Review – Homefront

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Kaos Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, PC-DVD
Genre: First Person Shooter
Rating: Mature (17+)
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood, Strong Language, Violence

The Scoop: Essentially hyped as Red Dawn the game, THQ’s Homefront intends to compete with the juggernaut series that is Call of Duty by supplying a dark and patriotic single player campaign and an ambitious 32 player online multiplayer mode. But can Homefront give the rabid first person shooter fans a worthy competitor for Call of Duty, or will THQ be thrown down like those that have tried before it?

The Setup: Written by John Millius of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now fame, Kaos Studio’s Homefront takes place in a terrifyingly realistic near future in which the entire U.S. economy and infrastructure has collapsed allowing a newly unified Korean army to occupy the west coast. The game takes place in Montrose, Colorado, a sleepy little mountain suburb which has been walled in by the Korean People’s Army. You play as a former U.S. pilot who is on his way to a Korean re-education center when he is rescued by a small resistance movement bent on driving the Koreans outside of Montrose and eventually the United States.

The familiar third world landscapes from most first person shooters have been replaced with the pre-fab designs of suburbia. High schools now serve as work camps and detention centers, while department stores are used as weapon and fuel depots. Combat is mostly resigned to moving from house to house or store to store in an attempt to push forward, that part isn’t too unlike games like Call of Duty.

The promo screens don't show, but the final game uses all real world brand names to give it a larger sense of reality.

Also in the package is a very well rounded yet simple multiplayer mode. There are basically only two modes, which are team death match and ground control, though there are other mechanics outside the norm which I will explain below. Character advancement is also present, you gain levels and with them new weapons and perks. Scoring kills with each weapon will unlock upgrades like different scopes and load-outs. Instead of having just one or two perks at a time, each perk is worth a set number of points and you get more points to use as you raise levels. This means you can have 2 really good perks, or 6 lower end perks, though I did notice they are a little unbalanced, most of the better perks are only one or two points. As you meet certain objectives (usually kills) you will earn battle points which can be used to purchase either upgrades, like a flak jacket or a rocket launcher, or allow you to summon vehicles and drones.

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