In the alternate history of Homefront: The Revolution, America is on its knees, utterly dominated by a foreign invader--its landmarks destroyed, its resources pillaged, its people subjugated. This unsettling future makes for an evocative, ambitious premise, but the resulting shooter can't quite live up to that potential, in part because it suffers from a larger than average number of mild but persistent technical issues. In the interest of providing a fair and thorough review, we've decided to hold our final verdict until I've had more time to test the game on Xbox One and PC, as I spent the majority of my time playing on PS4.
To be clear, Homefront never once crashed on me. My save data never got corrupted, my system never locked up--nothing that drastic. However, every single time the game autosaved--which happens constantly during the campaign--the screen would freeze for a solid two seconds. During several of the more chaotic moments, the framerate struggled to keep up, occasionally slowing all the way to a sputter. More than once, all the audio besides a character's dialogue cut out entirely. And along the way, I noticed dozens of smaller imperfections, like my character's hand clipping through a door every time a particular animation played.
None of these issues rendered the game unplayable. In fact, I was generally able to look past these problems and appreciate everything Homefront does right. Its story-driven single-player campaign, for example, manages to feel rich, substantial, and varied, with only a handful of tedious fetch quests padding the proceedings. I was constantly thrown into new areas that not only looked fresh but demanded new types of play as well. After starting in a severely bombed out section of Philadelphia--which hero Ethan Brady seeks to liberate from the fictional Korean People's Army--I eventually ended up in a sunny, tree-lined neighborhood, a foggy wasteland filled with toxic gas, and a massive Arkham City-style prison.
The narrative guiding you through all these areas is predictable and borderline jingoistic at times, but the shooting mechanics are punchy and enjoyable in a very Far Cry kind of way. Every weapon in your customizable arsenal delivers impactful hits that leave your enemies staggered and bleeding. Granted, these bad guys aren't the brightest bunch, but they're plenty threatening in large numbers, and they've got unmanned tanks and security drones and these giant attack blimps...it's crazy.
Homefront also offers stealth options--including the ability to distract and lure enemies with firecrackers, for example--but the results were often inconsistent. I was spotted through a wall more than once, and I found sprinting away from an enemy before his awareness meter fully filled was somehow less suspicious than crouching in the shadows just on the edge of his line of sight. And once your enemies are alerted, ending the alarm can easily devolve into a protracted and frustrating process since hiding spots are rare in certain areas.
While the single-player campaign gives you plenty of ways to use all these tools--for better or worse--the completely separate co-op campaign offers only six missions total. You can replay them at any of three different difficulty levels, but even then, most missions can be completed in roughly 10 to 15 minutes. And unlike the campaign, you can't choose which weapons and attachments you acquire as you progress. Instead, you must blindly purchase a loot crates filled with random unlocks. So far, that's proven frustrating and pointless, but I plan to spend more time in the co-op campaign as I test Homefront on PC and Xbox One. Check back later this week to see if the ambitious premise and robust campaign are enough to compensate for the game's technical shortcomings and mixed mechanics.
