Homefront Reviews - Average so far... 72%

[Bags159]

I don't get it. Who gives a shit if a game is a Call of Duty clone or not? If it bothers people that much, why are they not just ignoring the game entirely?

Personally, I might give Homefront a shot at some point. The complete and utter ridiculousness of North Korea invading the USA appeals to my love of things that are batshit insane.

It's completely unrealistic as opposed to a single soldier winning a war.

 

[Ryank1908]

I'm sure it'll be a fine game, but I won't be picking it up. Modern/'realistic' FPS games just don't do it for me, anymore. Still, I am surprised that this has been critically acclaimed - I was sure the press would pan it as a CoD clone or something along those lines.

 

[No_Remainders]

Looks good, glad I took the plunge and bought the pre-order on Steam, now I also have a free copy of Metro 2033 to give away ad well.

I'll take it if you don't know anyone who wants it!

OT: I kinda like how it looks. I'm hoping that there'll be a demo of some form...

 

[Dogstile]

I admit, I twinged a little at the kids parents being shot.

Momentary, but it was still a twinge.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I'm still on the fence about this game, I might end up renting it for my ps3 before I decide to buy the pc copy.

Multi player looks interesting, the mix of vehicle and on foot combat reminds me of Battlefield but chances are it will only serve as a minor distraction till I can get my hands on Crysis 2 MP or Brink (SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS BRINK LOOKS AWESOME).

 

[Korten12]

3. I have, and its 100% crap. EMP bomb? from the koreans? The same people who lack electricity, and can't design a nuclear bomb that can reach beyond their borders? And rely on weaponry donated by China? That they somehow took over with enough troops to take over America? Yet somehow by magic they can design and use an EMP bomb? Without the FBI, CIA on their ass? An attack on the US by Koreans would get bogged down on the mainland, due to strained supply lines, and the fact it has to pass near half the American naval forces.

5. Emotion? Oh yeah right because we all know everyone has an American citizenship, and America encompasses the earth.

3.You didn't look at the story. As you're looking at it from today's NK and not the stories NK. If you actually looked at the story, you would see how they were able to make one.

5.Are you implying that the game can't have emotions becuase its from the US? I guess if it was in the EU, no one would doubt it would have 'emotions'.

 

[TheIr0nMike]

I've got to agree with the Homefront hate. I admit I don't know much about this game, but from the three-ish trailers I saw, it just seems like what would happen if Michael Bay created a darker and grittier Red Dawn after watching too much Glenn Beck.

 

[Korten12]

3. I have, and its 100% crap. EMP bomb? from the koreans? The same people who lack electricity, and can't design a nuclear bomb that can reach beyond their borders? And rely on weaponry donated by China? That they somehow took over with enough troops to take over America? Yet somehow by magic they can design and use an EMP bomb? Without the FBI, CIA on their ass? An attack on the US by Koreans would get bogged down on the mainland, due to strained supply lines, and the fact it has to pass near half the American naval forces.

5. Emotion? Oh yeah right because we all know everyone has an American citizenship, and America encompasses the earth.

3.You didn't look at the story. As you're looking at it from today's NK and not the stories NK. If you actually looked at the story, you would see how they were able to make one.

5.Are you implying that the game can't have emotions becuase its from the US? I guess if it was in the EU, no one would doubt it would have 'emotions'.

3. And that jump was too much of a change within a short amount of time. Basically, magic.

5. I am saying that "emotion" based on locale is a flawed way to go about making a game. If the person isn't American, then they probably won't care. Emotion linked to location fails and for a very good reason.

3.Germany rose to power in ten years.

5.So if a mother is killed and the child has to watch it. You feel no emotion, becuase its not your location? Thats kind of sick. No offense. And hey, its not like our cultures, US to EU are that much different. Its not like if I went to France, I would feel like in a foreign world where nothing is the same.

