Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC
Genre: FPS/Action
Developer/Publisher: Kaos Studios/THQ
Release: 11/03/2011
The first person shooter genre is oversaturated with content. Look away for a second, and by the time you look back, another shooter will have sprung up from nowhere. The truth is shooters are becoming the second go to genre for the casual player, placed very closely after football games (Fifa we are looking at you.)
Because of mainstream popularity, streams of generic first person shooters bombard the game shelves; we live in a time where developers have to do something extraordinary to get their game noticed.
Homefront was born out of the desire to do just that; offer an exciting experience in an unfamiliar setting, one that would challenge not just your gaming ability but your sensibilities as well. In the most part, Kaos studios have achieved this goal, but is the shooting in this shooter actually any good?
Firstly, the game is unforgivably short. For a seasoned gamer this experience could last under five hours; a huge shame because of the unique concept and setting the game offers. If it wasn’t for the decent multiplayer mode and the smart timing of release (with no other new multiplayer shooters out for a while), the game would have failed miserably.
for all you fans of heads on spiky sticks, don’t worry you won’t be disappointed
The year is 2027, and Korean forces occupy the USA, after an impressive cuttings video explains the history behind the conflict, you are thrown straight into the action. Taking control of a soldier in a small resistance group, you fight your way to San Francisco through hoards of Korean troops. This is the main selling point of Homefront; it’s a game that isn’t set in a dusty city somewhere in the Middle East, but is instead set in the supermarkets and suburbs of a well known American town. The story is original and they pave it out as if it is a realistic possibility. The rag-tag group of freedom fighters you act alongside are fairly well developed personalities; as a consequence you do care if something happens to them.
Kaos studios were clearly aiming to shock the audience and the content of the set pieces in this game do just that. Without spoiling too much, the game opens up with a half-life style bus ride through occupied San Francisco, allowing you to witness all the atrocities that the Korean forces commit. Think of every war crime possible, this game has them committed in spades; and for all you fans of heads on spiky sticks, don’t worry you won’t be disappointed. Again, this is a reason why Homefront successfully pulls you in to the experience; you really do want to fight against your oppressors. Kaos studios has done a fantastic job in making the enemy incredibly hateable.
Once the action starts it never stops, and as the intense set piece moments pulled me through the experience I never once felt bored. This is why I was so disappointed with the short length; because I loved playing this game. My flatmate sat and watched me play the whole way through, exclaiming ‘this is better than a movie!’ and more than once I caught him screaming at the screen, as a grenade landed near my feet. The cinematic experience is like no other, helped along by the impressive musical score, but in spite of the slightly dated graphical engine.
Lest we forget this game is a shooter, it’s about time to talk about the actual game mechanics. Unfortunately, the originality of this game has done well to hide a slightly underdeveloped shooter. While there is a fair selection of weapons to choose from, they all fit with the generic selection of weapons that every other shooter has to offer: sub machine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers etc. Like any other shooter, you aim your weapon down the sites and pull the trigger, ending the evil rein of your opponent. In Homefront the guns are incredibly accurate, but in reality an untrained resistance fighter group would probably not be this attuned to combat, and for me this cheapens the realism behind the experience.
As you don’t have the might of the military behind you, access is limited to special weaponry and ammunition runs thin, I found myself scrambling around for weapons on the floor all the way through the game, this added yet another unique feel to the experience; shooting became about accuracy and conservation rather than all out bullet spraying. Some of the standout moments in the game include the Goliath, the huge remote controlled car with rocket launchers. The Goliath is kind of like Half Life 2’s Dog; for some reason (even though it’s just a mechanical car) you feel affection towards the lethal metal mass. You control it by pointing it towards enemies and watching them explode, it clumsily bounds around the street knocking over anything its way; a fantastic and chaotic experience.
