7.5

Homefront

Wow. Imagine our world in the not too distant future. In this world, Korea has united and become a world beating force. In fact Korea has taken over practically the entire world, including the United States of America. A small group of resistance remains scattered through the country which is in disarray due to the lack of electronic communication. Citizens are being herded like cattle and there are mass graves filled with bodies. This is America, welcome to the Homefront.

This is a game that if you are not prepared to get into some damn confronting footage then you really need to give this a miss. Kaos (the developer) have not welched on what they believe needs to be shown in order to get you believing in the story and feeling that there is a cause to fight for.

I got off to a weird sort of start with this game. It uses the Unreal Engine and to great effect. My first session with the game was a hour and a half stint and to be honest I was not impressed. The game felt weird as though something was missing and to now I am not sure what it was. It was an uncanny feeling that I'd been here before, though not with such a hardcore storyline.

Fast forward a day and round two of Homefront. What's this on the Playstation Network waiting for me? Oh, a 189mb patch for the game. Now to be honest with the game and you, I have NO idea what the update was for, I simply allowed it to download and install. Time to get playing.

I'm not sure what the download did but things seem a bit smoother. The storyline is fantastic and compelling enough to make you want to come back and keep playing. I still have some reservations about certain things such as the audio. I have a very good surround set up and for the most part I was pretty unconvinced by the sounds of gunfire or explosions. Sound for the most part was pretty darn good though with convincing surround effects taking place.

The graphics in the game shine in my opinion. Textures are sweet and full of detail. The animations of both players and non player characters are great. The AI on the enemy at times was frustrating with enemy troops waiting to be shot and at other occasions seemingly invincible even on the lower difficulty settings. It's not what I would consider an "easy" game and I did respawn on many occasions. It is a testament to the game that you simply want to persist and get through trouble spots.

One ordinary thing about this game is that there are a LOT of invisible walls  in the world. Too many things that you just can't access even though you are staring straight at them. Things that you want to explore, that you get just so far up to, and then can go no further. It's frustrating and something that I only encountered in the last Medal of Honor game. Another issue was that the game makes you wait for non player characters to progress through barriers before you can. It's symptomatic that the developers have focussed too much on knowing what has been scripted as opposed to simply thinking like a gamer who maybe wants to plow into a gunfight. You should have a choice either way and sadly it's not given to you.

Online is a hell of a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to get into. If you have played any other first person shooter online then you will have no problems with this one. There are a variety of modes to choose from, but for the most part they all play really well. I did like that you can earn credits in game that allow you to make choices as to what sort of game you will play. Another feature that I like about online is that you can choose whether you will spawn on foot or vehicle. There are multiple vehicles to choose from and also your standard assortment of character types for this genre.

Is Homefront worth buying? Yes I do think it is. From a storyline point of view, it's one of the better shooters that I've played in some time. It's a solid enough game that has its flaws. There have been better on the market in terms of technical prowess and overall well thought out gameplay options, however it's certainly worth experiencing. The online component will increase the value of your buy considerably, giving this game a very considerable amount of replay time, even if just in multiplayer.

Tory Favro