civilians.
  • N. Korea claims to be "liberating" and "re-educating" the US. The officer who kicks down your door even has the nerve to claim they were trying to get you to "answer your nation's call", help the "American cause", and "teach you how to share your natural resources." Translation: "We're invading your homes, brain-washing everyone, recruiting collaborators to betray America, and we want to steal all your stuff for our own use."
• Boom, Headshot!: Surprisingly easy to do in this game due to the lack of heavy swaying while aiming down the sights present in other games such as Call of Duty.
• Bowdlerise: The Japanese version removes all references to North Korea from the game. According to the Japanese/Asian distributor Spike, they did this to follow CERO regulations with regard to existing nations, especially when there are still tensions between Japan and North Korea. The Japanese version's intro also leaves out the KPA irradiating the Mississippi River, opting instead for an extended sequence of American soldiers fighting desperately against the KPA. This is likely due to Homefront's Japanese version releasing a month after the March 2011 tsunami, and during the resulting nuclear power plant accidents (especially Fukushima Dai-ichi).
• Brand X: Averted, with such brands as Hooters, White Castle, and Lumber Liquidator (yes, that is a real store and not just a take off of Home Depot). The reason they put this is not because of Product Placement, but rather to invoke the feeling of familiarity.
• Bullet Dancing: Two Crazy Survivalists pull this on a captive North Korean soldier until one of them guns him down. This prompts the other survivalist to reprimand him for ruining their "fun."
• Buried Alive: In the Survivalists' compound mission, when your team stumbles upon a bunch of them forcing a North Korean soldier to dig his own grave, one of them chides his fellows for wanting to shoot him and proposes burying him alive. However, the soldier insults a survivalist's mother and promptly gets shot as a result.
• Buried in a Pile of Corpses: The player and their party are forced to do this at one point to avoid a North Korean patrol. While this doesn't stop them from shooting to be sure you and your squadmates are dead, neither they nor you will be hit.
• Burning the Flag: One promotional image shows a KPA soldier burning an American flag while his teammates corral a group of civilians in background, signalling North Korea's subjugation of the United States.
• Car Fu: In Multiplayer, vehicles can be used this way, including unique kill icons for kills done this way. The game even keeps a counter on the roadkills you made for each vehicle.
• Citywide Evacuation: Collectible #54 is a newspaper report on Japanese citizens fleeing from cities and towns in all of Southern Japan after a Korean Special Ops team destroyed the Chugoku nuclear power plant by targeting essential cooling systems. Moreover, the radiation leak was so massive that people from surrounding rural areas also followed suit.
• Les Collaborateurs: At the labor-camp mission, a wounded Boone hands his old badge to Connor and tells him, Hopper, and you to find a prisoner named Arnie. However, when you catch up with said prisoner, a spotlight suddenly shines on your team as several KPA guards surround you; it turns out Arnie gave up on fighting the Korean regime and decided to join them instead.
  Connor: You son of a bitch!
  Arnie: Fuck you. I've got kids. Besides, they cut me a better deal!
  Connor: We could have helped you!
  Arnie: Face it, the Koreans won. We lost.
• Companion Cube: A minor example; Hopper seems unusually fond of the remote-operated Goliath, and he's pretty crestfallen when Connor uses it as a rolling bomb after it's damaged beyond repair, even treating its destruction as a kind of Heroic Sacrifice.
• Concealment Equals Cover: Averted due to non-standard programming. Your hitbox is actually quite a bit fatter than your field of view, so it's entirely possible to be shot behind cover even if, from your perspective, you're completely hidden from the enemy.
• Cool Car: Goliath, a self-navigating semi-autonomous combat vehicle with a Gatling gun and rocket launchers. Only while it's on your side though. The climactic battle involves you having to take down an enemy Goliath and experiencing exactly what it feels like to be on the other end of the gun.
• Crapsack World: Let's see now. Korea being unified under the North Korean rule under Kim Jong-un's leadership (and the Nobel committee gave him the Peace Prize for that), more Middle Eastern wars cause the belligerents to torch the oil fields indiscriminately, making oil resources scarce, the United States economic and governmental structure collapses and enters a permanent economic depression, the United Nations gets disbanded, an epidemic breaks out in the United States, The Great Korean Republic invades their neighboring countries from Japan to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines while the entire world doesn't give a damn about this. And when North Korea invades the United States with an EMP blast and their military, it gets worse from there.
• Crazy Survivalist: Survivalist ideologies became very popular during the timeline when the United States economy was collapsing along with patriotic fervor, which could explain why all the states were given self-autonomy. This does not turn out well. To clarify, the Korean aggression sparked anti-Asian sentiment. At first, it was simply indirect violence, such as burning down houses. But as the war progresses, it turns into full-on racism to the point of some survivalist groups lynching Asian-Americans and treating captives and each other as badly as the Koreans do. The survivalists you personally encounter in the game, for instance, 'offer' Connor his life and the aid they had previously promised in exchange for being able to lynch Hopper and keep Rianna as 'entertainment', and you can hear several conversations about the group collecting Korean bounties on resistance fighters.