 

[Korten12]

3. I have, and its 100% crap. EMP bomb? from the koreans? The same people who lack electricity, and can't design a nuclear bomb that can reach beyond their borders? And rely on weaponry donated by China? That they somehow took over with enough troops to take over America? Yet somehow by magic they can design and use an EMP bomb? Without the FBI, CIA on their ass? An attack on the US by Koreans would get bogged down on the mainland, due to strained supply lines, and the fact it has to pass near half the American naval forces.

5. Emotion? Oh yeah right because we all know everyone has an American citizenship, and America encompasses the earth.

3.You didn't look at the story. As you're looking at it from today's NK and not the stories NK. If you actually looked at the story, you would see how they were able to make one.

5.Are you implying that the game can't have emotions becuase its from the US? I guess if it was in the EU, no one would doubt it would have 'emotions'.

3. And that jump was too much of a change within a short amount of time. Basically, magic.

5. I am saying that "emotion" based on locale is a flawed way to go about making a game. If the person isn't American, then they probably won't care. Emotion linked to location fails and for a very good reason.

3.Germany rose to power in ten years.

5.So if a mother is killed and the child has to watch it. You feel no emotion, becuase its not your location? Thats kind of sick.

3. Germany wasn't ruled by an overgrown man baby for decades, and it wasn't entirely reliant on China for its weaponry. Attacking the supplier of your own weaponry is a guaranteed failure.

5. That is called shock value, not "emotion".

3. I don't think they even said they attacked China in the story.

5. Oh yeah, I forgot. Their is no such thing as emotion in games. Its all just Shock Value. If a movie did the same event that would be emotion. For video games, thats just shock value...

 

[Korten12]

3. I have, and its 100% crap. EMP bomb? from the koreans? The same people who lack electricity, and can't design a nuclear bomb that can reach beyond their borders? And rely on weaponry donated by China? That they somehow took over with enough troops to take over America? Yet somehow by magic they can design and use an EMP bomb? Without the FBI, CIA on their ass? An attack on the US by Koreans would get bogged down on the mainland, due to strained supply lines, and the fact it has to pass near half the American naval forces.

5. Emotion? Oh yeah right because we all know everyone has an American citizenship, and America encompasses the earth.

3.You didn't look at the story. As you're looking at it from today's NK and not the stories NK. If you actually looked at the story, you would see how they were able to make one.

5.Are you implying that the game can't have emotions becuase its from the US? I guess if it was in the EU, no one would doubt it would have 'emotions'.

3. And that jump was too much of a change within a short amount of time. Basically, magic.

5. I am saying that "emotion" based on locale is a flawed way to go about making a game. If the person isn't American, then they probably won't care. Emotion linked to location fails and for a very good reason.

3.Germany rose to power in ten years.

5.So if a mother is killed and the child has to watch it. You feel no emotion, becuase its not your location? Thats kind of sick.

3. Germany wasn't ruled by an overgrown man baby for decades, and it wasn't entirely reliant on China for its weaponry. Attacking the supplier of your own weaponry is a guaranteed failure.

5. That is called shock value, not "emotion".

3. I don't think they even said they attacked China in the story.

5. Oh yeah, I forgot. Their is no such thing as emotion in games. Its all just Shock Value. If a movie did the same event that would be emotion. For video games, thats just shock value...

3. Well technically they haven't. They did however run around Asia taking everything over for North Korea. Do you really think China was going to let that happen? Attacking China's greatest trading partner? And grow larger than China? They would have called in scorched earth the moment they tried to pull shit like that. In the video explaining the story, never do they explain how Korea was united, how it became an economic power, or anything. 20$ gas? Korea is immune to gas prices but America is not? If gas was that expensive they wouldn't be able to support supply lines or an armored division let alone conquer Asia. They don't even touch the idea of nuclear war. North Korea isn't very far from a "made in China" ass whooping either, especially after they became a liability.

5. There is a difference between emotion and needless brutality in order to cause shock. shock value =/= emotion.

3. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1154611p1.html

Read this, it explains the story much better then the trailer.

