Homefront review

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Homefront review

Posted 03/15/2011 at 6:18am | by Ryan McCaffrey

 

If Homefront’s frightening fictional possibility ever became real — North Korea rising to become a world superpower and occupying the United States — it’s reassuring to know that we can take back our country with just a four-hour struggle.

Homefront’s “The Koreans are coming!” story is credited to John Milius, and the writer/director clearly borrows from himself here, using tactics straight out of his own Red Dawn (1984) to drum up anger toward the virtual Koreans. Innocent U.S. parents are shot in front of their children, average folks are rounded up and sent to concentration camps, and baseball fields are dug up and used as mass graves for the bodies of murdered Americans.

It works. You’ll have no trouble pulling the trigger on the masked Eastern invaders, and these horrible acts are used to set up the short campaign’s shocking Call of Duty–esque scenarios and set-pieces. From the aforementioned mass graves to a firebombing attack in a shopping-mall parking lot gone awry, each big moment seems to be an answer to the question “What would Call of Duty do?” Heck, Homefront even copies its competitor’s basic gameplay formula: each scene introduces a new group of foes where you’ll pull LT to lock in on them with your iron sights, then fire with RT and repeat the pattern until the area is clear.

At least the game’s a really good Call of Duty clone, though. The visuals are laudable and the game runs smooth, while the multiple mini-climaxes do translate into fun gameplay experiences. But the campaign’s just never given time to develop because it’s over in a flash. Homefront begins in Colorado and makes its way to San Francisco, and before you know it you’re fighting the climactic battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. At one point, your view is directed toward the San Francisco Bay, where green smoke alerts you to the U.S. reclaiming Alcatraz. Gee, wouldn’t it have been fun if we could’ve been the ones to do that? And a bit earlier, it takes a mere 15 minutes to complete the sixth of the game’s seven chapters — an intense but blink-and-you’ll-miss-it helicopter chase.

We’re not normally huge sticklers about game length — we’d take an action-packed six-hour game over 10 padded-out hours any day — but we completed Homefront’s single-player game in just four hours. Even though all four hours are good ones, that really short length does damage this shooter’s value proposition.
Homefront’s multiplayer complement does its best to give you your money’s worth, however. It, too, borrows heavily from the Call of Duty playbook, but it does so with extreme precision while adding enough of its own flavor to give it an appealing and unique identity.

Summed up most succinctly, it’s Modern Warfare with Vehicles. By cashing in session-earned Battle Points (built up by earning kills or completing objectives), you can purchase everything from armor vests to rocket launchers to small drones to big Humvees, bigger tanks, and badass attack choppers. Smartly, you can even spawn directly into the side or gunner seat of an ally’s vehicle. Everything feels balanced and fair — not even the incredible Apache helicopter is immune to a coordinated riposte by the defense. Meanwhile, the Battle Commander feature enhances the moment-to-moment gameplay by highlighting the opposing team’s killstreak-iest players and doling out extra Battle Points if you happen to be the one on a roll. And Ground Control mode keeps all 32 players engaged by focusing the action on small sections of Homefront’s large, vista-tastic maps.

Under the hood, a matchmaking system makes it easy to group up, stick together, and find the matches you want, while dedicated servers are a welcome bonus that help ensure smooth games. All told, the online component has all the right ingredients, and it manages to mix them into a mighty tasty meal. Multiplayer rescues the abrupt campaign from a rent-it-and-forget-it fate, although we can’t help but be left a bit disappointed. We love Homefront’s fight-for-America premise — it’s rife with fascinating gameplay possibilities. But in this freshman franchise effort, that potential is never quite realized on the screen.

 

On Xbox 360

+ Polished, engaging multiplayer modes.

+ Some shocking, cool moments in single-player campaign.

- Said campaign is laughably short; game sticks close to the Call of Duty gameplay formula.

? What would really happen if gas hit $15/gallon? It’s a scary thought.

8.0

 

Related

Platforms:
Xbox 360
Games:
Homefront
Topics:
invasion, Kaos Studios, multiplayer, online, shooters, thq, Xbox 360
More like this:
15
+ Add a Comment
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X.2

July 03, 2011 at 12:50pm

I got homefront and it is very short and for the unlucky few that dont have onnline you get very little
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FenixTheFox93

April 24, 2011 at 12:55pm

Like Kaos's first game, Frontlines: Fuel of War, this was an underrated title, and it sucks that so many people are going to be too busy wasting away kissing Activision's ass and playing Call of Duty to notice just how good this game really is. The story was short, yes. But it was fun. And the multiplayer makes it the best modern shooter I've ever played by far. Shame that a lot of people are just going to overlook this great title, and all because it's not CoD, Battlefield, or Halo...
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Sixsnipes