• Crushing the Populace: The first action we see the Greater Korean Republic take is shooting several parents in front of their children before they get sent to labor camps/breeding pens. It gets worse from there.
• Determinator: The PC gets blown up in cutscenes several times, but always gets better. It's Lampshaded at one point.
  Hopper: Jacobs! That's, like, the fifth thing you've fallen off of and lived!
• Dig Your Own Grave: In Mission 5, "Heartland", your team at some point will encounter a bunch of survivalists forcing a KPA soldier they captured to dig his own grave. When the soldier insults a survivalist's mother in response to being told to keep digging, they all promptly shoot him.
• Dirty Communist: The North Korean communists are depicted as close to pure evil, willing to shoot parents in front of their own kids, send said kids off to labor camps to use as slaves, and massacre civilians without a second thought. After subjugating South Korea, they turn their sights on Japan, eastern China, and Southeast Asia, before invading the United States.
• Disney Death: Amusingly enough Jacobs, your player character. During the final battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, you get knocked over the side by an explosion and everybody believes you to be dead; to say they are shocked to see that not only did you manage to save yourself from the fall but also cleared the enemy defenses obstructing your team's advance would be an understatement.
• Disc-One Nuke: The M249 light machinegun. It kills anyone who isn't an Elite Mook in one shot, has a 100-round magazine, is actually reasonably accurate, and can be found in most of the game's missions. It makes the Iron Man (no deaths) and Guerrilla (Harder Than Hard difficulty) achievements a lot easier to obtain.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • It appears that North Korea unifying South Korea and invading Japan isn't enough for them to be satisfied.
  • The Survivalists basically engage in wholesale torture of any Asian Americans they can lay their hands on.
  • The North Koreans also destroy your hometown as revenge for your successful Resistance raids.
• Divided States of America:
  • In the chaos leading up to the events of the game, the government grants the states full autonomy, which leads to this. One noteworthy incident being described in the backstory: Illinois threatening Texas with military action after border guards killed several migrating Chicagoans.
  • The Koreans managed to literally bisect America by irradiating the entire Mississippi River.
• Doomed Hometown: The North Koreans carpet bomb your Colorado hometown after you mount a successful raid which kills hundred of Korean soldiers.
• Double Speak: The Greater Korean Republic's calls its opening salvo in its invasion of the United States, a satellite detonating an EMP, "a message of peace".
• Dynamic Entry: The Goliath when it crashes through the house in slow mo to save your ass. The Koreans didn't know what hit them.
• Eagleland: A mix between Type I and II, as the American populace in the game is heavily fractured amongst rugged resistance fighters, innocent civilians, insane survivalists, and the military, who, despite their differences in morals, all seek to liberate America from North Korean occupation. However, the survivalists are firmly Type II as they have lost their minds from trying to prepare for catastrophes since the Y2K scare, and spend their time indiscriminately capturing hapless Asian Americans and KPA soldiers stumbling upon their compound to kill or torture.
• Easy Logistics: The GKR decides the best place for their next invasion is the United States, which is all the way across the ocean, rather than the nearby heavily populated and resource-rich Chinese territories that are in disarray.
• Elite Mooks: Korean Special Forces soldiers known as 718s comprise a large portion of the enemies in the last level of the game. They're equipped with high-caliber weaponry and have 50% more health than the standard KPA troops, allowing them to take 1 or 2 more bullets. At range, their armor also makes them look like the Juggernauts from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Early in the game, Jacobs has to cover his allies from a nearby treehouse. Naturally, it still has crayon pictures up and the requisite teddy bear, with a Korean chopper flying past just as he reaches the top of the ladder.
• The Empire: The Greater Korean Republic, which aggressively conquers all of Southeast Asia and Japan, and then goes on to invade the western US.
• Enemy Chatter: The KPA soldiers alert each other whenever they see you and even give orders on how to proceed, albeit in Korean.
• Escort Mission: There are several points in the game where you have to protect something, whether it's your friendly Goliath or some enemy fuel trucks that you hijack from the North Koreans. Fortunately said targets are pretty durable and can survive a couple of hits, though you'll want to take out anything attacking them as fast as possible.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the map on the game's website, it is stated that some of L.A.'s most notorious street gangs have joined forces with the LAPD to form a resistance against the Korean occupiers.
• Everyone Has Standards: Connor's a callous Anti-Hero who takes perhaps a little too much zeal in killing the enemy, but even he disapproves of the Crazy Survivalists and their methods.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: The fate of everyone when you return to the Oasis and the people of Montrose.
• Eviler than Thou: The Koreans and Survivalists both routinely carry out atrocities on each other, the Resistance, and innocent people. Survivalists may even one-up them, since the Koreans are just cold, whilst the Survivalists are batshit insane.
