Game:

Homefront’s opening minutes encapsulate the game’s strengths and vital weaknesses with terrible precision. Choosing to start a new campaign treats the player to a zippy, design-heavy presentation detailing the background to the somewhat preposterous storyline, from the shrill aggressive actions of the DPRK of the last couple of years, through near-future unification of the Koreas and the sharp decline of American power, to the invasion and occupation of the USA by the Greater Korean Republic. It is pacy, attention-grabbing and concise. It is also massively indebted to similar sequences in Call of Duty: World At War.

The game proper begins with the player character being arrested and bundled onto a bus bound for a concentration camp, witnessing escalating displays of Korean brutality as he goes. While rather crass and manipulative, this sequence is also strikingly powerful and manages to present a truer picture of the reality of violence than most other games in the genre. As a rescue vehicle slams the bus off the road and resistance fighters press a gun into your hand, there seems to be the very real possibility that Homefront might present something genuinely new and unseen.
And then it all falls apart.

“Follow Connor”, the HUD instructs you. You will not want to follow Connor. He is a buffoon, a thick-necked swine and a witless bully. His sins are compounded by the fact that he sounds exactly like South Park’s Trey Parker, and dialogue like “enemy in the Hooters” does nothing to restore his minimal dignity. The other two non-entities fare little better. One is a tedious caricature of a liberal dressed in an entirely inappropriate belly-top and the other is a Korean-American who the developers have had the astounding lack of judgement to make a computer whiz. The only thing missing is a cowardly dog.

Meet the Scooby Gang

Had the supporting characters been sober middle-aged men of dignified soldiering like Modern Warfare’s Capt. Price or World At War/Black Ops’ Viktor Reznov then the rote, repetitious nature of the basic gameplay might have been easier to overlook. Instead, we have a mechanically unambitious, perfectly competent Call of Duty clone that is powerfully in thrall to the conventions of that series without being able to truly replicate its thunderous combat and blitzkrieg pacing, its captivating, nightmarish sense of a world turned upside down and given over to hate and blood and smoke forever and ever.

For all the hype about creating a new kind of emotionally-affecting FPS narrative, Homefront’s moments of creativity are sadly few and far between and are only ever cheap broadsides aimed at the gut, falling back on over-familiar tub-thumping cliches in the interim between these moments. Whatever the failings of the singleplayer campaign, the game is in large part redeemed by an excellent multiplayer component, and it is here I suspect the creators’ real interest lies.

There is more to the mutliplayer than simply being Call of Duty with vehicles

Although their stated ambition to produce “Call of Duty with vehicles” made for a depressingly limited mission-statement, what has emerged is something more considered, open and interesting. This is mainly thanks to its chief innovation, the Battle Points system, which replaces the usual kill streaks with a stored bank of points, carried over from spawn to spawn, that can be used to purchase perks, weapons and vehicles. This has the effect of levelling the playing field, if only slightly, by putting the more devastating perks (helicopter gunships, airstrikes) within reach of the less-skilled players.

Maps are also expansive and intricately designed, well-designed to take advantage of the game’s large player capacity. If Homefront is to flourish in future, it will be almost entirely because of the obvious care lavished on its multiplayer component. If the same could be said of the perfunctory campaign, the game might have been something truly special.

Review Round-Up

Graphics 3/5 – A few environments, such as the resistance base and the survivalists’ camp are rendered with a likeable rustic flourish, but the majority of the game is fairly uninspired in its level design, a fact which is not helped by the distinctly unimpressive quality of the graphics. Another inconsistent use of the Unreal Engine to go on the pile alongside the (generally more impressive) Medal of Honour.

Sound 3/5 - Voice acting is occasionally hilarious, and is a major factor in undoing much of the good work done in establishing an oppressive atmosphere. The score is a tremendous and memorable approximation of the work of bombastic 80s action-movie composer Basil Poledouris (Robocop, Conan).

Gameplay 3/5 – While the basic gunplay is tactile, precise and suitably percussive, the mission structure is rote and tedious, consisting entirely of following a loathsome idiot through various environments while taking care not to bump into the numerous invisible walls, and occasionally stopping to murder a couple of dozen deeply stupid enemies who pop up from behind various crates, fences and walls. Thankfully the multiplayer mode abandons all of this apart from the shooting.

Longevity 3/5 – The single player can be easily polished off in four hours, despite the protestations of the developers to the contrary. One more playthrough is likely all anyone will have the appetite for. Multiplayer is where the bulk of your time will be spent here, so it’s fortunate that it is a rewarding experience.

Overall 3 out of 5

Call of Duty casts a long, cold shadow over Homefront and Kaos Studios appear to have quailed in fear at its colossal stature. Aside from a few brave attempts to establish a more somber atmosphere and to bring home the consequences of violence (to mixed effect), the campaign is a mostly unambitious piece of me-too shooter gaming that is unlikely to serve as anything but a light snack until something more interesting comes along. While the multiplayer mode is a much more enticing proposition, the fact still remains that Homefront has entered the most competitive battlefield in the gaming marketplace and finds itself sadly underarmed compared to its opponents. There’s just enough here to make it worthwhile, but only just. If Homefront is to stick around and develop as a series, it’s going to have to work a lot harder than this in future.

- Elliot Mears