Rating of
2.5/5
War Fatigue
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/15/15
Homefront came out of the gate and earned pretty much mediocre reviews across the board. I waited until I could pick this up for around the $10 mark, just because I knew how short the game was and how mostly generic it comes across. Pretty much everything I heard came true - this is a pretty generic shooter and the only thing that keeps it from earning an even lower grade is the interesting alternative history take on the story. If you need a basic shooter to get by - it does the trick, just make sure you get it for cheap.
Presentation: Nothing special. The game doesn't look particularly polished with a lot of jaggies in the background. Characters are overly generic as far as military shooters go - and even when one or two die, you just don't feel much for them. There is little background given to their stories, really. Pretty much everything feels generic here, from the setting to the dialogue to the characters to the music to the enemies - there are attempts to shock with some of the violence, but other than that, it falls pretty much flat.
Story: The bright point is the interesting take on crafting the story. A unified Korean government (brought to fruition by Kim Jong-un) at first seems like it will lead to a better future. But soon he consolidates power in the Greater Korean Republic (GKR). A war in the Middle East causes oil prices so skyrocket, seriously affecting the global economy. In the U.S., the military is scaled back as they face their own economic crisis, as they remove most of their forces from the Pacific, and the GKR takes this opportunity to bring Japan under their heel. Despite world-wide outrage, nothing much is done. The U.S. faces more devastation as their financial institution collapses and they face a bird flu pandemic. The GKR launched a "peace" satallite that is, in actuality, a weapon they launch it and a nuclear explosion creates an EMP that knocks out power to America and they invade. Hawaii falls, and becomes a staging location, the Western U.S. is conquered while a large section of the midwest becomes an irradiated wasteland and people in the East are forced to survive on their own. Of course a resistance forms - and groups fight back against a seemingly insurmountable enemy. You are a pilot - a hot commodity and, as the game opens, are being rounded up with some other people of interest - all around you see people getting shot or shipped off - but rescue comes and you find yourself as part of the Montrose, Colorado resistance circa 2027. The plan is to tag a group of trucks at a fuel depot, steal a helicopter from a Utah "survivalist" group and hijack the convoy to deliver it to the remnants of the U.S. army for an all-out attack in San Francisco.
The game uses a clever tool in finding various newspaper clippings (spanning from 2010 to present) and let you know just how this alternative history plays out. Also, I found the short little pieces of information presented when you die (various individuals fighting or surviving) almost more compelling than the game itself. Granted, seeking out all the newspapers (61 total) is a bit of a scavenger hunt (hilarious when team members are yelling at you to "form up" and "move out" while I wander the area, looking for information). An interesting alternative history take that almost, but not quite, justifies getting the game.
Gameplay: Basis generic shooter all the way - there are guns everywhere. Enemies drop them - pistols, rifles, shotguns and, on certain occasions, rocket launchers and sniper rifles. You also have the requisite grenades. Levels are straight-forward for the most part - not much exploration (aside from finding the various news clippings). A few levels have you driving or flying - and also controlling a remote control tank-like vehicle. There is some variety, but even so, not enough to make it very memorable. Even worse, the game froze up on me on two occasions that left me no choice but to hard reset it. Bodies would flop around with bad physics and it just felt really unpolished. Nothing to see here that wowed me.
Replayability: There is the ability to play on tougher difficulties as well as earn the Ironman trophies for not dying/continuing levels - there was multiplayer, but since the THQ has been sold, it's pretty much DOA.
Overall: Generic shooter all the way. It's short, and with the multiplayer aspect gone, even with a somewhat interesting story, it's certainly not enough to justify spending much money on it.
Presentation: 2/5
Story: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 2.5/5
Replayability: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