• Fallen States of America: Even before the invasion, the US was a wreck.
  • After the Oil Wars destabilized petroleum prices globally and international shipping ground to a halt, the United States saw its economy start to tank. People were forced to stand in line for basic goods for hours at a time, interstates became impassible due to lack of maintenance, GM declared bankruptcy a second time, and the U.S. military and navy were scaled back to save money. This latter action lead to their withdrawal from East Asia.
  • A cold snap in the winter of 2016, combined with the lack of fuel, lead to 10,000 people in the northern states freezing to death. As people began migrating to warmer areas like California, Texas and Florida, who were already dealing with millions without jobs, this lead to internal tensions and stronger border control policies implemented between states. Martial law was declared in 2017 and the military was deployed to major cities to relocate people if necessary.
  • Knoxville Cough, a bird flu pandemic, killed 18 million Americans in less than a year. Whole cities in the South were left as virtually ghost towns.
  • Canada and Mexico have both implemented strict border policies and immigration quotas with the U.S., leaving millions of Americans stuck as refugees in their own nation.
  • As the situation deteriorated, many xenophobic extremist groups such as America First & Foremost began calling for isolationism and making their own propaganda.
• Fascists' Bed Time: Implied. At the start of the story, the KPAR Radio informs that the North Korean regime has imposed a curfew and has changed it to 18:00. Moreover, the KPA even installed sentry towers to shoot Resistance members and stray civilians who break the curfew.
• Final Boss: An enemy Goliath serves as the last confrontation in an on-rails turret segment. Even though the fight is unusually easy for a final boss battle.
• Foreshadowing: Upon seeing the mass graves and entering a berserker rage, Connor screams "I'LL BURN YOU, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" Later, during the night raid on the Korean fuel depot, he intentionally barbecues some hapless KPA troops with white phosphorus mortars.
• From Bad to Worse: Apparently, the getting worse part starts when Kim Jong-un (Kim Jong-Il's son) came into power.
• Gaia's Lament: Supplementary materials reveal that, during the invasion of the U.S., the Koreans launched a project called Operation Water Snake, which cut the country in half by dumping hundreds of tons of nuclear waste into the Mississippi River. The result is all land in a 200-mile diameter becoming toxic to all plant, animal, and human life. The groundwater is also saturated with pollution, and even breathing in the air is lethal.
• Genghis Gambit: The collectible news articles reveal that Kim Jong-un was able to reunify Korea peacefully by making Japan their shared enemy, largely by taking advantage of the fact that South Koreans hate the Japanese much more than they hate North Koreans (in fact he was able to incorporate most of the smaller Southeast Asian nations in the GKR in large part due to their shared grievances against the Japanese stemming from WW2). It's strongly implied that quite a lot of the Korean military forces are actually South Koreans who are willingly and happily taking part in the process of bringing America down a peg.
• Good Guns, Bad Guns: Averted. The Korean forces use entirely NATO or American firearms, instead of the Soviet overstock they have in real life. Justified because of the reunification, which made former South Korean weapons accessible to the North, and they have seized the American factories and armories. The German Panzerfaust 3 is justified since Japan and South Korea produce them (though it still doesn't explain why they also showed up in the hands of American soldiers in multiplayer). The only non-NATO firearm you'll encounter is the Chinese-made PLA-issue QBZ-03 assault rifle as the T3KAK.
• Got Volunteered: In the helicopter mission, when Connor orders you to match the tanker trucks' speed so he, Rianna, and Hopper can hijack them, the latter objects, to which Connor uses this trope as a threat:
  Connor: All right, uh, Plan B. Bring us alongside the trucks and match their speed. Hopper, open the door.
  Hopper: You're fucking crazy! I'm not jumping onto a moving vehicle!
  Connor: Either you go voluntarily, or I help you. Either way, you will be in one of those trucks.
• Gunship Rescue:
  • You pilot a helicopter in one stage, and end up protecting the fuel trucks from enemies.
  • A more straightforward example is used in the final scene of the game when several fighter jets fire on an enemy armor convoy on the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Harder Than Hard: Guerrilla difficulty, in which the enemies all have perfect aim and can pretty much kill you in a split second. Fortunately, it's still not as hard as Modern Warfare's Veteran difficulty.
• Hanging Around: As you venture into the Survivalists' camp, you'll stumble upon the hanging corpses of lynched Korean soldiers.
• Hates Everyone Equally:
  • Connor has quite a lot of this. While he has a burning, borderline sociopathic hatred for the Korean Occupation, in the later levels, it becomes pretty clear this is purely nationalistic and not racial. He also strongly loathes the American Survivalist movement, civilians who don't participate in the Resistance, his own teammates when they fail to give 100%, and annoying kids. He also openly disdains the Survivalists because their cruelty towards Korean prisoners is purely for sick fun rather than serving any greater purpose.
