Wow. I’m speechless. There are still AAA games that come out in such a bad state that it’s shameful some publishers would allow the sale of it. I mean, I understand in some respect if it was a port to a console or PC under the hand of an incompetent developer. But this makes me sad. Homefront: The Revolution is a sad tale of broken dreams (no pun intended).
Homefront: The Revolution is the sequel to the 2011 game where North Korea overthrows the US, turning it into a decaying ruin, seizing every aspect of value, and destroying the lives of millions. You play as a random guy who eventually becomes the face of the Revolution after the leader of the resistance is captured. You become the only hope of the resistance as you’re pretty much transformed into a one man army who pretty much does everything. So, your mission is to help start the uprising and overthrow key areas of Philadelphia in order to disrupt the Korean forces. Simple enough, but along the way you learn some harsh truths and realize that there is a complexity to war and what the true cost of freedom really is.
Hahahaha! Sadly this game isn’t that complex or interesting in terms of narrative (or gameplay, for that fact). The plot is paper thin; it’s a chess piece structure where the protagonist moves from one location to another while solving problems and leading up to rather flat climax. Our silent protagonist offers little. Maybe he just hates the people he’s around. The supporting cast are just either blood thirsty scumbags who just want to fight, yet do diddly-squat until the new guy shows up, or they’re just an over-baring wuss who blames you for the bloodshed the North Koreans cause, but lectures you on how the enemy troops are human beings too. This could be interesting if, like Dishonored, you could be more compassionate and not just murder everything in your path. But it doesn’t matter because you’re at war, you’re starting an uprising, and everyone else is doing nothing but moaning or deserve to be killed off.
What hurts Homefront: The Revolution is the fact that there is a good concept underneath all the crap, with some great elements that, if developed better, would produce one hell of a cinematic shooter. But Homefront is painfully average and just so very dull.
In order to regain Philadelphia, our player must capture key areas in various locations on the map. Once you capture enough points of interest, that area will then see an uprising of the people fighting the North Korean army. Great idea, but this overall design of the game is flawed in several areas. First, it lacks challenge or logic. For the most part, taking over points of interest such as enemy bases is pathetically easy while requiring a bare minimum to capture them. It’s often not a collection of objectives, but rather to just kill a handful of enemies or hack a module, and the base is yours. Most are just poorly laid out and become too simple to complete or even to enjoy. I laughed when I realized that most of the enemy bases were accessible by a door with a simple bolt lock on it. Really?! No one else thought to take on the base with the simple aid of bolt cutters?
Strongholds are the biggest joke and can be overthrown single-handedly in most cases. You simply enter through opening a locked door, running to where a pressure valve is, turn it and watch a small explosion take place. Instantly, the North Korean troops in the base just walk off and it’s all yours. I timed myself and most of these strongholds took only a minute or two to complete. It’s ridiculous to think that all you have to do is turn the valve without killing anyone and it’s won.
This overall lack of challenge just bores you and dismisses an engaging sense of conflict or reward once you complete your task. I saw tanks and other more powerful weaponry in these captured bases and none of it is rewarded to you. I’m sure someone is able to hot wire a tank! It’s incredibly restricted in terms of what you can do. But what is interesting is the offering of tools to create destruction or to aid you during more stealthy approaches. You get some great items such as remote control explosives taped to a miniature RC car and a noise maker strapped to a cuddly toy. Neat gear to have but, again, the game does very little to make you want to use it, nor does it offer situations where you can use effectively.
Everything feels the same, situations resemble one another from over throwing fortresses to ambushes, and they just don’t allow for much creative control. It becomes highly repetitive, completing the same tasks over and over again without any real progression or aspect of creativity in the destruction that would make it more exciting.
As for mechanics, there’s only one interesting aspect that comes in the form of gun customization. The gun customization is the only compelling mechanic in the game. But, while it’s the best feature, it’s short lived as all of the upgrades and modifications can be bought before the half way point of the game. True, it does give you a great deal of time to use them, but it also lacks any point to keep you invested in exploring and working to acquire more awesome mods. They’re far too few to care for and this type of mechanic was better executed in games such as Fallout 4 and Dead Space 3 which allowed more freedom in creating your own design of gun.
Compared to the action, you have certain segments of the same taking place within the Yellow Zones. Here, players will have to start an uprising within large areas filled with citizens, but doing so requires you to remain low key and without raising the alarms. This brings in a strong sense of stealth and tactical thinking. I liked this aspect of the Yellow Zones and this is where the gameplay gets interesting. Exploring the area for secret stashes, unlocking new out posts, and helping out the people without raising the alarm was intense and engaging. But two problems arose: the length was too short and the broken nature of the game affects it greatly.
Mechanics for stealth are also flaky. Clunky controls, odd graphical glitches, and bugs that see NPCs popping in and out of the game world make stealth sections rather confusing and annoying. But there are bugs on a grander scale that, at times, made the game unbearable. For example, one moment saw me hiding in a building while soldiers hunted me down. I snuck up behind a soldier ready to kill him and my character magically teleported to a building down the road. These factors don’t help when you’re putting actual effort into a mission which results in a defeat and punishment because the game glitched.
Other technical problems included flawed NPC and friendly AI behaviors, the painful drops in framerate, and the long loading times just drag on and make the game even more unpleasant to play. It’s a shame as the game looks very gorgeous and to see it lag in terms of framerate is just a waste. My advice is to steer clear of using the motorcycle as the framerate drops even more (below 15fps at certain stages) and just became a nuisance when I kept crashing into invisible walls within a poorly designed game world.
Lastly on a side note, the multiplayer is one of the better features, yet compared to the previous game’s 32 player open warfare, it seems highly watered down. You can play with three other people in the campaign missions, yet there are no dynamic elements to make co-op engaging for 4 players.
This game made me angry. I couldn’t believe I finished it and, at the end, it really wasn’t worth it. I would be more forgiving and even give this game a better rating as there are some very good concepts for a stronger game, but due to the broken nature of the game which just made it annoying to go through, not to mention the extremely dull design and underdeveloped features, it won’t get a pass. I hope that fixes and patches come along soon and, once they do, this game would be worth checking out. But for now, stay away.
My advice would be to play DOOM!