If this was on Facebook, I Would like it. As it is not, I must simply say: Kudos my good sir (Bob), kudos.bob1052 said:
Homefront Reviews - Average so far... 72%
- Thread starter Korten12
- Start date
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I realise I'm risking a ban here, but I already made a thread about this and didn't get in trouble, so here goes. Warning: long post.
Disclaimer: I neither condone, nor participate in piracy. Before you jump down my throat, read the entire following paragraph of my post.
I've actually been playing Homefront for the past two days - since it leaked. I already pre-ordered and paid for it, you see, and I can't - and wouldn't - cancel the pre-order (although technically I could bump it up to the collector's edition and pay more). When Homefront leaked, my friend offered to lend me his old modified & XBL banned 360 so I could play it before release if I wanted. I've already paid for the game, I'll received the retail version in a few days when it's released, so after asking for a few opinions on the Escapist, I took him up on his offer.
So, here's the deal so far:
Homefront does a lot to dissuade accusations of the improbability of its premise, providing plenty of info about how the US fell from the world top spot, how the Greater Korean Republic came to be, and so on. But that's about it as far as plot goes. The story isn't even remotely character driven and all characters involved are generic stock-types, although they are reasonably well voiced.
The combat is pretty similar to Call of Duty. Key differences are some tweaks to the regenerating health: in standard gameplay, you can't sustain anywhere near as much damage as you can in CoD. You'll die even quicker than in CoD's veteran mode if you stick your neck out for too long. To balance this, you also regenerate health much, much more quickly. A second or two out of the line of fire is all it takes to get back to full health.
This, in part, contributes to many cheap deaths. During some parts of the game, enemies have abnormal accuracy. They can and will land ten full auto shots on you in the space of 0.5 seconds, from far enough away that you can't see them, through tiny cracks in your cover. Often, you'll get hit in the face with some kind of rocket from nowhere, and as you drop to the ground you'll hear your team mates helpfully shout "RPG, top floor on the right!".
Thankfully, the game checkpoints so frequently that this is rarely an issue, though it leads to some areas becoming battles of trial and error rather than actual skill. The game also doesn't seem to have a good idea on how long it'll take the player to cover a certain amount of ground, and thus doesn't adjust its checkpoints to compensate for that. For example:
You may have to run through a typical building, covering about 40 feet of ground. It'll checkpoint as you enter, and you'll run through in a couple of minutes, taking out a few easy enemies along the way. The game then checkpoints again when you reach the other end.
Later, you may have to cover 40 feet of open battleground packed full of enemies attacking from all directions. This, as any cover-FPS player will tell you, involves staying in one spot for several minutes, popping out and picking off any enemies you can, then ducking back in to cover, before making a mad dash across 10 feet of land to the next cover spot, and repeating 'till you make it to your destination. This process can take 20+ minutes, but the game doesn't account for that, so there are no checkpoints along the way. You might spend 18 minutes arduously carving through 35 feet of battleground, only to catch a stray bullet to the face and end up back where you started.
Exacerbating these problems is the fact that your allies just will not shut up. They repeat the same few lines ad nauseum. This is bad enough when you make it through an area on your first attempt, it's outright infuriating when you're catching the fifth rocket-from-nowhere with your chin while your allies shout "We're pinned down!" for the ninetieth time.
Most of the battles are genuinely tense, exciting experiences though. When the aforementioned problems aren't cropping up - and admittedly, they don't happen too often - the game feels highly polished. The controls are responsive, hit detection is perfect, weapons are well balanced and "feel" right. The aim-assist is perfect, too. I don't know if it can be changed from its default setting (haven't tried), but I found it compensated just enough to overcome the natural disadvantages of analogue sticks, without draining away any of the challenge.
Weapons are standard fare. Aside from "Goliath", the self-piloting robot car that follows you around during a few battles early in the game (you use a targeting device to mark targets for its missile launcher), there's little here that you haven't seen in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
The touted "emotional" aspect of the game is fully present. Some scenes are genuinely difficult to watch, and they're handled well enough that they don't seem disrespectful to the subject matter. Additionally, some of the action setpieces are truly awesome - I won't spoil them for you, but I will tell you that on more the one occasion, my jaw really did drop.
Some of these moments come in the unavoidable vehicle sections. These areas are where Homefront both impressed and disappointed me. I haven't seen another FPS that handles vehicle sections as well as this, and yet Homefront does a lot to ruin that by letting the most initially impressive sections go on for way too long.
Graphically, Homefront is nothing special. Character models are unimpressive, and their faces barely move when they talk. Animations are stiff and robotic, blood looks entirely unrealistic and explosions are pretty tame. Environments look great though, and there are quite a few moments when it completely breaks free of the whole grey-brown shooter deal and throws in some stunning color.