  • Ironically, Rianna is the one who objects strongly to killing the Survivalists at the start. Then slowly, along with the player, she realizes that they are the biggest collection of psychos in America - and that includes the Nazi-esque North Koreans.
• Hate Sink: The North Korean forces portrayed through most of the game are vile war criminals who torture, interrogate, and kill American citizens (including children) and indiscriminately massacre civilians, and if their bodies are intact, they are thrown in mass graves to be forgotten. Ultimately, they are nothing but an evil that must be eradicated, and the forces opposed to them, namely the Resistance and the U.S. Military remnants, act to quell the oppressive North Koreans.
• The Heart: Rianna. She may be able to kick ass like everyone else but she has her heart on her sleeve more than the others.
• Heroic Sacrifice:In the final battle at the Golden Gate Bridge, a large North Korean convoy is heading towards the protagonists and their allies, and the US Air Force is unable to identify who is friend and foe on the bridge. Connor, in what might be the most badass thing he has ever done, runs toward the convoy with a flare, telling the Air Force to target his position, sacrificing himself so the Air Force can destroy the convoy, killing him in the process.
  Connor: Ah, fuck it. See the flare!? Fire on the Flare!
• Hide Your Children: Averted, there are children at the rebel hideout, a video at the game website shows a classroom of elementary school children being indoctrinated and the interview of a child in a labor camp, in the opening of the first mission where the KPA made a child watch as they executed his parents, and a loading screen photo depicts a mass grave for children.
• Historical Beauty Update: This◊ is Kim Jong-Un in Homefront. This◊ is Kim Jong-Un in Real Life. While Kim's scenes were re-shot with a chubbier actor after the real Kim Jong-Un became a public figure, Homefront's Kim is still much more photogenic than his real-life counterpart.
• History Repeats:
  • If the world had woken up when the Greater Korean Republic invaded Japan, then we wouldn't have this story at all. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?
  • The entire fight is compared by the Resistance to the American Revolution; in 1777, the United States won a surprising victory against British forces in the Saratoga Campaign, which convinced France to join the war on the American side, a turning point in the War for Independence. The final battle at San Francisco, in which the U.S. Marines and Resistance score an unexpected victory against the Koreans, convinces the European Union to join the war for their sake, a turning point in Korea's American occupation.
• Hitbox Dissonance: Unlike the vast majority of FPS games, your hitbox is actually larger than your field of view. Thus, it's possible to be shot and killed even if you're hiding behind cover well enough that you can't see the guys shooting at you.
• Hollywood Tactics: Usually averted; shortly after Jacobs' rescue by the Resistance, the cell comes across KPA infantry on the ground, with an MG on the second floor, which is more or less right out of the playbook. After Arnie betrays the cell, the KPA keeps Hopper and Connor pinned down on the ground with an MG, while troops move to flank on the second floor. Basically, if Jacobs couldn't Walk It Off, he'd be dead. A dev diary makes a point of noting how the Resistance always operates in cells, so if one is compromised, they won't jeopardize the rest. This is a strategic decision with a long and effective history, most noticeable in the WW2 French Resistance.
• Hot-Blooded: Connor. Even when he's talking normally, he sounds like he's shouting at you. The guy is just brimming with spiteful hatred towards the Koreans.
• Hypocrisy Callout: Collectible #20, a newspaper report on the Korean occupation of Japan, mentions that the Greater Republic of Korea called the USA's call for more sanctions against them as hypocritical, blaming them for the worldwide chaos and unrest in-universe.
• Improbable Power Discrepancy: The unarmored, t-shirt wearing survivalists can survive more damage than the body armor-wearing KPA soldiers that serve as the game's standard Mooks, simply by virtue of being fought later in the game.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Connor refers to the KPA as "Kims", a reference to their leader. The right-wing survivalists call them "NorKs". So do the soldiers you join up with in the final level. Hilariously, a few of those survivalists call you a collaborator, despite several of them having mentioned collecting Korean bounties on resistance fighters.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Types 3, 4, and 5 sprinkled all over the place. Some waist-high fences/barriers are meant to be crossed, but, apparently, only at certain points along their length.
• Invaded States of America: The whole point of the game. After taking over Japan, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia, a resurgent North Korea, calling itself the Greater Korean Republic, invades the United States, which is greatly weakened following a massive economic crisis and its ensuing civil unrest. The player character is a resistance fighter rising up against the occupying KPA, which calls its conquered territories the New Korean Federation of Occupied America.
• Invisible Wall: Everywhere. If it's a path the developers don't want you to take, it will be impassable, even if there is no barrier there. If it's a path that you are supposed to take but that you're not intended to go through yet, it will be impassible. Even the few brief areas where you are given liberty to explore are littered with invisible walls so you don't explore the wrong places. Humorously, some of the invisible walls are rather poorly placed, with little gaps it's possible to slip through to get to places the developers don't want you to be. There's rarely any point in doing so, though.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Canada and Mexico close their borders to the United States.
