Review – Homefront Campaign 3
I’ll do this review a bit differently. The single-player portion is worth playing. But I never would have thought of buying this game for the SP. I still won’t even dwell on it. It’s all about the multi-player. But, the campaign brought up some points I want to share.
Kaos Studios came from Battlefield 1942 with the Desert Combat mod. They then went on to make Frontlines, which I still find to be a fantastic game. It’s like Battlefield but with more unlocks. Homefront is pretty much a Call of Duty game. Kaos decided to move away from Battlefield, which is unfortunate. Frontlines, to me, had an awesome open-ended campaign. You had the whole map to complete an objective. It wasn’t a Call of Duty-style rail shooter. With Homefront, you are presented a story and have to go from point A to B, with no other way around. And at times, cut-scenes force the next gameplay. But here, it’s done a bit better.
Homefront has a strong story. It’s something I would totally watch as a movie (Red Dawn, same writer). What I liked about this game, which seemed to be left out of the other reviews, is that the story is told as you play rather than wasted on long cut-scenes. As you play, you come across visuals that stimulate and tell a story, being either sad or inspirational. It’s very well done. In Call of Duty, you’re given a cut-scene and then dropped into an A to B situation that’s a single setting. It’s fun, but Homefront kicked it up a notch.
I’m just disappointed Kaos did this. They should have stuck to their unique style of play instead of appeasing the masses. But maybe they had no choice? It’s how to survive as a developer. And I’m sure in order for THQ to pump as many advertising dollars as they did into Homefront, it had to look like a seller. And fortunately for Kaos it did indeed sell. But for gamers like me, it’s not fortunate. We prefer diversity.
Something I didn’t like: Taking turns to walk through a door/entryway. Once the AI points out the door to go through, they walk up to it and open it. You may try walking through but you can’t; another AI character apparently has dibs on being second through. You may even get stuck for a bit with that AI behind you trying get ahead of you. You then step back, and allow them through. It’s a bit silly and took up a good two minutes of immersion.
So, even after that rant, Homefront is worth a play-through. It looks gorgeous and completely immerses you into the gameplay-cinematics. Sound is also a very well-done component. The game gives you an idea of what could happen if we were invaded by N. Korea – to a point. That’s really something that would have to be lived to understand. Americans have had the luxury to avoid it so far.
After I get more time into the multi-player, I’ll report back.