5.Its a forecful occupation, they got angry at the civilians due to another rebel attack. Theirfore they were being punished. They didn't just kill the mother for the sake of killing the mother.

 

[Luke5515]

I think I might take a look at it, it does look really good, but I'm going to wait a while.
Wait for the price to drop and I've got some backlogged games I need to finish.

 

[Callate]

Until more reviews come out, I'd take these with a grain of salt. About the time the XBoxReview one started praising the novel and how worthwhile it was to get the player into the setting of the game, I threw it out on its ear.

 

[Korten12]

Until more reviews come out, I'd take these with a grain of salt. About the time the XBoxReview one started praising the novel and how worthwhile it was to get the player into the setting of the game, I threw it out on its ear.

Why? Becuase a novel of a video game can't be good? Clearly you haven't read Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, or Fall of Reach.

 

[razelas]

3. There are so many logical fallacies in that story its not even funny. Ill give the gist:

First off, it's not "logical fallacies," it's plotholes.

- Prices are regulated. price too high? people stop buying and the product becomes worthless. Happened before with oil when it got too high.

Can you provide a source for "people stop buying and the product becomes worthless."? Because people didn't not stop buying oil either in the 1973 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Oil_Crisis#Price_controls_and_rationing] or 1979 oil crisis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_oil_crisis#United_States] (when prices reached the second highest price recorded) OR the 1990 oil price shock [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_oil_price_shock]. Half of the US energy comes from oil. I suppose people will just run their cars on magic, huh?

- picking natural resources using slave labor? How? How are they going to get it back to Korea without oil? Strap barrels on the Koreans and make them swim across the damn pacific? America doesn't have much oil anymore, so attacking America would be useless. Oil shale? We put more energy (and water) into it than we get oil out. You might as well put out a house fire with kerosene.

It's 2027, you think oil shale technology development is going to remain static? Tthere already is a plethora of oil shale extracting tech. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_oil_extraction#Classifications]

- the idea of North Korean power is based on Germany and Japan. Both nations were in totally different situations. North Korea =/= Japan. North Korea =/= Germany. North Korea becoming big and powerful is no different than saying Somalia became big and powerful. In fact, its so similar that could be Homefront 2: The wrath of Somalia.

I hope you realize that the developers were referring to similar policies of expansionism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansionism] and imperialism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism], NOT geography.

- Korean peace is impossible. Either side would need to conquer the other in order to be unified. This would create problems because that would spawn rebels on North Korea's home turf.

What a massively ignorant and baseless comment. Do you know how many Koreans want peace so they can see long-lost relatives on either side? Do you know that many Koreans draft-dodge to other countries so they don't waste 2-3 FUCKING YEARS of their lives training FOR A WAR MANY DON'T EVEN THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

Also, case study. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany#Division_and_reunification_1945.E2.80.931990] I bet people like you said back in the day that East and West Germany would never reunite.

- the second Amendment. The American populace is more heavily armed than any other populace in the world. Hell a Russian general was too scared to invade America because he learned every house had a gun. If the Russians and all their power were too scared, what makes you think North Korea would be able to? Including the lack of vehicles?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan#History

No empire ever completely conquered Afghanistan, yet the US is in there now, and they're paying for it in blood and money. This is not even taking into account that the US armed the mujahideen in the 1980s and that most every child in Afghanistan can handle an AK-47.

What's your point?

- EMPs kills the device. It doesn't disable it for a short while. If a city was hit with an EMP, it would kill every device there. Every computer, wire, and light would need to be replaced. In short, you demolish the city and build it again. If it destroyed most of the electricity grid in America, what do the mines run on? What do the oil rigs run on? Do you extract the oil from the oil shale with magic? You would need to ferry mining machinery (which requires oil to ferry) to begin extraction. If they get the oil out, they need to ferry an oil processor as well. Oil lost going in, oil lost going out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale_economics#Competitive_level_of_oil_price