  • Also, the Greater Korean Republic invades Japan.
  • From one of the collectible newspaper articles (dated September 13, 2018) found in-game:
    Korea, which claims it is occupying Japan in an attempt to stamp out an attempted genocide against its citizens, taunted the US from Pyongyang, saying, "How can a regime that can barely feed its citizens or heat their homes gain the respect of the rest of the world?"
• Just a Stupid Accent: The KPA in Multiplayer, unlike the Call of Duty series, which has the non-English speaking factions speak their native tongue in multiplayer.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Truth in Television or not, Homefront has the North Koreans doing the following: separating families, executing parents in front of their children, putting people in labor camps (Doctors and Lawyers in shale mines), pressing people into North Korean service at gun point, and randomly gunning down civilians in a suburb where there's fighting. Oh, and they massacre civilians every time you blow up targets.
  • Connor also does his share of this, including brushing off the desperate pleas from a starving child, and insisting on leaving a team of Korean soldiers to die a painful death, after bombing them with white phosphorus.
• Man on Fire:
  • At the fuel depot mission, the KPA soldiers are reduced to screaming torches when Hopper deploys the white phosphorus rounds while you and Rianna keep watch from above. However, the Resistance's soldiers end up suffering the same fate when Hopper fumbles the second round. Furthermore, you'll also find burning KPA soldiers when returning to the depot a second time.
  • At the final mission, the Battle of San Francisco, most of the KPA soldiers remaining after you dispatch their incoming convoy with the UCAV's missiles will be set on fire from the strafe.
• Master of Unlocking: There are a few doors you can open yourself, but most doors, along with file cabinets, refrigerators, and other such barricades, will forever hold you back until your NPC allies can move them out of the way.
• Meaningful Background Event: During the first sentry encounter, you are told to watch the light to tell when to move, but if you watch Boone, who is loving up during this time, you can see the sentry gun bullet clip him, which comes up later during the white phosphorus briefing
• Mercy Kill: One level has the Resistance shelling Korean troops with white phosphorus shells. You can kill them to put them out of their misery, or let the bastards cook. Both choices give you an achievement.
• Millennium Bug: In the Stealth-Based Mission at the survivalists' compound, Connor mentions that they have been preparing for catastrophes ever since the Y2K scare.
• Misplaced Retribution: Collectible #55 mentions that after North Korean agents attempted to assassinate the Japanese royal family, racial tensions worsened to the point of organizing pogroms against shops owned by Zainichi Koreans, who have nothing to do with the attempt in question.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: One loading screen shares that the Hoover Dam has been renamed the Kim Jong-un Dam, complete with a giant North Korean flag draped over it.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: The Korean Occupation Regime's answer to everything. Everything.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Appeasement on the Greater Korean Republic, taking advantage of an economic depression by taking over the world, mass graves and execution squads, a charismatic Kim Jong-un wanting to reunite his people for a single goal, seeking revenge on their former enemy (Japan and United States) from the previous wars they fought against them, and the United Nations collapsing. The Greater Korea Republic are like the Nazis in the 21st century, except they're at least nominally communists.
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • Even with the Resistance fighting its heroic war, Korea still occupies half of the entire United States and controls every Asian nation besides its big buddy China. With a victory won in San Francisco and Europe mobilizing for war, it seems the tables have turned for Korea at the last minute.
  • On the Golden Gate Bridge, a massive Korean armor column that advanced on the Americans would've sent them running, until Connor sacrifices himself to provide a beacon for a US airstrike on them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Hopper does this in the mission to tag the fuel trucks, when he accidentally fires a white phosphorus round on top of you and your allies. While the mission ultimately succeeds, the resistance takes more casualties than they should have.
• No Campaign for the Wicked
• No Ending: Although the resistance have won the battle of San Francisco, the game ends with every other major plot point going unresolved (mostly in part due to Deep Silver rebooting the continuity).
• No Endor Holocaust: Based on the opening cinematic, the Koreans' EMP stops around the Great Lakes and 49th parallel, sparing most of Canada its effects. Mexico isn't as lucky.
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: The singleplayer campaign is basically just a long linear progression from one non-interactive scripted event to another, in the style of the Call of Duty series. There are collectables, like the newspapers that explain the backstory, and hidden weapons that are better than the typical guns found. However, you probably won't find most of 'em as your allies keep telling you to Continue Your Mission, Dammit!, causing you to miss most of these unless you deliberately look for them.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The idea of North Korea invading the United States is considered highly unrealistic by many people, considering that the North Korean army, industry, and economy are in poverty, with Kim blackmailing for food, and being nowhere near as competent as the in-game persona. However, a country or a regime thought to be harmless or pathetic in the present can become a threat in the near future, if they take the right steps (and if unfortunate events weaken the major powers). This is why the game is set 20 Minutes into the Future—and, as mentioned by the Korean-American former CIA field agent:
  "...we went to a very rigorous, academic research process to make sure to not only look at North Korea's current state but to look at historical examples of how things could parallel and turn events. History repeats itself. From today to the day the invasion starts in the game, if you combine everything, the odds are very, very slim that this becomes true. But when you look at the storyline step by step, every step is a coin flip but a plausible step. So once you get there, it's plausible. And from there the next step is plausible as well. Even though the whole thing is fictional, it comes with plausible baby steps."
