Review: Homefront

It’s time to defend your Homefront against the Korean invaders. Is there enough time to defend and regain your Home? Or have the Koreans already won? Find out in our review.

Watch our Video Review here:

Story

Homefront is set in a near future America in 2027 when a nuclear-armed Korean People’s Army invades the USA.  American soil has become a grim place to be living in; and well, if your not living your dead. The Korean’s destruction of the country has evolved into mass slaughter of the American civilization. The story is based around the Korean Army invading the states due to the economic drop in fuel and other resources. The Koreans attack involve some shocking scenes of violence on the American population which you will come to grips with throughout the campaign. Homefront has set the scene and story brilliantly throughout the campaign, but it does feel a little bit short handed due to its lack of broadening  past the 7 levels.  The campaign, even though short, does manage to still pull off a gripping and chilling story; but as I said, if it was longer it would have felt much more polished instead of a tad rushed in parts.

Throughout the campaign you will find yourself battling your way past paper clip collectables which are hidden through out the campaign. There are 61 of the news stories to find, most in obvious places but some will require you to make a second play-through. As you get deeper into the campaign you will come to notice some of the most annoying and glitchiest AI controller partners ever. You will find them countlessely  getting stuck behind walls, running into things or just not moving at all.  The action movie sequences do make a nice appearance in the game but it doesn’t really stand out amongst other shooters. The setting in the campaign is a compelling journey, it feels nice to fight back for your homeland even though I’m not American. But then again, in the moments where you expect it to be dramatic it just isn’t pulled off well enough to create a mood where you actually care about the AI that accompanies you.

The campaign does have a lot of variety in its short duration, placing you behind enemy lines to infiltrate their oil hold-out, destroy some turrets and so on. The arsenal at your disposal is great, with quiet a huge variety of different guns to use; but sadly it still plays out like a standard linear shooter campaign.  It is a real shame that the action is gripping enough to pull me in; I feel that if it were a longer campaign I would’ve enjoyed it much more, but due to it ending after around 5 hours of playing I really did feel that the story didn’t deliver as well as it could have done.  It is still a good campaign, but far to short for my liking.

Gameplay

Due to the campaign being so short, it is really hard to walk away saying “that was amazing” because it isn’t. The gameplay feels a lot like other shooters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. Which as you would’ve guessed by my references, it has all been done before. Ok, controlling a goliath is different and enjoyable, as is getting in a very well crafted helicopter to stop the Koreans steeling the oil tanks, but it really just boils down to a typical first person shooter. I think the length of the campaign again attacks another feature that could have resulted in a better experience for the player, but in the 5 hours of playing I really didn’t get enough time to get to grips with the game as it was already over by the time it started. This said, the experience isn’t all bad, it actually has a few good moments I enjoyed. I especially felt like a hero once I infiltrated the baseball field and took down some of the Koreans turret defences.  The guns work very well and feel and look realistic enough, but what doesn’t work well is the grenades. It’s like half of the time the grenades get stuck on you; even if you run away from the white arrow notifying you that a grenade is nearby,somehow if your not a far enough distance away it will still get you. It’s annoying but you don’t really experience it enough for it to be a repetitive annoyance, it’s just when it happens it will bug the hell out of you.  Overall I found the gameplay experience lacks a lot in the campaign, there is hardly anything different compared to other shooters other than the vehicle moments.  However the multiplayer is where the gameplay develops into a more structured experience.

Sound

The sound is actually a feature I really enjoyed about the game, but again it has it flaws. The dialogue is terrible at times, and it will sometimes fade in and out of different volume levels even when you’re looking at the character. Not sure if it’s a bug on my disc but it is very annoying. The characters also don’t play a big part in the sound due to the dialogue not being able to develop enough. This is again due to the games length; the characters involvement doesn’t develop and you just get a tad annoyed listening to random mumbles here and there. Again if the campaign was longer I feel that the development would’ve been much better.  The online stands out quiet a bit from the singleplayer experience. The online sound effects are great and actually make you feel like you are at war. You can hear your enemies and friendlies battling off in the distance with quieter gunshot sounds but able to hear out in the open. It sounds great and really does fit in with the whole experience on being in a war.

Multiplayer

Homefront’s competitive multplayer is where the action is at. This is because it seems the developers spent more time on the multiplayer than the campaign itself, which is a shame but on the plus side the multiplayer has turned out pretty great. There are only two core game modes: Team Deathmatch and Ground Control with both having two variations. With not many options of game modes the game lacks what other online shooters have, but maybe in a future update more modes could be added. Choosing a weapon in the loadout screen will be familiar to players of Call of Duty or Bad Company. You can choose from a variety weapons which become unlocked by various means online. Weapons can be unlocked either by XP or by completing a challenge for that said weapon. Earning experience is a very rewarding approach to the online, it not only increases your arsenal but you can unlock new infantry abilities and perks as well.   Online you play either as the KPA or the  US Army, compared to the campaign where you fight as the freedom fighters.  The variety of maps is great and really does open up the battlefield to multiple differnet strategies while not feeling repetitive. They are so diverse that the experience is great.

During the multiplayer matches you can be rewarded with battle points which is basically a new system that allows you spend the battle points on giving you an edge in combat.  The loadouts that are provided give you the opportunity for  two slots to purchase abilities that can help the way you play online. Some are very beneficial like flak jackets or a personal UAV (radar sweep).  The others are for more of an offensive approach, such as being able to bring ‘Hellfire’ on your enemies, or whip out an RPG to take out a tank. You can also invest in drones, which sadly have no attack capabilities but can highlight your enmies on the map to help your team-mates have more of a chance of finding out where they are hiding. All battle point items can run out or be destroyed. You may be thinking that this extra approach to the battlefield would be annoying, but actually it is so balanced that it works very well.

The battle point system does bring some powerful extras to the fight, but doesn’t ruin the gameplay or the flow at all. You can also jump into Tanks, Humvee’s or Helicopters online with your battle points as well.  And if small vehicles aren’t your thing, you can save up your battle points to spawn in an actual vehicle, like a Humvee, tank, or helicopter.  The Spawning system in the game works well as you can either choose to spawn with your allied or choose to spawn in a vehicle. Majority of the time I haven’t spawned into much of the combat, but a few times I have some how managed to spawn behind enemies. The online works well, but does have some slight animation issues and lag which is a bit annoying but the servers are new, so we will have to give them a bit of time to develop.

Overall

Homefront is a game created with the multiplayer aspect in mind, as it strongly focuses on that. The campaign, even though it has a good story, is far to short for the price tag. Homefront doesn’t seem as strong as other competitors on the market. If the campaign was longer the experience would’ve been a better one instead of something that ends too suddenly.  It has a lot of potential, but sadly doesn’t deliver a full package.

The Good

• Unique story
• Very well developed addicting multiplayer
• Good use of textures sets the scene perfectly

The Bad

• Far too short
• Clunky animations
• Sound sometimes has issues
• Far too many glitches
• Online lag/frame rate issues

 

This game was played on a Review copy of Homefront for the Xbox 360.