Homefront Review

PROS

• The first level and last levels are top notch
• There are moments that illicit true emotion
• The multiplayer is very good

CONS

• The campaign is incredibly short
• The story itself is lackluster
• One of the most heavily scripted games ever
• Cheap tactics such as infinitely spawning enemies

Homefront is the first outing from the new and improved THQ, with developer Kaos studios taking the reigns this was a game that was on many gamers “watch list.” And with good reason, with a new Call of Duty game coming out every year as well as a bunch of other cookie cutter shooters Homefront seemed to be a silver lining. A game that would deliver a powerful unique experience that the First Person Shooter genre has been craving. Unfortunately that’s not the case; by and large Homefront is a disappointment.

The game starts off strong. It actually tricked me into thinking that I was going to get that sought after experience. The game starts with a backstory setting up the current situation, in which North and South Korea make peace and become a super power who then invade the United States. As it opens your home is broken into by the KPA which is the name given to the opposition. They then drag you off put you on a bus and shuttle you off to what could only be your death. On this bus ride you witness some of the most shocking imagery ever put in a game. Witnessing the horrors that are being bestowed onto the innocents, seeing people beaten to death, seeing bodies being gathered, seeing a child no more than four or five years old watching his parents be murdered right in front of him, and then hearing his cries echo as you drive further away. These images gave me an emotional impact which few games do; all I could think about was stopping the horrors that had been presented.

However that effect quickly wears off and is replaced by basic Call of Duty type gameplay. Gone are the emotional twists and turns that gave me drive, instead we get waves of enemies that we must dispose of using a variety of weaponry. Which leads into what is perhaps the biggest problem of Homefront it is heavily scripted. Every event in the game will play out the exact same way regardless of what you do. There will always be X number of RPG guys that pop up on roofs that you must dispose of, you always have to take the same route to get to an objective. One major point of this is how you must follow your AI allies, you can only climb a ladder or jump down from a point after every teammate does it. Even if you are standing right next to said ladder or jump point they must go first. Of course all of this can cause the campaign to feel very repetitious, which, however is rectified by the campaign being blazingly short. I completed the single player on hard mode in about four and a half hours.

The characters are glaringly uninteresting, especially the protagonist who is one of those faceless, voiceless soldier who takes orders for no apparent reason whatsoever. Stealth levels are tossed in, but any actual skill needed is taken out since if you shoot or sneak when you’re told to there is absolutely no chance of failure.

The single player campaign of Homefront is vastly disappointing. The multiplayer on the other hand is another story. On face level many will call it a CoD clone, and for the most part that’s true, but there are many nuances that make the multiplayer worth your time. The maps are vast and impressive, plenty of cover and you can get just about anywhere you would want to. Game modes are the standard Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, and Skirmish (which is a playlist cycling the two previous modes). Much like Call of Duty you can customize your class pick from a range of weapons, and grenades as well as perks that will give you faster reload speed, better hip aim, etc. The big difference being the Battle Points, Battle Points act as your experience points which you’ll use to rank up and unlock new weapons and such. At the same time though they are used throughout matches to buy armor, airstrikes, drones, vehicles and the like. Think the Killstreak system from CoD only here everyone has a fair chance to get these cool things instead of it being limited to those who are able to amount large streaks of death.

Another nice feature of Homefront’s multiplayer is the Battle Commander mode. Battle Commander is an AI that picks out players who have been doing exceptionally well. Those who have a lot of kills, or keep racking up points and bonuses will have be marked and visible to all players and whoever wipes out said good player gets a nice point bonus themselves. It’s a small detail but can cause for some intense situations where witch hunt like searching can take place. Homefront’s multiplayer is top of the line and a nice replacement for those who want a break from CoD or Halo.

This is the first outing from the new and improved THQ, and it truly could’ve been something great. As it is, you get a game divided. Homefront has a subpar single player experience with moments of awesome sprinkled throughout, at the same time though you get a very solid multiplayer experience that is worth checking out if your looking for a new shooter to invest in.

This review was done on a retail copy of Homefront for the Xbox 360.

Comments

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I am 100% with you on this one the multiplayer is perhaps the best part of this game and while the single player is very very short there are points where you like"this is horrible,i can't wait to get back into the action and make these people pay for what they are doing to us(USA)"i have to say that anyone who buys this game,do it for the multiplayer it's fast,fun and at times completely unpredictible.

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