Homefront

It's finally here. The game that's been getting a lot of attention for having a story written by John Milius, the famous writer of Red Dawn, and co-writer of Apocalypse Now. It's also a game that I've had several requests to review.
Far be it from me to deny my fans, so here it is! Enjoy!

Storyline - 5/5

Homefront takes place in America, in a not-too-distant year 2027. America is in crisis, in the grips of an economic shutdown, and finding itself occupied by a newly-formed Greater Korean Republic, uniting North and South Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-Un, son of the deceased Kim Jong-Il.

The game opens in the town of Montrose, Colorado, where the main character, a pilot by the name of Robert Jacobs, wakes to find himself being forcibly removed from his home by the Korean Occupational Police and placed on a bus heading to a facility to be "re-educated". On the way, the bus gets in a collision, and Jacobs finds himself a free man suddenly, where he is rescued by members of the resistance against the Korean Republic.



This is Oasis, one of the last remnants of freedom in the U.S.A.



This is the story of Robert Jacobs and his role in the fight to reclaim the former glory of the United States of America.

The cool thing about this story is that it's not too far-fetched to think this could actually happen in real life. It's a tale that hasn't been told before, and it really makes you think on the state of this country and the way it's being run.

Unfortunately, the single-player campaign is pretty short, clocking me in at around 8 hours to complete. However, I'm not counting it against the game this time. In fact, I've gotten to the point where I expect it.

Yeah, I'm gonna call it right here, right now: 8-10 hours is the new average of single-player campaigns for shooters.

Graphics - 3/5

The visuals in Homefront are decent. Character models are fairly well-rendered with more than enough detail to tell the characters apart.



"I quit playing Starcraft for this chicken-s*** outfit?!"

Environments are fairly pleasing to look at, with only the occasional imperfection; a bleeding color here or a jagged edge there. Whether you're ducking through an abandoned suburb, or what used to be a retail district, most of it looks like what you'd expect to come from a John Milius novel.

The rampant product placement is quite amusing, as well.

Guns are realistic and believable, with many real-life guns being given slightly futuristic variations. From the M9 Pistol to a SCAR-L, you'll see many of your favorites from other shooters you may play.



This is Goliath. He follows you like a puppy. A puppy that blows @#$% up.


Animation is where the game takes the biggest hit. Missing frames, skips, and even incomplete animations mar what could have been an excellent visual impact. Sometimes when you throw a grenade, the grenade flies before the character's hand shows. Character animations also look fairly jumpy and choppy. You may even laugh at Connor's many head seizures.

Audio - 4/5

Game audio is a pretty good package. Music is stirring and riveting, and gets you pumped when there's bullets flying everywhere.

Sound effects are pretty genuine-sounding, with recognizable gunfire effects and footsteps changing depending on whether you're walking on dirt, wood floors, or concrete. Ambient noise is also pretty good, when it's there.

Voice work is well done, with each character playing their role convincingly, working to draw you into the story and make you feel like a part of it. Everyone sounds like their own character, instead of "Resistance Soldier A", or "Korean Soldier B".

There's only two problems with the audio, and both of them are pretty minor and infrequent. The first is the random audio skips. Just cuts out sometimes for a second or two. The other one is that on rare occasions, some dialogue is spoken out of turn. As in, one character will start speaking before another is finished, or a question will be answered before the question is asked. Given the context of when this happens, I don't think it's intentional.

Gameplay - 4/5

Homefront plays just like every other shooter out there. You point, you shoot. You kill bad guys. There's nothing particularly new or ground-breaking here that sets it apart from other shooters. Which sometimes is a good thing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'm looking at you, Activision.

That being said, the controls work great. Button commands are tight and responsive, and the customizable sensitivity makes it great for all combat styles, with no lag or ignored commands. Everything is as it should be.




Fact: In the seconds before this scene, you can hear "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love" playing. Classic.


Online multiplayer is a pretty fun affair. You have your choice of the
32-Player Ground Control mode, which has you capturing and holding objectives for points, the 24-player Team Deathmatch mode, which naturally has two teams slaughtering the crap out of each other. If you're feeling random, you can drop it down to 16 players and go with the Skirmish mode, which alternates between the two.

Multiplayer combat is oftentimes fast-paced, frantic, and fun. Balanced weaponry and maps help to ensure that the skilled are rewarded, and the cheap punished.

Special weaponry is done on a points system. Using the armory system, you can select special weapons and items to equip. Once you have built enough points through kills and/or objectives, you can buy the ability to use these items on-the-fly to help you maintain or improve your battle efficiency.

This points system pretty much puts everyone on a level playing field, since you don't have to worry about killing a bunch of enemies in a row without dying in order to get to the good stuff. All you have to do is save your points in a match, and as long as you can get a few kills here and there, you can still be a significant contribution to your team, instead of a meat shield.

In fact, if there's only one negative thing to be said about the multiplayer experience, it's that there isn't enough of it. Maps are pretty few and it seems to be lacking a free-for-all mode. Outside of that, it has the potential to keep up with genre giants like Call of Duty and Halo.

Well, that's about all I got to say about that. Time for the short version.

Score

Storyline - 5/5 Excellent, if short, story written by none other than the great John Milius. They could probably make this into a New York Times Bestseller.

Graphics - 3/5 Decent character and weapon models and environments that are almost butchered by glitches, skips, and poor animations.

Audio - 4/5 Great music and sound effects, coupled with surprisingly good voice acting are a treat for the ears. Only problem is skipping and dialogue glitches.

Gameplay - 4/5 Doesn't break down any new barriers, but tight and responsive controls mixed with fun and balanced online multiplayer improves on the formulae that are already there.

Total - 16/20

All in all, Homefront is an excellent experience that's worth playing both online and offline. If you don't have your system hooked up to the internet, then just rent it for the story mode. If they just add a few more online maps and maybe toss in some more weapons to use, they would take me away from Call of Duty permanently. (Or at least until the new one comes out)

On a side note, I'd like to make a comment to EA.

Hey, you know what THQ calls the Koreans in multiplayer? That's right. They call them KOREANS. Nobody bought into your "Opposing Force" crap, and nobody wanted it. Next time you say you're going to stick with something, DO IT.

P.S.: Good luck on the lawsuit against Activision! If you're lucky, you'll see yourself in them, and realize how dumb you're being.

Anyway, that's it for this review. As always you can send questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, or requests to do a review at
grifsgamereviews(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Look forward to my next review!