Homefront

Homefront is one of those games that tries to reach the a certain height, but in the end it only seems to have reached about half way up what they were aiming for and promised, which makes this game feel like quite a bunch of failed potential. There’s not much to the game with a rather lackluster single player and a Call of Dutyesque multiplayer adds to an underwhelming experience. It’s sad to me as I’m a huge fan of 1984’s movie Red Dawn, so when I heard that it the story was being written by the same writer/director I hoped that it would be a similar experience, but it was not to be. The main problem is what was promised; THQ pushed ads for this game like there was no tomorrow. Bus ads, billboards, magazine covers and exposes, this felt like this was THQ’s answer to Call of Duty. They even released 100’s of red balloons into San Francisco which pissed a lot of people off but still was impressive in a dickish kind of way. But sadly what we got felt like a half-assed version, that’s not to say it sucked (I’m a sucker for “Invasion America” games) but it’s not what we were told we would get. But onward to what the game has in it.

The story is set to a background of a potential future were North Korea has gotten it’s shit together and in the years following 2011 and the death of Kim Jong-Il, (I started this review around summer 2011, now it’s feels kind of creepy with the death of Kim Jog-il) a series of events starts to comes unfold that brings a unified Korea under Kim Jong-un (son of Kim Jong-il) that results in a unified Korea being thrust to the forefront of power in Asia. They eventually start swallowing up Japan and many others of the Asian/Pacific nations which adds insult to injury to the United States which is already hurting via its failing economy (such a $20 gas). The United States pull all of its military forces back which culminates in a Korean invasion of the weakened and fragile United State in 2025 and a complete occupation. Though Europe falls to help us for some reason, it seems like they would have our back or at least Russia (those two haven’t gotten along since a falling out during the Korea War) though at the end there’s news cast that has Europe finally thinking about helping (assholes) which leads to the single player which starts about two years after the invasion within the occupied United States.

The single player puts you in the silent protagonist boots (original) of a Untied States Marine Corp pilot (not ex, there’s no such thing as a”Ex-Marine) named Robert Jacobs (unique) who is rescued from is shitting hole in the wall life in an occupied town in Colorado by the local resistance movement in town and you start helping them in there noble cause of overthrowing the Korean occupiers from American soil, and from a main story point that’s about. Throughout your journey of freedom, you fight the faceless Korean horde throughout ruined American suburbia, mixing in cul-de-sacs, a faux Cost-Cos, and a work/refugee camp out of high school stadium (complete with a “Go Wolverines”). The areas do have great atmosphere and add the feeling of this world of a ruined and occupied United States. Unfortunately though most of the areas of very liner style with limited flanking or maneuvering outside what the game lets you do, which kind of makes you out of the feel and reminds you that you’re playing a game. Adding to the limiting tactics the graphics of the game often show poorly to about 3in the draw distance making everything that’s more than a few yards ahead seem fuzzy which takes you out of the action and again makes you realize you’re playing a game.

In the way of A.I , joining you in the cause of freedom is three shitty A.I teammates (more on that in a sec) which help you in your missions to which they are the standard war story archetypes of a trio, you basically have with the aggressive one, the passive one and the passive-aggressive one, they have really come without any change or depth to them causing you to have very little attachment to them if something terrible happens to them it doesn’t have the full emotional impact that it should have. But these are about the only members of the resistance that you really need to remember as although you meet a bunch of them at their headquarters called the “Oasis” those guys have little to no effect on the story at all which kind of makes it seem like the resistance is made of 3-4 people. .

Adding to this lack of friendlies is the really poor friendly A.I your teammates possess, which especially shows up when the combat arises. When the bullets start flying they get in your way constantly while totally half-assing it with the fighting and seem to take a step back in intelligence, I’ve had several occasions were an enemy soldier was able to get past our lines even though one of my team mates was several feet away and completely ignoring him and resulting in my ass getting shot off. (Asshole) The Korea soldiers you face share the same level of tactical intelligence often standing still, not taking cover or straight up rushing towards a wall of lead. This added to all of them seeming to share the same uniform (camo with a face shield for some reason) and a lack of variety to the enemies (you got your standard, sniper, heavy, and elite) which all together makes it feel like you’re shooting Stormtroopers or robots rather than enemy soldiers. I know other games how similar cookie cutter enemies but it just feels more apparent in Homefront, maybe they face you can’t see so many of their faces does something to you.

Really the story is great in its concept but the problem is the execution being the story and gameplay doesn’t get any deeper than what I’ve told you. It was pushed as “emotional” and “deep” and even though there are many chances to do some of that as the game does have some emotional impacting moments throughout the game such as a people being gunned down in front of their children, a mass grave they all come and go quickly and feel like there only there to pull the heart string and they quickly go back to shooting faceless Koreans, making them all feel wasted and pointless in the grand scheme of things.

Last but not least is the multiplayer portion of Homefront. Which in its execution sort of makes up for the so-so single player experience. It’s a slick and well-made format that seems to be an attempt to be a matching force the behemoth of “Call of Duty” but it sadly falls short but it does comes off as a good attempt at it. The player has access several classes mixing the limited customization of Battlefield Bad Company 2 with the ability to add “perks” like Modern Warfare and like both of those games it has a basic but effective persistent ranking system that givens unlocks to new ranks such as weapons, support items and upgrades.

The Multiplayer experience is pretty basic with a team death match and capture static sections of the map but with 32 player (16 to a team) makes a match feel pretty intense with massive firefight across maps such as cul-de-sac, a suburb, a highway section and farm. The multiplayer maps put you in various areas modeled after parts of the single player expect instead of the Resistance you have the United States Army fighting the Korean People’s Army head on with some maps giving you access to vehicles such as tanks, Humvees, a APC and helicopters. These maps range from wide open to close quarters and vary as some have vehicles that you can buy with battle points. Battle points are a currency in this game, when a player makes a kill or takes an objective that gain said points which can be used to buy support items such as airstrikes or attack drones and the use of upgrades like flak vests or an RPG. Heavy items like the use of tanks, helicopters or airstrikes can be high so if you intend to use them the player must save them up and they can only be used in the same round and cannot be moved over to the next match.

In-conclusion, the game in is whole is a bit of a letdown. What I feel Homefront was trying to convey was your homeland (if America) under attack, and while at times it does feel emotional at seeing my homeland under attack, it becomes quickly lost at the seemed over the top ness of it making it seem like it’s by an entire army of cold emotionless assholes. I know you need to make the enemy someone you want to hate but the as I said, the Korean soldiers seem less human and more like the Stormtroopers or robots with their mix of faceless ness, expendability, numbers and evilness. As a Red Dawn fan I wanted the same kind of experience of a gung ho story of a rag-tag group of Americans fighting some godless commies on American soil, but instead we get a short story and lackluster action mixed with forgettable characters and missed opportunities only saved by a decent and well-made multiplayer. I hear there making Homefront 2 so I hope THQ can learn from the mistakes of the first one and make the second what the first should have been.

The Good* The Concept

* The Multiplayer

The Bad

*The Execution

*Game A.I

The Ugly

* Failed Expectations