As the self proclaimed Call of Duty killer, Homefront places you in an alternate future where North Korea has developed and empire and has invaded the United States. You play as Robert Jacobs, a civilian in Colorado who is captured by North Korean troops and sent off to a re-education camp in Alaska. On the way to Alaska your bus is attacked by the resistance and they quickly hand you a gun and offer you a place in the army. It is up to you and the resistance to stop the Koreans before it is too late and America is lost.
The story was written by author John Milius who was also responsible for writing and directing Red Dawn. Unfortunately the two stories are very much the same and this feels like a re- envisioning of Red Dawn rather than a new story in and of itself. Despite having a slightly recycled premise the story still manages to be engaging and produces a number of memorable moments throughout the campaign. There were a number of points where the grim face of war and occupation come across in shocking fashion. I can recall one scene where a young family are being harassed by North Korean troops. The family was broken up and the mother and father were pushed up face first against a wall. The small child they had with them was crying and calling out to his parents. The troops then made the parents knee facing the wall and killed them execution style while the child watched in horror. It was for the moments like that that really dragged an emotional response out of you and showed you the realities of war unlike most military shooters out there today. The setting as well was another strong point for this title. You are running through the ruins of a suburban landscape applying guerrilla tactics to weaken the enemy. This, for me, was an interesting environment to play in and took game immersion to a new level.
Another very strong element for this game were the multi player modes. The multi player is basically following the formula of success that its predecessors have discovered, but luckily it does it well. You level up, gain experience and unlock new weapons, perks and vehicles and it all feels really good. There are two main modes in the multi player which include team death match and capture and hold. Most maps are a medium size so sniping is an option for all those snipers but there are enough close quarter areas to satisfy those run and gunners out there as well. This will scratch an itch for veterans of first person shooters that are getting tired of Black Ops and are looking for something similar.
There were elements of single player campaign that really didn’t work for me. The fact that the campaign wasextremely short was among one of the top reasons. You could finish the campaign in about 5 hours or so which is half the normal amount of time a single player campaign should take. Since the game was so short the campaign ended rather abruptly and left the player a little flat especially when they did a nice job on the story. I also felt that the characters were very shallow and by the end you really didn’t care for them much one way or another.
Another big disappointment were the graphics, especially in the multi player. If this game was a launch title for the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 you would consider this a beautiful game. Unfortunately we are well outside the launch window and there are studios out there pushing this hardware to the limit. As a consequence this game does not keep the standard of graphics that have been been for this point in this generation of consoles. This game looks pretty poor and especially with objects in the distance, they are almost indistinguishable from the backgrounds. This really hurt the game, and for me, took me out of the story several times.
Lastly, the story and the setting really felt out of sync. It is a rare development that a first person shooter spends the resources to create an environment that is this engaging yet when the game was over you get the feeling that so much more could have been done to make this a better game. It is really disappointing to see this excellent premise wasted on such a linear shooter. Especially with all the money they spent to market and promote this game, THQ could have made sure this was a better product by expanding the story.
Overall Homefront is a mixed bag of potential. The setting and the premise were excellent and of rare quality for the genre. An above average multi player helps to round out your experience with the game and really lends itself to feeding the hunger for the next great first person shooter. Unfortunately the game is very limited on a number of fronts and holds this title back from being in the upper echelon of titles for 2011. When taken for the sum of its parts it settles in realm of mediocrity and all forward marketing momentum is lost after the first 20 minutes of the game. Despite those shortcomings I would recommend you play this game though I would not recommend you pay full retail price for this game. The online community is strong enough for this game that I would say wait a few months till the price comes down to a more reasonable level.
RATING 6/10
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