• Not What I Signed on For: Though she does it anyway, Rianna isn't too fond of killing fellow Americans, even the Crazy Survivalists who earlier wanted to rape her and lynch Hopper.
• Oh, Crap!: Just a few seconds before you see a mortar shell full of white phosphorus heading to your and your allies' position.
  Hopper: Oh, shit! Misfire! MISFIRE!
• Plot Armor: In cutscenes, the protagonist survives many things that are effectively impossible to survive, solely because he is the protagonist. This gets lampshaded by Hopper near the end of the final level.
• Police Brutality: Many examples by the Koreans in the game.
• Product Placement: Apart from familiar stores, you can see advertisement billboards for the PWS Diablo, in addition to it is also one of the most common guns in the game. There is a promotional deal between Kaos and PWS.
• Propaganda Machine: Numerous examples from the Greater Korean Republic.
• The Plague: Collectible #33 is a report on the 'Knoxville Cough', an apparent strain of the flu so named for its supposed origins in Tennessee, affecting much of the USA's population.
• The Quisling:
  • A map of the States shows the location of several strongholds controlled by collaborators.
  • The guy in the labor camp, Arnie, betrays your squad to the Koreans out of concern for his daughter.
• Ranged Emergency Weapon: The game has literally one pistol, and it's only available for the first two levels. It's underpowered compared to pistols in comparable titles and, for that matter, the rest of the game's arsenal. The only reason to really go with it is to obtain the "Pistol Whipping" achievement for making twenty-five kills with it in the first mission.
• Real Award, Fictional Character: In the backstory, Kim Jong-un united Korea under North Korean leadership and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for it.
• Real Is Brown: Averted. The game uses a remarkably vivid and colorful palette, especially considering its grim subject matter, and a majority of the missions take place outdoors in broad daylight. Indeed, while the textures are a development cycle or two behind other games released in the same time period, Homefront's attractive color palette and lack of "coffee filter" in front of the camera make the graphics look much better than they should.
• Red Herring: At the beginning, while Jacobs is being transported to a prisoner camp via a prisoner bus, another soldier prisoner talks to him. After the bus passes through the gate, the other prisoner tells you that you and he and the other soldier prisoners have to stick together to survive... only for the La Résistance to ram into the bus. You're the only one who survives and the other guy is now dead. This isn't brought up again.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Connor and Riana. Riana is the compassionate and empathetic member of the group who does not want to put others in harm's way, while Connor is a Blood Knight who believes any American not fighting the Koreans tooth and nail is worthless, and even changes an official order of ammunition to white phosphorus just to make his enemies suffer.
• Red Scare: Certainly in the eyes of many Americans. Then again, this game is made by the same guy who made Red Dawn (1984).
  "The only good Communist is a DEAD COMMUNIST!"
• Red Shirt: The unnamed resistance fighters at the "Fire Sale" mission are briefly introduced only to die a painful death when Hopper fumbles a white phosphorus mortar round. The unnamed US Marines accompanying you on the final mission suffer the same fate as they get blown up left and right by Korean armed vehicles and RPGs.
• Regenerating Health: Taking cover for a few seconds after getting shot and the player will be just as fine again.
• La Résistance:
  • The game makes it as clear as it can that these are ordinary citizens, not trained soldiers. The closest thing Boone's cell has to a traditional soldier is Connor, and he's more than a little unhinged.
  • Even the guns contribute; you're given only a few mags of ammo, and sometimes you end up picking up a gun with not even a full mag. Despite being a former Marine, Jacobs apparently doesn't know that certain weapons use interchangeable mags, so if his M4 is running low, and there's an M16 nearby, he cannot take the ammo from the latter for use in the former.
  • Boone himself used to be a Colorado state trooper.
• Retcon: In the early trailers, Kim Jong-un was portrayed very differently, since the real-life Kim did not have an official picture yet. However, when Kim Jong-un was finally officially revealed in the media, his actor had to be replaced in the site's trailers, which was justified in any case.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Montrose Resistance commits a couple of war crimes during their guerrilla war against the KPA. However, they're contrasted strongly against the Crazy Survivalists who have done much much worse.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Connor catches the sight of the mass graves, he just goes insane with rage and carves a path through the camp.
• Semper Fi: Supplementary materials state that Jacobs is a former Marine pilot, though the game itself doesn't mention it.
• Sentry Gun: The KPA has set up several sentry towers that look like excavators that end in a lantern that emits a blue spotlight with a Gatling gun mounted above it. If you get caught in the beacon's spotlight, it will immediately shoot in your direction until you take cover. The only way to destroy them is by launching grenades behind them, as the propane tank that powers them is located in there.
