Game: Homefront
Genre: FPS
Steam Achievements: Yes
Steam Cards: No
Homefront is a first-person shooter where you take the role of an American rebel. Your country has been taken over by the Korean overlords and the gruesome day-to-day life under their regime is not something you will stand for. Fight for the freedom of your country in the single-player campaign mode. And if you prefer to just play against others there is a multiplayer mode where you can test your skill against others.
Homefront
Story:
Homefront takes place in a world where everything went wrong for the United States. North Korea took over South Korea, and has since began to build an empire. Japan and other neighboring countries have been taken over to form the Greater Korean Republic. After years of economic pressure the United States has fallen in it's status in the world. American citizens have actually been banned from immigrating to Mexico.
The Greater Korean Republic has started it's attack on the mainland United States. And with your rebel group you fight against the oppression and violence caused by this republic. If you fail your homeland will forever be under the Greater Korean Republic. And the gruesome atrocities you have witnessed will continue. There will be more blood on the streets, there will be more internment camps, and there will be more orphaned children.
The story for Homefront gets a lot of credit from other reviewers. I have no idea why. The story tries too hard to tell the player that war is horrible. In the first 20 minutes of the game you see a guy shot in front of you, parent's killed in front of their child, and a man who has no option but to fight or his family will die. We have seen many great anti-war games and movies. The Metal Gear Solid Franchise for example is one of my favorites. But the great games and movies all had a strong story with an anti-war message. If this game had a human manifestation it would be an angry man screaming in your face telling you WAR IS BAD. When you speak to the man and ask him what to do about it the angry man would just repeat WAR IS BAD. The story itself is not engaging and you can't spread a message without an engaging story. The Homefront story is just a failed attempt at being deep.
In Metal Gear Solid you had real, in depth looks at war and how it affects people. You had real ideas like a soldiers addiction to war and how the financial needs of the elite influenced global politics. You bonded with characters that you saw die in the most horrid ways. It dealt with the PTSD and feeling of loss that can occur to even the greatest of soldiers. There were so many great messages that were shown through an engaging story and lovable, complex characters. When I compare these two games it's like comparing a teenager strumming chords to impress some girl to Jimmi Hendrix shredding away all hope of becoming as good as he was.
Gameplay:
In Homefront you experience guerilla warfare first hand. There's enemies at all sides and it can get very chaotic in combat. The combat itself is a very typical FPS style. You point your gun and you shoot. The game really does a good job of creating a very confused chaotic situation that you have to fight your way out of. You can't just stand in the back and pick people off. In a lot of situations you just don't have the right firearm or enough ammo to do that. You have to constantly move to pick up different guns and ammo. In World War 2 it was said that when an American shot a German soldier they threw away their gun and picked up the German gun. Homefront gives a similar feeling. Your guns are always either bad or low on ammo. I like that you have to be careful with your ammo and you are forced to move forward and fight from close to mid range. In a lot of games you just grab a sniper rifle and pick off dozens of soldiers with little risk to yourself. You also have access to cars, drones and helicopters.
The difficulty of the game is pretty high. This could partially be because I am bad at FPS games. But the game provided a challenge. While playing on the hardest difficulty I died nearly every level. There are easier difficulties so if you aren't looking for frustration you have that option. The different difficulties gives the game a decent amount of replayability. Replayability is absolutely necessary for a campaign as short as this one. The game took me about 6 hours to complete on the hardest difficulty. This is rather short but for shooters I usually don't expect something over 10 hours.
Overall Thoughts
The story sucks but the gameplay is good. With FPS games I don't expect a lot of innovation in combat. As long as the shooting is smooth I'm happy with it. Homefront didn't bring in any unique mechanics or crazy cinematic experiences. It provides a brief enjoyable campaign mode that captures the chaos of guerilla warfare. But the story itself tries too hard to be deep without good enough writing to back it up. Homefront can be found on sites for less than a dollar. Given its price Homefront is worth picking up to try it out. Homefront is the benchmark for an average FPS shooter.
by doing that you will be more accurate and you will be able to see where the bullet will land.
The article is really well-writen. Hope it's not plagarized!