According to a survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, the cost of producing a barrel of oil at a surface retorting complex in the United States (comprising a mine, retorting plant, upgrading plant, supporting utilities, and spent shale reclamation), would range between US$70?95 ($440?600/m3, adjusted to 2005 values). This estimate considers varying levels of kerogen quality and extraction efficiency. In order for the operation to be profitable, the price of crude oil would need to remain above these levels. The analysis also discusses the expectation that processing costs would drop after the complex was established. The hypothetical unit would see a cost reduction of 35?70% after its first 500 million barrels (79×10^6 m3) were produced. Assuming an increase in output of 25 thousand barrels per day (4.0×10^3 m3/d) during each year after the start of commercial production, the costs would then be expected to decline to $35?48 per barrel ($220?300/m3) within 12 years. After achieving the milestone of 1 billion barrels (160×10^6 m3), its costs would decline further to $30?40 per barrel ($190?250/m3) .

What do you fucking know, it's economically feasible. Sure they're going to run on a loss the fist few years, but eventually there will be an gain.

- With all this money being tossed around, where is Korea getting it? The government has expenses of its own like military, healthcare, etc. All the world's governments are suffering, so who's flipping bill? Bill Gates?

It's a gamble, very similar to WWII. Japan and Hitler hoped to sustain their economies through annexation of other countries, centralizing the natural resources of those occupied areas into the domestic market.

 

[Korten12]

I thought this quote from the article was really good:

Tae Kim elaborated. "The amount of research into the timeline and backstory was not an attempt to prove such events can really happen, but rather to create a unique, immersive and ultimately entertaining fictional setting for gamers. The speculative part of the storyline is not based on what we think 'could' happen, but rather what 'must' happen to bring the 'what if' scenario of a North Korean occupied United States to fruition."

 

[Corkydog]

As much as these reviews look good, I can already see people still coming into this thread and trolling about how homefront looks stupid.

Btw, did XboxAddict just post that review?

I'm not trolling...it just DOES look stupid. Those review scores are typical for a CoD clone, so until people start saying otherwise, that's what I'm going to assume it to be.

The game hasn't even come out yet and you're calling it a cod clone. All your doing is basing it off of appearance, how about you just wait till it comes out to judge the game.

Appearance, storyline, and gameplay. I mean, it's a modern day (or a little bit in the future) FPS. Where exactly is wiggle room in these elements? The only positive I've heard from it is also the only thing that sets it apart from CoD...vehicles. But that alone isn't enough to sell me on it.

Still you cant just call it a COD clone, the only thing that can be called of COD clone are the controls but come on, COD has one of the best controls for an FPS game (Halo also has a very good control scheme and gameplay feel). They are solid and well thought.

The storyline isnt form COD, you could talk about the portion of MW2 part in the USA but a lot of games did that before especially Freedom Fighters so why dont people complaint about it being a Freedom Fighter clone?

And for the appearence, its the "REAL" look, yeah, its generic and boring but it has nothing to do with COD.

It seems that if a game is a new IP and a modern FPS then it becomes a COD clone.
If it is in space its a Halo clone and if it is a sandbox game its a GTA clone. Stop calling new IP's clones, they have to take gameplay mechanics that already exist and are proven to work while adding a few new ones, that is how new IP's survive.

Well they could always, you know, not make an FPS. Given that it's the most overdone and generic category to put your game in.

If you are going to do an FPS, though, I suggest you not make it five hours long and set in "realistic" modern day. That's the only way you can make it even MORE generic.

I'm going to make a huuuuge non sequitor here to prove a point: You know what else is generic? Pizza. And guess what? Pizza is friggin delicious.

Case in point: Generic =/= bad. I don't know why you think it does, but it doesn't.

Also, to no one in particular, there is nothing wrong with shock value to disturb the audience. Part of the reason Homefront is set in the US is to bring the horrors of modern day warfare into the uncomfortably familiar setting of our front yard. Doing this will help garner sympathy and empathy for those who face these types of situations on a day to day basis. I'm looking at this game like a learning experience. And if it's too shocking for you, guess what? War ain't pretty.

