Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Homefront is a brand new IP developed by the makers of Frontline: Fuel of War, Kaos Studios. Many people have been anticipating this game. While Homefront is a good title there are a few things that keep it from being anything more than just good. Let's start with the campaign mode.


Story 7/10

Homefront takes place in 2027. Unlike most other First Person Shooters, Homefront is set in the United States of America. Over the last 16 yrs Korea has become the superpower of the entire world. North Korea and South Korea has united together to become Unified Korea. The United States has suffered an economic downfall. The Unified Korea has now invaded the United States of America. You are part of a small resistance who are a part of the bigger picture. The main goal for your resistance is to help the United States military by bringing fuel from Colorado to the Golden Gate Bridge. This is where the resistance and the United States military plan on making a huge offensive attack. You are a prior military chopper gunner and have four squad mates with you, Boone, Connor, Rianna and Hopper. Boone is the resistance leader; Connor is a prior military wildcard and is the bad ass of the group. Rianna is a hunter, and Hopper is a mechanic engineer. In the beginning you can tell Kaos Studios tries to show you how immoral an occupation is and how the Americans are fighting for their survival. They do a good job in the first chapter immersing you into the setting but after about an hour or two I found myself pretty bored with the campaign all together. The story had promise in the first chapter when you are being introduced to the resistance and are seeing the actions of the Koreans. Unfortunately after that Kaos Studios doesn't do a good job keeping you interested with their storytelling. After about 3 hours of playing I couldn't help thinking "I wish this campaign would be over?" Fortunately for me my wish was about to come true. This brings me to my next point. The campaign is extremely short. I finished it a little under 4 and half hours. Overall Homefronts campaign mode was a huge letdown for me because of its length and lackluster storytelling.

Multiplayer 8/10

Oh yes multiplayer, what most people will be buying this game for. The multiplayer in Homefront is pretty solid. Multiplayer has four different game modes, Ground Control and Team Deathmatch, Battle Commander Versions of these game modes. I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain to you what Team Deathmatch is. Ground Control is a game mode where teams have three objectives they must capture and control, after these are captured three more will be unlocked to be captured. Battle Commander Modes are the same thing but now there is an AI that assigns missions to players to kill other players who are playing well. For example if you are on three kill streak there will be a golden name above you and your enemies will be assigned to kill you. They will be awarded for killing you also. As you play better you play the more vulnerable you will become. This works vice versa also. If an enemy is playing very well you will be assigned to kill them. You will be awarded battle points for doing it. Battle Points are points you are awarded for during the game for doing certain things. You will be awarded battle points for basically everything you do. Killing enemies will earn you battle points but you will earn even more for completing objectives or destroying vehicles etc. This encourages players to play as a team instead of just going around Rambo style trying to rack up kills. With these battle points you can buy things while you are playing such as flak jackets, vehicles, rpgs etc. This is a pretty unique system as it allows a player to fully customize his player. Unlike other games that just have preset classes and only let you switch your guns. Battle Points are separate from XP. XP are just the points you get to level up so don't get the two confused. As you level up you will unlock more weapons and also more things to use your battle points toward. Homefront supports up to 32 players online and the maps are huge. Overall the multiplayer is pretty solid and will keep you entertain for a while.


Gameplay 7/10

Homefronts gameplay was pretty decent. There are a few different weapons in this game. Nothing really stands out as spectacular though. Grenade throwing is kind of weird. When you throw a grenade your player kind of throws a line drive. The controls are pretty good as they are similar to other FPS games so you won't really have any issues with them here. Like I said there isn't anything notable in this department. The gameplay is just like you would expect in a FPS, explosions and gunfights around every corner especially in the last two chapters. One thing that was pretty cool though flying in the helicopter. Overall the gameplay exactly what anybody would expect from a military FPS.

Graphics & Sound 7/10

Visually Homefront isn't really that impressive. There are some issues here that have to be addressed. The textures for NPCs are horrible. Your squad mates don't really look that bad, but other non-main character NPCs look really bad. I took the time out to just go and look at other characters while playing and some of the textures and detail just aren't up to par at all. There are some environments that do look pretty decent, mostly the areas with a lot of light. There are also are some graphical pop-ups noticeable here too. Sometimes when I was playing I would just see and enemy just pop-up in front of my face. Sometimes a glitch will come up here and there. For example sometimes some of my teammates were shooting with no gun in there hand or just running in place. Homefront also has some stops and slowdowns. The game will sometimes just stop completely for a second or two and during high intensity parts there will be a few slowdowns. I played this game while it was installed to my HDD also. I recommend you install it also or it may run even worse .The sound is also subpar. The voice acting could have been done way better. Sometimes your squad mates sound weird and unrealistic when they are talking. During combat they will often repeat the same things over and over again. The biggest disappoint to me was the gun sounds. Some gun sounds just simply sound weak. Some of them are so quiet you will think you have a silencer. Kaos Studios could have done a much better job in both of these departments.

Final Verdict 7/10

Pros
+Battle Point System
+32 players Online
+Helicopter Chapter

Cons
-Lackluster Campaign
-Disappointing Sounds
-Graphical Details

Homefront is a decent game. Unfortunately there are a lot of missed opportunities especially in the campaign. If Kaos Studios plans on making this a series this is a solid start. Hopefully in the next entry the improve graphics, glitches, and the campaign. Some people will love this game others will hate it. I recommended a rent before you buy to see which side of the fence you fall on before you throw 60 bucks at it.