With many notable shooters flooding the market, it’s hard for non-franchise shooters to capture our attention. Homefront, however, takes the traditional shooter formula and applies it to a highly believable setting, creating an intriguing experience for gamers. While it does have its shortcomings, Homefront pits gamers in a haunting American future with lots of cinematic moments.
The thing that stands out the most about Homefront is its presentation. The game is set in the future, where a unified Korea has invaded the United States. As such, the game has a dark atmosphere with a desperate undertone. The streets are in ruins and attacks come from all directions. There are many moments where the enemy suddenly bursts through a door and strikes you while shouting in a foreign tongue. Public executions are vivid and heart wrenching. Overall, the game does a really good job presenting a cinematic experience where the hopelessness is evident and sinks in. To further develop the story, you can collect newspaper clips throughout the game that elaborates how the United States came to be in this situation. The developers have gone to great lengths to ensure that the war feels real and believable, and I believe they do a better job at portraying modern warfare than other games.
The gameplay itself is linear and traditional. Most of the time you’ll be sprinting from cover to cover while zooming in on your scope and shooting down enemies. Weapons are what you’d expect in a typical shooter and the action is flat. Nothing new to see here. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even though Homefront doesn’t revolutionize the genre, it imitates most of the good things from other shooters to deliver fluid action. However, the single player gameplay doesn’t last long, as the campaign is painfully short. The developers, having done a great job at portraying such a harrowing world, leave you begging for more when the game ends.
There is a multiplayer, thankfully, as you’d expect. This too comes with the entire typical package. Earn experience points, level up, unlock weapons, modify your arsenal, and so on. Multiplayer is fast paced and fun, and the best part is the setting, as mentioned above. If you’ve played the campaign, the maps will seem familiar and evoke the distressing memories from the campaign. Will it garner a competitive crowd though? That remains to be seen.
Another complaint I had about the game is the graphics. Although the presentation is astounding, the graphics of Homefront is not up to the latest standards. I wasn’t expecting anything like Crysis 2, but it wasn’t even as slick looking as Modern Warfare 2, which is an older game. Most gamers will be able to look past this, especially the gamers who adore story and presentation more. However, with so many competitive shooters out there, Homefront really needed better graphics.
Homefront does a brilliant job at exposition by projecting a frightening futuristic America. For the setting alone, I’d recommend giving the game a try. The fact that it comes with multiplayer is really an added bonus. Hopefully, THQ and Digital Extremes will keep working on this game and bring us an expansion pack that expands on the story.