April 17, 2011 at 3:41pm

the campaign's a little short but multiplayer and the graphics make it the best game I ever played
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Parksy1221

April 06, 2011 at 7:55pm

looks like overhyped and failure are a consensus. Recommend NOT wasting your money
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JudeDude92

April 04, 2011 at 7:48pm

I finally picked up my copy, and I really enjoy it. I really feel they delivered with this one, and personally, as much as I enjoy and trust Ryan's review, I think I would have placed this at an 8.5 at least. (Mind you: I didn't go in expecting this to replace COD or any other franchise) I just really like John Milius and his work, and this game really exemplifies his style.
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lhw692003

March 31, 2011 at 4:58pm

OVERHYPED AND WORST GAME EVER. SERIOUS SERVER PROBLEMS. WITH A FIVE HOUR CAMPAIGN AND RARE CHANCE OF FINDING A MATCH IN MULTIPLAYER I WOULD GIVE THIS GAME A 4.5 OUT RIGHT. PLUS THE GRAPHICS ARE WORSE THAN HALO COMBAT EVOLVED. THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A NEXT GEN GAME. 4.5 llucky13blue
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FenixTheFox93

April 24, 2011 at 12:59pm

@lhw692003 CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL! Unfortunately, even with cruise control, you still have to steer. Let me guess, you play CoD a lot. Like, a LOT. --- Proud Call of Duty hater. Hey, not my fault HomeFront's better!
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Sixsnipes

April 17, 2011 at 3:42pm

what are you talking about
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Parksy1221

March 30, 2011 at 1:05pm

Totally agree with taktoncho, the game feels and plays like an os was original xbox game. If this was an original xbox title it would be crazy, feels like Island Thunder. They should be ashamed of releasing this game and i would never pay $60 for a game that is barely acceptablein today's market. Graphics are crap, gameplay feels cheap, guns are terrible snipers are horrifyingly overpowered with no breathe influence and the list goes on and on! I am a MW fanboy and looking the next big thing and this craptacular show by THQ will ensure i never buy any of their games. There's an issue when the trade in value the day before the game was released is set at $20. No one else find that weird. 8/10 is far too generous and is going to make people mad they wasted their money, I'd give it 6/10 at best. Step up and rate it based on what's on the market. The campaign in ok but short. bullet damage and detecton is laughable, slightly worse than blops.
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SRF Golden Eagle

March 27, 2011 at 1:52pm

I must say, I don't feel like playing Call of Duty or anything like it in the near future. I'll just stick with Halo Reach and Dragon Age II. Besides, 4 hours?!? I don't care how good the story is, no 60 dollar game is worth 4 hours, even if the mutiplayer is good.
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Papa_Noel

March 18, 2011 at 5:22pm

Woo Hoo, Hooters! Bring on the chicks *cough* I mean um... chicken wings *wink*.
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taktoncho

March 17, 2011 at 7:35pm

You guys have got to be kidding... right? An 8.0 for this disaster? The graphics are what I would've expected in an early Xbox FPS, the control response is frustrating at best (which gets worse when you play on Xbox Live), and following Conner and Rianna around the ENTIRE game quickly became ridiculous. Also firing almost an entire clip into an online enemy, only to have him turn around and kill you with 2 shots is more than a glitch; it's my reason for selling the damn thing on craigslist today. I was a subscriber up until about 6 months ago to your magazine, now I'm glad that I'm not. Your reviews section was the only source that I used to judge which game I would purchase next. To be fair to OXM, I had already purchased the game before I read this article, but this is just the continued hype that suckered me into wanting to buy this game in the first place. Imagine how many other gamers OXM is disenfranchising by printing a review and an 8/10 score for this game.
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Papa_Noel

March 18, 2011 at 5:26pm

So taktoncho, you are hating soomeone for thier opinion? Thats the secont most retarted thing I've ever heard, let's see if we can get 2/2. Do you think 9/11 was a conspicary?
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JudeDude92

March 15, 2011 at 2:15pm

Without giving away the game, could DLC strengthen the single player campaign? Perhaps from other resistance fighter's perspectives? It's not like there's a lack of possibilities with the whole United States being invaded, there's plenty of opportunities for new characters to pop into the Homefront world. Or even let the player control somebody involved in other sieges? *cough* Alcatraz *cough*
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The Cowboy Man

March 15, 2011 at 2:59pm

I agree with JudeDude, dlc may fill in some blanks in the campaign. And I think they are already working on (if not finished) with some campaign dlc. A classic case of selling an 'ok' game and putting the rest of the content (that SHOULD have been included with the game) on marketplace. At least 360 gamer's will get it first.
 
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