I was never blown away by the choices of the enemy AI; they would duck down in the appropriate places and I would wait and shoot at the appropriate times. Your AI partners however are a different story; they were almost too intelligent and could often clear a room before you were even alerted to an enemy’s presence. The controlled character often feels heavy, and there is often a sense that the camera is in fact moving around the character model like the old days of the NES. Though this won’t be the case, the feeling still remains, playing as a floating gun and hand didn’t feel special when you put too much thought into it. In the shooters of recent years, the locales often jumped from place to place, and though this made sure the setting was never boring, it would regularly confuse the plot. Homefront benefits hugely from not including this jumping about, helping the simple story to flow neatly. Although the game can appear to be quite linear, it’s actually refreshing to go from point A to B to C, rather than A to D to K then back to D again.
The Homefront campaign is a hugely satisfying experience, and despite its mechanical flaws in the shooting sections the and short running time, I can’t help but feel very fondly towards it. It isn’t the half Life style experience we were initially promised, but an incredible setting and unique plotline really pull you through the experience. The ending welcomes what could be a fantastic new gaming franchise; ‘Homefront: London’ anyone?
Verdict: 7/10
Female First Edward Lewis
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC
Genre: FPS/Action
Developer/Publisher: Kaos Studios/THQ
Release: 11/03/2011
The first person shooter genre is oversaturated with content. Look away for a second, and by the time you look back, another shooter will have sprung up from nowhere. The truth is shooters are becoming the second go to genre for the casual player, placed very closely after football games (Fifa we are looking at you.)
Because of mainstream popularity, streams of generic first person shooters bombard the game shelves; we live in a time where developers have to do something extraordinary to get their game noticed.
Homefront was born out of the desire to do just that; offer an exciting experience in an unfamiliar setting, one that would challenge not just your gaming ability but your sensibilities as well. In the most part, Kaos studios have achieved this goal, but is the shooting in this shooter actually any good?
Firstly, the game is unforgivably short. For a seasoned gamer this experience could last under five hours; a huge shame because of the unique concept and setting the game offers. If it wasn’t for the decent multiplayer mode and the smart timing of release (with no other new multiplayer shooters out for a while), the game would have failed miserably.
The year is 2027, and Korean forces occupy the USA, after an impressive cuttings video explains the history behind the conflict, you are thrown straight into the action. Taking control of a soldier in a small resistance group, you fight your way to San Francisco through hoards of Korean troops. This is the main selling point of Homefront; it’s a game that isn’t set in a dusty city somewhere in the Middle East, but is instead set in the supermarkets and suburbs of a well known American town. The story is original and they pave it out as if it is a realistic possibility. The rag-tag group of freedom fighters you act alongside are fairly well developed personalities; as a consequence you do care if something happens to them.
Kaos studios were clearly aiming to shock the audience and the content of the set pieces in this game do just that. Without spoiling too much, the game opens up with a half-life style bus ride through occupied San Francisco, allowing you to witness all the atrocities that the Korean forces commit. Think of every war crime possible, this game has them committed in spades; and for all you fans of heads on spiky sticks, don’t worry you won’t be disappointed. Again, this is a reason why Homefront successfully pulls you in to the experience; you really do want to fight against your oppressors. Kaos studios has done a fantastic job in making the enemy incredibly hateable.
Once the action starts it never stops, and as the intense set piece moments pulled me through the experience I never once felt bored. This is why I was so disappointed with the short length; because I loved playing this game. My flatmate sat and watched me play the whole way through, exclaiming ‘this is better than a movie!’ and more than once I caught him screaming at the screen, as a grenade landed near my feet. The cinematic experience is like no other, helped along by the impressive musical score, but in spite of the slightly dated graphical engine.
Lest we forget this game is a shooter, it’s about time to talk about the actual game mechanics. Unfortunately, the originality of this game has done well to hide a slightly underdeveloped shooter. While there is a fair selection of weapons to choose from, they all fit with the generic selection of weapons that every other shooter has to offer: sub machine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers etc. Like any other shooter, you aim your weapon down the sites and pull the trigger, ending the evil rein of your opponent. In Homefront the guns are incredibly accurate, but in reality an untrained resistance fighter group would probably not be this attuned to combat, and for me this cheapens the realism behind the experience.