 

[fierydemise]

Not that anyone will probably read this as this thread has devolved into a full scale flamewar by now but having played Homefront at PAX East (the first level anyway) a few thoughts.

1) The atmosphere of the first level is surprisingly good. I was expecting something pretty generic looking but storywise and atmospherically it plays pretty well. Yes the Koreans are ridiculously over caricatured but it works to create the right kind of atmosphere. You can make a decent argument that invoking nationalism for entertainment is cheating and smacks of some ridiculous nostalgia for less ambiguity in America vs. (and I would agree with you) but if you can set that aside the atmosphere is solid. The big problem is this only accentuates the narrative contortions required to give us a North Korean invasion, even accepting the feasibility of such an invasion by anyone (a nation of comparable military spending to the US would be hard pressed to succeed) the entire North Korea timeline is almost farcical. I could go on for at least on page on why this just doesn't work well and the hand-wavy speculative timeline strains credulity to the breaking point several times over, but I won't. If the developers had just gone with China the atmosphere of the first level would have been just right.

2) Gameplay-wise it feels like COD. Is this a bad thing? Not really, COD has good gameplay, to not copy it for the sake of not copying would be malfeasance. If it ain't broke don't fix it is in full effect here and if you liked COD you'll enjoy this too.

Overall (again from playing level one) it looks better then I expected but not worth $60. The biggest issue I see is that it doesn't really hit a target audience, the single player looks potentially very cool but requires players to accept the North Korea BS that is really hard to swallow. This means that a lot of people who may be interested in an atmospheric single player experience, what the game seems to be aiming at as a primary market, may be turned off. On the multiplayer side of things (didn't play it just commenting based on gameplay) its similarity to COD will probably be a major liability since convincing people to switch to a different game that is very similar to the one they are playing now (with probably a smaller install base) is a tough sell.

 

[nipsen]

I don't get it. Who gives a shit if a game is a Call of Duty clone or not? If it bothers people that much, why are they not just ignoring the game entirely?

Personally, I might give Homefront a shot at some point. The complete and utter ridiculousness of North Korea invading the USA appeals to my love of things that are batshit insane.

lol ..it's not actually about the invasion itself. The situation and the setting in the game is a country that has been under occupation for a number of years. The way it happened isn't really very important. And in the game - in a work of fiction like this - it is exactly as plausible as it has to be to create the background for the setting and the feeling they wanted to convey.

For American fiction, it's honestly pretty good. Deep, even. Without being some sort of whiny pseudo-cerebral preaching spree. ..seriously, I recommend it. It's going to surprise you.

Multiplayer.. well.. not bad. It's not bad. The setup is above average. Purely from a gameplay perspective, the movement and gunplay has personality and purpose. It's fairly slow, and isn't going to encourage the meta-gaming techniques that plague console-shooters. It doesn't favour grinding, it doesn't even favour scoring massive and high killstreaks from the outside of the map. It's all about cover, moving strategically, and taking objectives and ground together with the team.

They're apparently going to have regional servers as well.. at least EU, US, Japan. So it might turn out to be a very good game. If you haven't been spoilt by KZ2 and MAG, or require destructible cover and bullet-drop (Bad Company 2 - too bad EA's servers suck..) or something like that.. it's definitively worth a look. ..of course, it could still turn out to be terrible online, if the servers don't work too well, or they don't filter clients.

But from the viewpoint of creating a shooter that feels as if it makes sense, and is involving - even to people who don't play video-games all that much.. while also not being unfairly harsh on people who aren't extremely good at fps.. this is a very good attempt. Like I said, it has personality, and that's of course rare when it comes to fps..

 

[Soviet Steve]

I should note that despite my opposition to the notion of the plot being realistic I do not make claims to know whether this will be a good or a bad game. Such things are subjective and we can only speak for ourselves in this matter.

 

[Aphex Demon]

I honestly couldnt care less whether its a 'clone' or it's 'only good because of the press coverage'.

It looks damn good, the reviews say it's good. I'm gonna' get it.