Homefront Has a 5-Hour Campaign. Sort of.

[sooperman]

I think it's about time for a Yahtzee reference.

My impression of Homefront thus far is Battlefield crossed with Call of Duty and then crossed with Call of Duty a few more times until very little of Battlefield remains. I hope for the best, but this one is going to be a rental.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

It is a sad trend that IIRC started with MW.

As much as I like throwing shit at the 'modern shooter' genre, you can't blame MW for a trend that's been growing ever since there was multiplayer in FPS games. As MP FPSing has become more popular the focus for most developers has shifted to follow that popularity (because that's where the money is) - originally multiplayer was added in almost as an afterthought and look at shit these days... for a lot of FPS titles it feels as if the SP section of the game was tossed together over a long weekend.

 

[Ajna]

And now I wonder (1) when the map pack will be released and (2) if it will be $10 or $15.

Neither. $17. They said "different from every modern shooter", silly.

Doh! Silly indeed!

So I guess the Special edition will be $75, the documentary will be Korean with English subtitles, and, in order to compete with Call of Duty, the Ultimate [i}Super[/i] Collector's Edition will come with a Hummer 3[footnote]Because it totally doesn't look like a Jeep...[/footnote] and an inactive mine.

Nah, still to similar to other modern shooters. They're not releasing any special/limited/premium/collectors edition.

...

Not sure if that was a joke or not, because I don't think they are.

 

[icame]

5-7 hour Campaign???

There went all of my interest in this game, as I'm a firm believer that all games should be able to stand on there singleplayer alone...

Shouldn't what actually happens in that 5-7 hours matter more? What if it was the best 5-7 hours of your entire gaming life? Would it still not stand up on the single player?

 

[RandV80]

Length matters? (Hehehehehe)

Seriously, though, a good experience is a good experience. A short story can be great. A quick nap can be good. A quickie can be fantastic. A short film can be beautiful.

Since when is it okay to judge something based purely on length?

If you are upset at something for not distracting you for twelve hours, irregardless of how great the experience was, maybe you need to take a look at your life and ask what you dislike about it so much you'd rather a long, mediocre game, than a short or medium great one. Sure, it'd be great if every game was a thirty hour epic that had you on the edge of your seat for a week. But it's okay for something to be over in a weekend if it's fun!

Great and short >> bad and long.

Okay and short okay and long.

Bad and short << great and long.

But hey, I'm just a random girl. We all like different things and we all think differently.

It's not necessarily a matter of length, but one of value. Portal of course is short but by itself is only a $10 or so game. I've never seen an official price release but it should be pretty obvious Homefront is going to come with the full $60 price tag. And for many people if they're going to be paying top dollars for a video game, they don't want something more than a campaign they can finish in a single evening.

This seems to be becoming the standard for the CoD like FPS genre, and I'm wondering if we aren't looking at a market bubble. At some point you gotta think the different multiplayer modes will all start blending together that it should be the single player campaign that sets the games apart and brings back you're customer, but with these campaigns getting shorter and shorter... something's gotta give.

 

[WanderingFool]

I can under stand people like longer games, but how long can a FPS be before you go cross-eyed from the same crap?

From a $60 perspective, the MP better be damn good to make it worth the price...

 

[Triforceformer]

Someone wake me when FPS games care about single player campaign length please.

AKA, when is the new Bioshock coming out again?

Duke Nukem Forever, perhaps? Playtesters took 15-17 hours on average to get through it.

 

[octafish]

I was hoping for at least 12 hours, don't care about multiplayer at all. Man that sounds shorter than Mafia II. Unless every reviewer everywere hails this as a masterpiece I guess it'll be a Steam sale or bargain bin purchase for me. A pity as I had hopes for a single player epic.

 

[Canid117]

The didn't release a demo so I'm not buying it anyway.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Eh, if I get it, it'll be mostly just for the multiplayer anyway (and by pre-ordering it on steam I get Metro 2033 for free, which is nice).

So yea, tad bit disappointed, but I'll still probably get it, money pending.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I'm not sure I could handle more than 5 hours straight of Right Wing American Paranoid Wankfest without seriously considering eating a bullet.


edit: I could be persuaded to buy it if they included a sea lion that had choked to death on one of their balloons with the purchase.

 

[Light 086]

Isn't Homefront trying to set itself apart from Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, etc. by making their campaign different? What does making it only five hours do to help it?

Maybe that's all the they could come up with that's different?

 

[LeeHarveyO]

8-10hrs is still pathetically short.

 

[Jark212]

5-7 hour Campaign???

There went all of my interest in this game, as I'm a firm believer that all games should be able to stand on there singleplayer alone...

Shouldn't what actually happens in that 5-7 hours matter more? What if it was the best 5-7 hours of your entire gaming life? Would it still not stand up on the single player?

I guess your right there, I should consider the quality of the game instead of just the quantity, but that aside unless I hear that were the case I still wouldn't be very interested in Homefront...

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I don't understand why people are bashing the game just for its length. Surely quality over quantity is a way better choice in design.

Edit: By the way, after some searching, I have found the magazine that revealed the length of its campaign and they also said other things about the game:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/viewer.php?mode=article&id=248775
If you read the front cover it says something quite interesting.

Well, just looking at some of the other recent posts out there, it seems that people are starting to actually want a meaningful single player FPS experience. Don't get me wrong, you can pack a ton of punch in a very short time, like Portal, but I doubt that Kaos is quite as good at writing as VALVe, though I'd be pleased to find that I'm wrong.

Also, FPS titles have been severely gimped on the single player for years, there just aren't the epic length, excellent storytelling that many other gaming genres have been able to accomplish. One other thing, if we're talking about a world war type invasion, shouldn't that warrant maybe a little more than 5 hours to tell the whole story? No, I'm not letting either Battlefield: BC2, or any CoD off easy either, they both were pretty shallow as well.