Good bad times!
User Rating: 8 | Homefront X360
early reviews turned me off, but i saw it was down to 19.99 the other day, so what the heck! and i was pleasantly surprised. i found the game to be immersive, gritty, interesting and fun. while gun feel is a bit light and sloppy and sound is a bit below par IMO, overall this is a very good experience. Goliath (a remote-controlled battle wagon) and helicopter sequences break up the on-foot action nicely. enemy AI is not particularly challenging throughout, but the fact you actually face two enemies - the North Korean People's Army AND crazed US Survivalists is a plus. the Koreans are depicted as basically a robotic, largely faceless enemy, but the US insurgents have some character – nasty and anarchistic. and those battles keeps things interesting. although graphics aren't state of the art by any means, they're not below par either. the devastated environments are nicely done and cool to explore. the final set piece battle is excellent but the overall SP campaign is disappointingly short.
multiplayer has the feel of a few games mashed together – 2007's Frontlines Fuel of War and Battlefield come to mind. enjoyable and fairly difficult. i've only done about 4 hours and have yet to get my KD anywhere near 1.00 since the vast majority of players have been playing this for many months. a lack of maps is noticeable, but the ones it has are nicely composed and fair to all. the leveling will feel very familiar even to first time players and in game purchase of perks for points is a nice, instantly gratifying feature. i'm finding well populated lobbies easily, but gaps between matches are a bit on the long side.
overall, if you held off like i did and could use a new challenge/story/enemy, you've got nothing to lose picking up Homefront today! the price is right and it's a good, solid shooter.