• Sequel Hook: The game ends with the European Union considering helping out America, but the occupation still continues in a "The Battle is Won, The War Goes On"-type deal. Unfortunately, following the closure of THQ, the "sequel" ended up becoming a reboot, leaving the resolution of the original story up to fanfic authors.
• Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Played straight. every last helicopter you see, allied or not, will be blown out of the sky, with the sole exception of the player-controlled heli in the Escort Mission level.
• Shout-Out:
  • Artwork shows a "Wolverines" banner in a baseball field. Considering who this was written by, one can assume it's not the only such reference.
  • A team of Navy SEALS infiltrate Alcatraz and they succeed in capturing it. They use green smoke grenades to signal their victory.
  • Near the start, the driver of the prisoner bus says that he is taking the prisoners to facility 1138.
  • One of the labor camp inmates says: "You wanna talk to El Rey? That's cool."
  • "Who should we shoot?" "Shoot 'em all."
  • The game also features the quote: "Hail to the king, baby." and several other Shout Outs later in the game.
  • May or may not be intentional, as he only shows up for the first part of the Golden Gate assault, but there's a (presumably) Mexican-American soldier named Hernandez, who is responsible for doing every necessary action the player character does not. The squad leader even says "Hernandez, do/open/etc X" with a similar voice inflection to Foley.
  • Boone is a black police officer who's "getting too old for this shit."
  • Two survivalists are seen shooting the ground near a KPA soldier's feet, making him dance.
• Shown Their Work: The game developer team actually consulted with a former CIA field agent with Korean ancestry to paint the backstory of how North Korea became a military superpower.
• Silent Protagonist: Jacobs, the player character, never says a word, and his face is never seen. The only background info given on him is that he's a former helicopter pilot, which is why the Resistance wants to recruit him.
• Staircase Tumble: At the beginning of the first level, Col. Jeong and his goons shove you down the stairs of your home as they take you away to the prisoner bus.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Chapter 5, "Heartland" has one after you and your team neutralize the survivalists guarding the entrance to the compound. It will start when Connor gives you a sniper rifle with a zooming scope and tells you not to shoot until he gives the order. Your mission is to keep your team from being detected by taking out the human sentries atop the windmills and top floors in one shot.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm scream shows up now and then, in varying speeds. Also referenced in one of the achievements, which requires you to score at least 10 railing kills with the grenade launcher.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: When the cell raids a Korean fuel dump so they can tag a jet fuel convoy to steal later. The team's van crashes into the middle of the depot, blaring "Burning Love". Considering that Connor managed to get his hands on some White Phosphorus mortar rounds... you can see where this is headed.
• Take That!: Collectible #16, titled "How soon we forget", derides the Nobel Prizes as a sham, carrying the gravity of a "Cable Ace Award" [sic]. It even brings up the legacy of the real-life Henry Kissinger, who received the Nobel Peace Prize despite being "responsible for more deaths in Asia than Pol Pot". This, in turn, is compared to this timeline's Kim Jong-un having received said prize for his efforts despite being the leader of a tyrannical, repressive regime.
• Technically a Transport: Collectible #47 is a report on North Korea converting abandoned cargo ships into military transports, with one sailing forth into Japan to quell rebellions in the Northern Prefectures. Moreover, these revamped cargo ships have air conditioning and personal effects to accommodate the soldiers.
• Tie-In Novel: Homefront: Voice of Freedom chronicles the origin of the Voice of Freedom aka Ben Walker. A few characters from the game cameo in the novel.
• Token Enemy Minority: Hopper is Korean-American. He mentions that anyone who looked even slightly Asian had been getting lynched when he left Oakland, and he was "lucky" to only have his home burnt down. Hopper is surprisingly understated about the horrific treatment he's received. The Resistance Fighters are pretty stunned about it when he actually does mention it.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Collectible #31, a report on the Greater Korean Republic's attempt to shill the country as a tourist destination, mentioned that professors and students critical of the regime's actions were sent hate mail, mobbed by angry protestors, and had their property vandalized. However, the regime dismissed it as the actions of "a few extremists". However, it falls flat when the report expands that the newly-formed "New Chosun Party" is determined to crush all opposition and has occupied the majority of the Korean Senate, mentioning that a statesman from the opposition had his Senatorial vehicle mobbed when touring a low-income area.
• Unstoppable Rage: Connor after seeing the mass graves, which isn't surprising.
• The Unfought: Kim Jong-un, who never actually appears in person. Colonel Jeong is also never confronted, and just kind of disappears after the first few levels.
• Unwilling Suspension: After you complete the fuel depot mission, you and your squadmates will find the Resistance's camp razed by the Koreans, with Boone hanged by the arms on the swingset to serve as an example, much to Rianna's dismay.
