BRITISH games developers Deep Silver Dambuster Studios are nearing the completion of their first mission with the upcoming release of first-person shooter Homefront: The Revolution.

Set in an alternate 2029 where a reunified Korea has invaded the USA, the game takes place after the events of the series’ first game, Homefront — released in 2011 and made by a different studio — casting the player as a member of a guerilla group fighting against the occupying Korean forces.

While Homefront received mixed reviews, with criticisms including a very short main campaign and uninspiring gameplay, Dambuster have made a raft of changes — including shifting to an open-world model — for the follow-up.

Homefront: The Revolution game producer David Stenton described the new game as a reboot rather than a sequel.

“We’ve taken the premise and one or two of the pillars but in most respects it’s a complete reboot,” he told news.com.au.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into crafting this dystopian/Orwellian playspace and so the switch to open world just helped to complement that.

“It helps to help give the player more time, more breathing space to really explore and take all that in.”

He said rather than the Red Dawn-style invasion portrayed in the original game, the backstory had been changed so the Korean takeover of the USA had its roots as an economic occupation following the collapse of the US economy.

Including an enemy military from an identifiable nation — in this case, a reunified Korea led by the North — is unusual, especially as games tend to have specific countries as enemies only in historical contexts for example, Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany in World War II games, or Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

Mr Stenton said that although the game was clearly a work of fiction and set in an alternate future, including a politically sensitive enemy such as a reunified Korea had still been a challenge.

“One of the main challenges really is justifying it from a backstory/fiction point of view,” Mr Stenton said.

“That is one of the main elements that we’ve changed from the original Homefront, that had the kind of Red Dawn Korean People’s Army (KPA) invasions.

“We’ve really reinvented the backstory to make it into a more plausible fiction, such as that it initially starts out an economic occupation … it initially starts as Korea calling in its debts.”

Homefront: The Revolution is set in the city of Philadelphia, which Mr Stenton said was not as unusual a choice as it might seem.

“When you look at cities like New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles, they’re fairly well trodden not just in terms of video games but also movies and TV,” he said.

“We wanted to try a different tack and it (Philadelphia) works really well in that sense — it’s a unique location, it has its own subcultures and so on.

“The other reason is with it being the birthplace of US independence; it makes sense in an ironic sense with the KPA setting up their administrative headquarters there.”

Of course, the Americans aren’t too happy about this and there is an active resistance, of which the player is a member.

Mr Stenton said the asymmetric aspect of the early stages of the game — the player is basically a standard member of the resistance, fighting an organised and professional military force — would necessitate different approaches to things.

“You’ll have to use every means at your disposal to even the odds,” he said.

“The other key point is we’ve really put a lot of effort into role-playing mechanics — there’s dynamic weapon customisation so it’s about crafting your own weapons and guerilla toolkit on the fly.”

Mr Stenton said the game would include elements such as fully dynamic KPA/civilian interactions and a dynamic day/night cycle and players could expect 20-30 hours of gameplay from the game’s main story.

“Much of that obviously comes from a much bigger playspace, the open world and missions,” he said.

“We look at it as an in-depth title, with many facets.”

While the original game did receive some recognition for its competitive multiplayer mode, Homefront: The Revolution is taking a different approach with a four-player co-operative mode, known as Resistance Mode, instead.

Mr Stenton said Resistance Mode was a form of “distilled highlight reel” of some of the single-player missions, such as ambushing enemy convoys, raiding strongholds and rescuing civilians.

“It’s an opportunity for you and three friends to experience those,” he said.

Homefront: The Revolution is released in Australia on May 20 for PC, Xbox One and PS4.