Homefront

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $16.06
Today's Bonus: 20% Off

I'm 58, played about all the COD games, Battlefield 2, MOH, and others. I can get through these games but will never be as good as some teen boy at these, single or multiplayer. It took me about 8 hours to get through the single player, but partially because I missed a game assist (more on this later).

I was drawn to the game because of its theme of fighting for freedom. There is a bit of this, but I guess even the "shocking" scenes didn't seem all that shocking in today's jaded era. I liked the overall story and some of the realities of fighting a guerilla-style war: citizens who just want to get along; others who take advantage of the war for their own benefit; screw-ups that happen... I wish there was more development of these elements. I didn't feel much of anything for the characters. Even at the end of MOH, I felt a bit when the wounded soldier died. Not so much here. Pity.

The graphics: the backgrounds seemed detailed enough to me, overall, but were certainly stylistically different than other such recent games. Sometimes the character animation seemed lacking: feet that didn't really "touch" the ground, odd ticks, etc. Too often the characters seemed pasted in rather than integral to the background. (Cf to Battlefield 3's latest videos for the opposite effect.)

There were parts of the game I enjoyed quite a bit. Other parts had me yelling at the TV in frustration.

SPOILERS: Problem areas: auto-lock on too often "stuck" on enemies not close to the actual one I was trying to shoot; word hints (enter church or whatever) sometimes obscured the enemies, making it difficult to see them even on a 46 inch HD LED screen, leading to unnecessary deaths; save points that required redoing too many tasks (suffered by other games: how about a save point after accomplishing each difficult goal rather than endless repetition?); enemies that were unrealistically great shots/too lethal to me; too many on-screen hints at some points, not enough at others; rocket emplacements that required an unholy number of hits to be destroyed; walking upright through fields to avoid being seen by enemies but fields with almost no cover (cf COD game crawling through the grass to avoid being spotted by nearby enemies). In one annoying (a glitch?) sequence, we were in a Target-type store. My character was supposed to "follow" another, but the other guy just kept running back and forth -not doing anything, not shooting, nothing -back and forth like a chicken with its head cut off. He would not advance. Not until _my_ character moved forward did the story/game start again. The first couple of times I did that, I was immediately slaughtered. Eventually, I got past that sequence, but my "leader" still engaged in a lot of pointless running around. I was really happy when we finally left that stupid store...

SPOILERS: Re: hints: in one sequence, the passengers have to exit a helicopter your character is flying at ground level and enter three fuel trucks on the move. (Don't ask...) It took me a long while to figure out what to do to get the characters to exit the chopper and enter the trucks. A simple "use square button" at the start of the sequence would have saved me a lot of time. Another issue that made me redo sequences with RPGs and missiles far too many times was not realizing I was supposed to use "countermeasures" then. I had to figure out how to get through the sequences by simply dodging and weaving (not easy when you're being fired upon from four different directions). Again, a simple "use X button" hint would have reminded me of what I glimpsed in the manual but did not remember during the play. (I went back after finishing the game and used the countermeasures: _much_ easier the second time around.)

I liked some of the gun play; liked shooting a sniper rifle; thought some of the story was good; thought the characters had potential, though my character was a near-total cipher.

I played a few rounds of the multiplayer. (I play COD:BOps and Uncharted 2 online; mostly enjoy those.) A bit frustrating. Again, hotshots (almost literally) who killed me with a couple shots, while my multiple rounds accomplished little. Fun. Not. The maps and graphics seemed okay but with certainly a different feel from COD. Maybe the maps are too big; seem too empty. Also, I can sort of appreciate the high angle start above the map when you regenerate (to give you an overview of what's happening) then the zoom when you "land," but this seems to slow things down too much as does the requirement before _every_ rebirth to select your weapons. I prefer COD where the game gives you the same load-outs throughout a battle unless you request in-game to switch on the next regen. I doubt I'll play much multiplayer here. (I didn't notice any lag, but then, I didn't get on until 1:00 a.m., either.)

I'll give the game 3 stars, but would prefer 3 1/2. Can't quite rate it a 4. I paid $40 for this after a $20 credit for buying an earlier game from Amazon. I think I would have been more upset if I'd paid the full $60.

The game has its moments. It could have been better.

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To be fair, I don't care for the multi-player part of this game or others like this. I want a strong single-player game, and then if there is an enjoyable MP side of it, all the better. In my opinion, too many of these games devolve into the exact same games in multiplayer. Kids with tricks and cheats or hacks and whatnot and lots of killing one another.

So my review is on the single player game. Like others, I was unhappy with the cheapo looking graphics. I dont' mind a script or storyline, but constantly FOLLOWING lead characters is just crap. On and on and on. Follow here, then over here. No thinking. No strategy. Your teamates are useless against the enemy. The AI are static.

The premise is/was intriguing but they just couldn't pull it off. They could have done so much more with the Red Dawn premise. who can you trust? If you kill occupiers, you would draw the rath of the enemy, so stealth and hiding amongst the regular population would be good missions, BUT someone , somewhere made the decision to dumb this down so a 13 year old kid will just want to shoot this and then that. Weapons are the same that are in every other game except ammo is limited.

How about having to cache your ammo and then hide it from the occupiers? How about characters that are engaging? I didn't even make it to the end of the misssions. I played 4 hours worth and gave up. Could have been a great game, but the designers just punted. Maybe they put all their efforts into MP, but whY? There are plenty of MP games to play and they are all the same. It's the premise and the single player missions that carve out the niche.

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Another reason why I will rent games before I buy them. $60 down the drain for a few hours of fun. I was hoping it would allow me to put Black Ops back in the drawer, since I really don't like that game either. Both have limited realism, but at least Black Ops has a bare-bones and hardcore mode, where you don't have to shoot a person 7 times to kill them. Also, I played Black Ops for weeks without getting bored of it, but I was ready to quit Homefront after a few hours! I hate games where the A.I. always knows where you are. What happened to a right/left lean around a corner? Guess it's time to try the Battlefield series.

Pros: Story is interesting.

Cons: Where's the game? There is no single player.....a whopping 6 levels. It took all of 2 hours to beat it. There are no multiplayer maps(ok, very few). Multiplayer games are limited....there are 2! deathmatch and groundwar/domination types.

....Seems like they just slapped the game together and put it on the shelf. Honestly, I would pay $19.99 for the game, and not much more. Too late, they already tricked me into paying $60 and tax.

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i had high hopes for this game, especially after they plastered my home town (SFCA) with ads. no such luck. the campaign game play is boring, pedantic, and worst of all, short. for all the talk of san francisco (did you see the cover?), you never actually make it there. (yea, thats a spoiler, but trust me, you wont care.) the storyline is the work of a third grader and the ai is terrible, reminds me of half life opfor, and that was nearly 15 years ago.

so, they cheated us on the single player, but that means mp must be awesome, right? i wouldnt know. i sat for 20 minutes in a queue, waiting for other players, until i bailed.

they owe us some free dlc, for wasting money on this crap.

dont waste yours.

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$60 for this game? How about $20.

After playing through the single-player, I was surprised how short the game is. Graphics were lacking, interaction was missing, and it just seemed rushed and dumbed-down.

In summary, not worth the money.