• The Voiceless: Jacobs, the Player Character, does not speak at all. The closest he comes is grunting in pain when he gets hit by his door that was locked down in the opening, and dry heaving when the group hides in a mass grave.
• Voice of the Resistance: There is the "Voice of Freedom" network for starters.
• War Is Glorious:War is shown as absolutely necessary, as life under the North Korean dictatorship is shown as an even worse horror.
• War Is Hell: The war depicted in the game is ugly, brutal, and inhumane...
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: The KPA propaganda radio and the speakers from their helicopters appear to be like this.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Jeong, (as well as presumably his Dragon, Sergeant Moon), virtually the only named character in the KPA, is made out to be an enemy of some importance after forcing the protagonist out of his home. He is seen only twice, both times in cutscenes, and inexplicably vanishes without a trace after the second level, where you last see him.
• What Have I Done: Hopper after The mortar misfired and landed on the resistance position instead.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Rianna called out Connor for using the white phosphorus mortar shells to attack the KPA position.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The game's storyline is very clearly inspired by Red Dawn (1984), with that film's director, John Milius, even co-writing this game (though the game's story actually more resembles the 2012 remake, which had been filmed, but not yet released when the game came out). Milius even wrote the novelization (with the help of James Bond author Raymond Benson).
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: There's an Easter Egg video of a San Francisco suicide bomber planning to attack the KPA because of the treatment they've given the Occupied America and its citizens.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Two Occupation soldiers have no qualms about killing a child's parents in front of him, then nonchalantly walking away as he hopelessly mourns them.
  • It's heavily implied that the Korean People's Army does this TOO many times. Of course, there are official clips of American children being brainwashed in an elementary school, but that for strictly propaganda purposes.
• Your Mom: After stumbling upon two Survivalists forcing a KPA soldier to dig his own grave and arguing with a third whether they should shoot or bury him alive, the soldier will insult one of them in this way when told to keep digging.
  Korean Hostage: Fuck you, you son of a bitch! You're going to die! Your mother is a whore! Eat shit! [gets shot]
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: After the occupation, the North Korean government decries the Resistance and their allies as terrorists, going out of their way to eliminate them. However, most of the American people, especially the military on the final mission, see them as valuable allies to take back the USA and break North Korea's hold over the nation.

Homefront: The Voice of Freedom provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Rianna and Kelsie Wilcox, Ben Walker's girlfriend.
• Arch-Nemesis: Ben Walker is the arch-nemesis of Salmusa, although Walker does not know him.
• Bad Boss: Salmusa doesn't care for the well-being of the troops who served him, and doesn't even supply them hazmat suits aside from himself when trying to stop Ben at the very irradiated Mississippi River. This comes to bite him when all of his men are left very ill and without any help in stopping Ben from escaping.
• Big Bad: Yi Dae-Hyun, also known as Salmusa, which means "Asian Viper."
• Chekhov's Skill: Kelsie's ability to set up a communication antenna. She was apparently a major in electrical engineering.
• Crapsack World: How could it have been worse? Starting in 2012, the U.S. lost its superpower status and its military prestige following the economic crisis. This was followed by the Oil Wars in 2015, where Iran and Saudi Arabia, allied with Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan fought for control of the Middle East. The war destroyed several oil pipes in the region, causing oil prices around the world to skyrocket. Israel was left on its own to defend its country, since America no longer sent arms to the nation. As this was happening, a new superpower was rising: The Greater Korean Republic or the newly reunified Korea. Obviously, they were up to no good and no one believed it until it was already too late.
• It Runs in the Family: Nguyen Huu Giap's guerrilla tactics are learned from his grand-uncle, the famous Viet Cong General Vo Nguyen Giap.
• La Résistance: Ben Walker bumps into several of these, including Boone Karlson's cell from the game.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Salmusa overseen the irradiation of the Mississippi River in Operation Water Snake and ultimately died by falling into the irradiated river.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Ben Walker indirectly causes some of the deaths of people due to his broadcasts insulting the GKR. He initially didn't take this well, but regardless continues his broadcast against the GKR.
• Nuke 'Em: After conquering Hawaii, GKR forces placed a high-yield nuclear weapon in the middle of Honolulu. While it's totally unguarded, it's also a clear warning to deter any attempts by the Americans to retake the islands.
• Run for the Border: Ben encounters an American family who are fleeing to Mexico. He later regrets not accepting their offer to join them when he struggles to cross the Mojave Desert. The irony of Americans fleeing to Mexico is not lost on everyone.
  Gary Franklin: I bet they never thought they'd get illegal immigrants going the other way.
• Voice of the Resistance: Ben Walker changes his screen name from DJ Ben to the Voice of Freedom, which is the same one in the game. He broadcasts live and real news to Americans and denounces the GKR at every opportunity.
• Wretched Hive: How Walker describes Los Angeles as it fell to anarchy during the economic crisis. He is right, as famous landmarks have been made into homeless shelters, garbage littering everywhere, and gangs fighting for control.