Homefront - home sick

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 O.K. So I thought I’d throw in my 2 cents about Homefront.

For me, the campaign was really short. I didn’t try to power through it, but I didn’t go looking for newspapers either. I finished in about 5-6 hours. I can easily see someone finishing it in 4 or so. And this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if there were any reason to back and play it again. Despite all the hype the campaign story got from having been penned by Red Dawn writer John Milius, I found myself indifferent to the whole scenario. I didn’t bond with my squad Connor and Rianna, I found the mission objectives silly (a fuel tanker is the key to success, really?) and I honestly didn’t care that the Koreans were destroying my neighborhood.

On top of that the game-play is seriously flawed, AI is horrible, the story is linear, repetitive and restrictive, and there’s a lot of waiting around for Connor to bark out an order, give a go ahead for a kill shot, or even climb a freaking ladder. The poor graphics and sound don’t help any either. Overall the campaign was a big disappointment.

Luckily, I bought the game mostly for the multiplayer. Here, there is some good news – it isn’t as horrible as the campaign. There are some serious flaws though. There have been lots of complaints about lobby problems, and party splitting, etc. I’ve logged probably 20 matches, and have never had any lag, or problems getting into a game. The party system is a little confusing, and it kept putting people from the same party on opposing teams. Our party also kept getting broken up. Playing solo, I experienced no problems whatsoever getting matches. Games were also uniformly lag-free.

The controls are identical to CoD, and the game feels like CoD as well, CoD 4that is. I actually think the graphics are better in Cod 4 than Homefront.  They are actually so bad that it affects game play. Looking through a scope it’s hard to see enemies at a distance through the poor textures and pixels. The sound is really poor as well, you make loud stomping footsteps, but I found myself getting knifed in the back repeatedly.

Despite these (and other unmentioned issues) the game is actually very fun to play. The maps are big and open, the vehicles add a great element to the mix, the weapons feel comfortable and fun. Battle Points is a unique system that sets this game apart. I just wish the game was a little more polished.

UPDATE: I put in CoD4 for a comparison, and CoD won with just slightly better graphics. MW2 blew Homefront out of the water. It’s really sad that the graphics are so terrible. I’ll also restate my disappointment with the sound – it’s barely passable; directionality is lacking and the guns sound anemic. My other minor quibbles include how slow and loud your player is when he runs. It feels like I’m playing in the body of a 6’3” 14 year old. It’s also really difficult to score kills, it seems like the kill boxes are tiny. It’s also extremely difficult to tell friend from foe.