Homefront Review: Home is where the trash is
Homefront has an intriguing concept, the USA has been occupied by a powerful foreign aggressor and you are a member of a resistance movement fighting for liberation. Homefront presents a scenario were North Korea has forged a new powerful state in Asia and defeated the USA by using an emp weapon and begins a brutal occupation. There are strong scenes which pull at emotional heart strings and the premise is excellent, but the game wholly fails to achieve its potential on every front. The story has you as a voiceless pilot who is rescued by the resistance. Upon joining your rescuers you embark in a dull 4 hour campaign against the Korean occupiers. The story fails to make the player attached to any of the characters the game focuses upon, and the few dramatic moments that the game does have fall flat as a result. There is an interesting chain if events that the game establishes as having taken place which resulted in the decline of the west and the new power of unified Korea, but this is only explored in newspaper clippings you find as collectibles and in the games 1 cut scene at the start. The opening of the game involves the player character-Jacobs- forced onto a bus and as you are driven through the area you witness parents being shot in front of their children and people being brutally oppressed. This strong intro is never matched again, and overall the games story is poorly told and lacks any impact when it should be great.
The graphics are well below what one would expect from a major game in 2011. The character models look very poor and misshapen, the colour scheme is all greys and browns, the textures are blurry and completely lacking in detail and the environments are drab and all remarkably similar bar the last 2 levels. The sound fares no better, with poor dialogue and voicing. Many of the guns sound wrong, and different from their real life counterparts. The sound design is also very poor, as it cut out on me a few times. A character would be in mid sentence and then just stop, the environmental sounds would drown out the music or speech and other problems make the sound feel generally poor and well below what should be in a finished product for sale at full price.
The shooting is very similar to battlefield or cod. However, its all too easy and lacking. The game is extremely linear and scripted, and there is never any doubt where you have to go as the game funnels the player through its scripted and frustrating scenes. The enemies make heavy use of cover, but beyond that they are unable to use tactics. The friendly AI is equally poor, and cause immense frustration when they take the best cover spots, and refuse to move out of your way. The spread of check points is also very poor and can lead to some very frustrating replays of sections. The whole game is made up of shoot outs like this, with the exception of a vehicle section in the late game. The multiplayer is by far the best part of the game, and it is still far below Call of Duty or Battlefield. Its a class based ranking system complete with perks. The problem is it runs far less smoothly than other shooters on the market and the levels are equally poor. Having said that, it is fun with a group of friends, just pray that all your friends bought the game new as without a code you cannot advance beyond level 5, in a disgusting ploy to get more sales and kill the second hand market. While 2nd hand sales damage developers and publishers, this is not the way to combat it, as this locks players out of integral aspects of games, and in Homefront's case the best part of the game.
The environments show destroyed urban american areas, and thats about it. There are some impressive set piece areas like the golden gate bridge and a base ball pitch with a dark twist but the vast majority is just street combat and this gets annoying fast. The game is also filled with disgusting advertising from the likes of hooters, Lumber Liquidators and Tigerdirect all feature prominently. This is distasteful and downright disgusting for a game that THQ expect you to pay for. Coupled with a miserable 4 hour campaign Homefront is a huge and utter letdown.
Homefront is a game with a great concept implemented horribly. The story and narrative are awful, and the graphics and sound are riddled with problems. The level design is boring and scripted, and the campaign is a chore to play at times. Its a 4 hour game and in-game advertising makes it all feel cheap and underhanded. This is a great example of how not to make a game, and Homefront is only saved from the bin by a competent multiplayer component. With a full price tag there is no way I can recommend this game to anyone. If you want to play a shooting game, play Killzone, Call of Duty or Battlefield. This game is a cheap imitation of those genre greats and pales in comparison to them.
Pros:
- Good concept
- Events which lead to the occupation are interesting
- Competent online game
Cons:
- In game advertising in copious amounts
- A code is required to advance beyond level 5 in multiplayer
- Bad graphics and sound
- Story lacks emotion, attachment or impact
- 4 hours long
- Heavily scripted and poorly designed levels
- Miserable copy of better FPS games
- Awful AI both friendly and enemy
- Bad ending leaves it open for a sequel
- Online pass is a show of pure greed from THQ
Wtf:
- Korean barbecue???
- 3/10
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