Homefront: Review

Today first-person shooters are conquering the video game domain the way reality shows do the television. Thus, both these domains are saturated with products of these categories, and it is not an easy thing for a new offering to push through and get noticed among all this variety.

In order to hit success the new game should offer something special, and not only in the way is it played but also in its settings and plot. The events in Homefront unfold in the USA, fallen a victim to a number of hard-hitting events that have shatter its economy and reputation and made the country largely unrecognizable. A country, called Unified Korea, takes advantage of such vulnerable and exposed condition of the USA and launches a massive attack on the very heart of the country. Homefront is not a regular war shooter in the typical sense.

Great effort has been invested into making its world feel as real as possible. For instance, the player will not encounter here any large- scale battles, instead the enemy will be fought in seized warehouses, abandoned cul-de-sacs, and survivalist compounds. Neither Homefront shies away from explicit acts of violence, such as horrific murder scenes or any other of war realities.

The single-player mode of the game has an inexcusably short campaign (which is a lot of fun) and in no way deserves to be paid the $60 it costs. The seven chapters of the campaign can be completed in five hours at most, and the majority of players will be quite satisfied with a single playthrough and wouldn’t like to have a second one. Multiplayer- with its two modes of Team Deathmatch and Ground Control – is the absolute opposite to the single-player mode and offers a lot of fun and things to do.

Based on old ideas these modes, nevertheless, feel fresh and exciting, largely due to the way of scoring, by which points gathered as a team are preferred to those, gathered through individual kill. There are also accessories, weaponry, vehicles and customization to mess around with. Every activity in this mode has "Battle Points" (or BP) attached to it, that is used to level up the player’s character and unlock new options accordingly.

Homefront cannot be considered an elite shooter of a new generation and will not make you think differently about shooters in general, as it sounds and looks old, as well as has some technical hiccups. Yet, players will be quite comfortable with it.