Homefront

Introduction 

Despite the release date review embargo, i really had high hopes for Homefront. A strong, story driven campaign was promised, which is something that is not seen very often in first person shooters. Needless to say, i waited until after reviews hit before deciding to give it a try. I debated heavily before buying after seeing the mixed reviews, and decided to get it anyway. The developers promised a lot with Homefront, but the game comes up short in almost every way.    
 

Story

Although i was aware i'd probably be spending most of my time with multiplayer with this game, i was extremely excited for what seemed to be an amazing story. The back story you have probably seen in a trailer is really cool, but sadly that's the only good part about the story. If you haven't seen it, basically korea becomes unified and gathers other countries in its alliance. Prices for gas hit $20 a barrel in the states, and Korea attacks us on American soil. It felt strange, as the introduction of the game seemed as if the story would have been epic, especially with some of the great set pieces. It starts off as whoever you play as (i don't remember any of the names after my 4 hour play through), and you are put on a bus by the koreans. I got chills as i saw the koreans put two parents against the wall, gunning them down as their child watched. It was sad, and i wish the whole game would have had this level of emotion and atmosphere. Sadly, it didn't. Your bus quickly gets hit by members of the resistance, they pick you up, and you fight the koreans. There's a little bit to it, but not really. You will be disappointed if you are looking for a good story.   

Gameplay

The gameplay of the campaign didn't save the story at all. I'm sure you remember the day of infinite spawn enemies, until you get to an objective. Yeah, it's in this game. This sets the game up to be very frustrating, as you will be trying to get to an objective as people are shooting at you, and you seem to die rather fast (i played on normal). Some of the hit detection i found to be a little off as well. There were parts i really enjoyed in the campaign however, and they were the parts that didn't involve infinite re spawning enemies. These were mainly levels in which i was driving a vehicle. I also enjoyed one of the levels in which i was sniping. I found it rather strange that every gun i picked up (assault rifles) usually had a maximum capacity for carrying 90 ammo. I found myself picking up new guns frequently as i ran out of ammo.   
 

Graphics

What year is this? 2011? The graphics sure didn't seem like it. When you watch a video or see a screenshot, they look decent. Looking into the distance is sometimes painful to the eye, with the amount of jaggies, and just overall problem of what seemed to be an unpolished game. I laughed as some of the explosions didn't get the texture loaded fast enough, and the fire was just one giant pixel. Sorry, but at this time in the Xbox 360's life cycle, it is sad to see a game that looks like this. 
 

Multiplayer

The multiplayer of the game is clearly the best part. When you kill people, or complete objectives, you get points to spend as well as gain experience to "level up". Your points stay with you only in the match that you are in, they do not carry over. You can use them to spawn in vehicles or helicopters. As you level up, you can unlock different weapons for your load outs. There are also special items you can have in your load outs, and you can use your points you earn in each match to use them (such as drones, rpgs, increased armor, etc.). There's not many different game modes however. There is your basic team death match, and your battlefield style objective game. There is also a battle commander version of each of team death match and objective game modes. Battle commander is a very interesting concept, basically someone is a battle commander, and certain targets will be listed as threats if they get high kill streaks. They will earn stars similar to wanted level in GTA, and the higher wanted dead, the more points you will get for killing them. They had some very good ideas for multiplayer, and for the most part it works very well. The only problem i have is that it's still just another FPS multiplayer game. There is nothing game changing about the shooting mechanics or formula that make me want to keep playing it, after i've been playing call of duty and other militar shooter games for years. 
  

Conclusion

It's clear that Kaos Studios wanted this game to be up with the big boys, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. I kind of feel sorry that this game is not really near those games at all, but i also wonder why they were full of lies when it was suppose to be an amazing story driven game. The campaign will last you around 4 - 5 hours depending on how many times you die, on normal difficulty. I told myself after beating this game i'm never buying another game made by Kaos (creator of Frontlines and Homefront), but i think i would actually be a little curious if they made a Homefront 2 and actually made it better. I just know i'll listen to the reviews next time.