Homefront PC Review

very good
key review info
  • Game: Homefront
  • Platform: PC
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  • Gamepad support: N/a
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A review of Homefront

First-person shooters are becoming more and more numerous these days, with all new titles trying to achieve some of the big profits earned by Activision's Call of Duty or EA's Battlefield franchises.

Homefront is the newest contender, coming from Kaos Studios and THQ, which tries to break the mold through an original story coming from Red Dawn director and writer John Milius, in which the USA is invaded by a united Korea in the near future.

THQ promised that we would see the birth of a new shooter franchise that would add fresh things to the classic genre formula.

Has it succeeded or should Homefront see the firing squad? Let's find out.

Story One of the high points in Homefront is its story, in which the USA are invaded by a united Korea and subjugated under a totalitarian rule by the Asian super power. But while the idea is pretty original, the execution is pretty much on par with writer John Milius' previous work on Red Dawn, except the Koreans have now replaced the Russians.

You play as silent protagonist Robert Jacobs, a former Marine pilot that is being sent to a reeducation camp in Alaska after failing to serve his new country. He is quickly freed by the resistance in his native town of Montrose, Colorado, and urged to join its efforts in order to score a win against the Koreans.

What follows is basically just like a movie and, seeing as how I completed it in around 4 hours, is about the same length, except you get to push buttons and act out during its firefights.

While the story feels like a whole and doesn't wear out its welcome, Kaos should have really added a few more missions in the middle part of the game, in order to at least match up to the length of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, another short title that still managed to impress.

In those four hours, however, you get to experience quite a lot of intense fights and, if you keep your eyes out for newspapers, can get lots of information about the events that lead up to the invasion of the USA.

The story isn't all about firefights, as you bear witness to slower moments, specifically at the beginning when you're riding in a bus and seeing Americans being tortured by Koreans on the streets. You also have certain moments in which you can catch your breath, around the Resistance headquarters situated in one of the battered suburban neighborhoods around Montrose.

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Witness America under Korean rule ...
... and then set it free

Gameplay You won't find lots of new things in Homefront, as it plays out basically just like any other first-person shooter powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 3. Colors in the gray spectrum occupy most of the screen during urban firefights, but you do manage to catch some more intense colors here and there.

Unlike other shooters, however, Homefront practically forces you to use the iron sights or tactical scopes of your weapons as if you attempt to shoot from the hip, without actually aiming, the bullet spread is all over the place. In quick firefights or when enemies pop up from cover, this can cause a lot of missed shots and subsequent deaths.

Speaking of deaths, Homefront has quite a lot of cheap ones, not just because it's a difficult game (which it is even on the easy setting) but due to the grenades thrown by your enemies towards your own location. The game does show the grenades on your screen, like in Call of Duty, but doesn't allow you to throw them back, like in Activision's franchise. In one certain case, three grenades were thrown at me in just a couple of seconds, killing me instantly.

When the grenades don't kill you, the big number of enemies will, as Homefront is pretty much filled with the so-called monster closets, infinitely spawning enemies until you trigger a cut scene or checkpoint. They'll shoot at you from every possible direction, and the on-screen prompts can't really show you where your opponents are targeting you from.

Homefront does have one special gimmick, in the form of the Goliath, an all-terrain robot tank of sorts, fitted with automatic chain guns and rocket launchers, which you can guide through the use of special aiming binoculars. This makes quick work of Korean armored vehicles and, over the course of its short campaign, you do get a bit attached to it, more than even your actual comrades.

Seeing as how you play as a former Marine pilot, you do get to control a helicopter later in the game, while you escort some of your Resistance colleagues, but that portion isn't something that will blow your mind.

Homefront does manage to drive the point home that you're fighting a war in the USA, with its locations including football or baseball stadiums, shopping malls or restaurants like White Castle or Hooters.

The AI, at least the one for your companions, isn't particularly clever, but they do manage to draw some of the bullets towards them, leaving you to flank your enemies and take them down, except when you're not getting stuck in invisible walls. They're also a bit slow, and aren't in any rush to get into position, which is pretty bad because you seem to lack the skills required to open doors or at least smash your foot into them.

Enemies are pretty smart, and make good use of available cover, sometimes sitting behind it for extended periods until you're distracted by another enemy.

Multiplayer Seeing as how Homefront's single-player campaign is done in around 4 hours, the multiplayer mode has a lot to make up for. Sadly, it's also a mixed bag.

Kaos studios added two modes to the multiplayer, your classic team deathmatch and ground control, in which players must take over control points and keep them under their guard until the end of the round.

While that may sound a bit boring, players earn battle points for their actions, which they can spend on upgrades like flak jackets or better weapons to drones or armored vehicles, adding fresh elements to the traditional multiplayer.

Homefront's multiplayer makes up for this rather dull description with its special AI-controlled Battle Commander system, which aims at adding a new layer of strategy on top of the mindless system. As one of your enemies accumulates a kill streak, the battle commander tasks you and the rest of your team to take him out, showing his last known position and giving you extra points for completing the mini-mission.

The target, on the other hand, gets buffs and bonus items like flak jackets, in order to withstand the enemies that will come barreling down on his last known position, and also gets bonus points for his kill streak.

There are 7 maps on the PC and PlayStation 3 editions of Homefront, and 8 on the Xbox 360, all of which are pretty large and allow for massive and chaotic battles when all 32 player slots are occupied. Sadly, even if the maps are varied enough, they have large vantage points allowing for snipers to take out other enemies from one side of the map to another.

The vehicular combat is quite nice, reminiscent of the Battlefield franchise, but it does require a bit of patience and practice until you can easily spend battle points to call forth drones or tanks to eliminate the opposition.

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Choose your loadout in multiplayer ...
... and follow the Battle Commander's objectives

Graphics and Sound In terms of visuals, Homefront isn't something out of the ordinary, as it's pretty much par for the course when compared to other military shooters out there, like Call of Duty, Battlefield or Medal of Honor.

Sound-wise, things are a bit better, with the orchestral score highlighting intense shootouts, while slower, more melodic tones join the less hectic moments of the story. This is extremely nice when you go around the Resistance base in Montrose, talking to people and seeing how they're coping under the threat of Korean rule.

Voice acting is decent, but the characters that appear in the game are one-dimensional and you won't really grow fond of them, despite the fact that a lot of tragedies will happen. The main protagonist is a present-day Gordon Freeman of Half Life fame, so he doesn't stand out through anything.

Conclusion Homefront is a pretty decent shooter, with an out of the ordinary story that would've been better if it had been developed more thoroughly by at least a couple of more hours.

Its mechanics are a bit annoying, with shooting from the hip one being extremely aggravating, but it will please shooters that can't wait until the release of the next Call of Duty or Battlefield game.

The multiplayer is interesting, especially when playing with the Battle Commander turned on, but some balancing issues need to be fixed in order to encourage teamwork and playing as another class than the sniper.

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story 8
gameplay 8
concept 9
graphics 8
audio 9
multiplayer 9
final rating 8
Editor's review
very good
 
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