Release Date: 15/03/2011
Played On: Win
Available On: PS3 / Win / XB360
Time Played: 3h 28m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Kaos Studios
Publisher: THQ
Like a lot of people in the world, I'm not American, which might seem a relatively banal thing to say, but games are pretty good at reminding me. Especially when the big shock of a first person shooter is that it takes place on American soil, which doesn't mean a whole lot in reality. Maybe it's shocking and interesting to have your home featured as a battleground, but if that's what you're whole game is riding on, you might need to rethink it for foreign audiences.
Such is the way with Homefront, which is a somewhat infamous shooter about Koreans invading and taking over the US. I say "infamous" as Homefront seemed to have a ridiculous marketing budget, and posters and banners appeared all over the place around the game's release. It presented itself like it was the next Call Of Duty, but ended up being a short little game with too many bugs.
Thankfully I didn't run into too many bugs in my playthrough, other than a couple of times when the AI bugged out and stopped responding. In those cases I had to reload an earlier checkpoint, but there wasn't anything that made me want to throw my keyboard or anything. Although if you get on YouTube and look around there are some hilarious videos of bad AI behaviour and buggy pathing.
The central premise in Homefront is that you are a pilot who gets caught up in the resistance who are fighting the Koreans. Apparently the US was already invaded and taken over by Korea, who then went about creating what essentially amounts to concentration camps and gulags. The setting is only about as interesting as any other urban warfare environment. There's something creepy about fighting a way in the suburbs, but those suburbs could be anywhere.
We've seen many urban environments in other games, but I have to admit that I was impressed with certain areas in Homefront. At one stage you get a nice view of a football stadium that's been converted into a camp for displaced people. The tents and makeshift dwellings are all crammed in together, under the shelter of the stadium that no longer seats an audience of revellers. I like scenes like this, even though it was nothing more than a scene, as you're quickly shunted away to another area.
Most of the time you're funnelled through corridors or streets with little room to move and explore. I don't mind though, as I enjoy linear shooters as much as any other kind, as it open up space for spectacular set piece events and impressive effects. It's like watching a blockbuster movie starring The Rock; I'm not there to see some great exposition and breadth of talent, I want to see things that make me go "wow".
Fortunately for gamers, there are loads of big fancy first person shooters out there to feed the endorphins in our minds. Something tells me that Homefront isn't one of them though, as it strikes a single note, then holds it until the credits roll.
That singular note in the game is that America has been invaded. The dialogue and plot are as corny as you might expect, and it leans hard on the fact that it's America that's been invaded. The whole time it felt like the game was interrupting me, only to remind me that it's super weird how America is the place that was invaded. The game is so obsessed with this point that they nearly forgot to put any game into their game to go along with the 'outrageous' setting.
Imagine then that you're me, and there's no difference between a shooter being set in Kabul, or Wisconsin. Either way it's some foreign place where things are different and people are shooting each other. Maybe I'd be super invested by a game set in my home town, but until that happens all of these games are making the same point. So when Homefront fails to make any other point throughout the entire experience, it ends up being paint-by-numbers boring.
Minor spoiler here, but there's even a point in the story where you're introduced to the good guys' sanctuary. You're encouraged to talk to all the residents, who are a mix of predictable survivors scrounging for essentials, but none of them have anything interesting to say. Then, a few missions later, you find that they've all been killed and you're meant to actually care. It's ham fisted at best, and moronic in reality.
You're also saddled with a couple of AI squad mates for the duration of the game, and they will yell at you and say nationalistic things whether you like it or not. One particular character sounds like he was given the voice direction of "yell everything because you're in the army", so he constantly yells every line like a good jarhead.
The story is pretty terrible, which is understandable in a modern military shooter, but so is the shooting. Guns feel light and flimsy thanks to poor feedback and sound design. Mowing down enemies with a big machine gun just doesn't have the impact it needs to really immerse you. I ended up swapping out weapons indiscriminately when I ran out of ammo, simply because they all felt the same to use.
One limited mechanic that Homefront introduces, is the use of a remote control tank/robot. In certain scenarios you can pull out a targeting reticule and paint targets for the tank-bot to engage. At times it looks pretty rad to see a tank barrelling around a map, taking out enemies left right and centre, but in reality it feels like nothing more than calling in an air strike and waiting for it to happen. Whenever the tank-bot rocks up, you know that you have to use him to clear out an area, otherwise you'll be overwhelmed. You aim at the bad guys, they die, then you move on.
If you like super generic first person shooters, then you might enjoy Homefront more than I did. Thankfully I didn't run into any of the killer bugs that I'd read about online, but it's not much of an endorsement to say "at least it didn't crash".
I suppose that's the problem with leaning hard on a single concept like urban America being a war zone. It probably only connects with particularly patriotic Americans, or foreigners who are obsessed with American culture. When you're like me though, and couldn't care less about the premise, there's really nothing else to sink your teeth into.
Just goes to show that no matter how hard you market a turd, it's still shit.