Obviously, since my friend's modded 360 is banned and the game hasn't been released yet anyway, I can't comment on the multiplayer.
In my opinion, the game isn't bad. If you're a fan of Call of Duty you'll love it, 'cause it's basically the same thing but with a handful of new ideas, a few tweaks and more attempts to break up the typical cover-fire-cover-fire action. It doesn't really seem to be trying to set itself apart from the CoD mould, just to improve upon it, which it manages with varying success.
It goes without saying that if you don't like CoD, you won't like Homefront.
Anyway, I'm not a professional reviewer or a rabid CoD fan. I enjoy FPS games and I'll give any a chance. Take from this what you will.
Disclaimer: I neither condone, nor participate in piracy. Before you jump down my throat, read the entire following paragraph of my post.
I've actually been playing Homefront for the past two days - since it leaked. I already pre-ordered and paid for it, you see, and I can't - and wouldn't - cancel the pre-order (although technically I could bump it up to the collector's edition and pay more). When Homefront leaked, my friend offered to lend me his old modified & XBL banned 360 so I could play it before release if I wanted. I've already paid for the game, I'll received the retail version in a few days when it's released, so after asking for a few opinions on the Escapist, I took him up on his offer.
So, here's the deal so far:
Homefront does a lot to dissuade accusations of the improbability of its premise, providing plenty of info about how the US fell from the world top spot, how the Greater Korean Republic came to be, and so on. But that's about it as far as plot goes. The story isn't even remotely character driven and all characters involved are generic stock-types, although they are reasonably well voiced.
The combat is pretty similar to Call of Duty. Key differences are some tweaks to the regenerating health: in standard gameplay, you can't sustain anywhere near as much damage as you can in CoD. You'll die even quicker than in CoD's veteran mode if you stick your neck out for too long. To balance this, you also regenerate health much, much more quickly. A second or two out of the line of fire is all it takes to get back to full health.
This, in part, contributes to many cheap deaths. During some parts of the game, enemies have abnormal accuracy. They can and will land ten full auto shots on you in the space of 0.5 seconds, from far enough away that you can't see them, through tiny cracks in your cover. Often, you'll get hit in the face with some kind of rocket from nowhere, and as you drop to the ground you'll hear your team mates helpfully shout "RPG, top floor on the right!".
Thankfully, the game checkpoints so frequently that this is rarely an issue, though it leads to some areas becoming battles of trial and error rather than actual skill. The game also doesn't seem to have a good idea on how long it'll take the player to cover a certain amount of ground, and thus doesn't adjust its checkpoints to compensate for that. For example:
You may have to run through a typical building, covering about 40 feet of ground. It'll checkpoint as you enter, and you'll run through in a couple of minutes, taking out a few easy enemies along the way. The game then checkpoints again when you reach the other end.
Later, you may have to cover 40 feet of open battleground packed full of enemies attacking from all directions. This, as any cover-FPS player will tell you, involves staying in one spot for several minutes, popping out and picking off any enemies you can, then ducking back in to cover, before making a mad dash across 10 feet of land to the next cover spot, and repeating 'till you make it to your destination. This process can take 20+ minutes, but the game doesn't account for that, so there are no checkpoints along the way. You might spend 18 minutes arduously carving through 35 feet of battleground, only to catch a stray bullet to the face and end up back where you started.
Exacerbating these problems is the fact that your allies just will not shut up. They repeat the same few lines ad nauseum. This is bad enough when you make it through an area on your first attempt, it's outright infuriating when you're catching the fifth rocket-from-nowhere with your chin while your allies shout "We're pinned down!" for the ninetieth time.
Most of the battles are genuinely tense, exciting experiences though. When the aforementioned problems aren't cropping up - and admittedly, they don't happen too often - the game feels highly polished. The controls are responsive, hit detection is perfect, weapons are well balanced and "feel" right. The aim-assist is perfect, too. I don't know if it can be changed from its default setting (haven't tried), but I found it compensated just enough to overcome the natural disadvantages of analogue sticks, without draining away any of the challenge.
Weapons are standard fare. Aside from "Goliath", the self-piloting robot car that follows you around during a few battles early in the game (you use a targeting device to mark targets for its missile launcher), there's little here that you haven't seen in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
The touted "emotional" aspect of the game is fully present. Some scenes are genuinely difficult to watch, and they're handled well enough that they don't seem disrespectful to the subject matter. Additionally, some of the action setpieces are truly awesome - I won't spoil them for you, but I will tell you that on more the one occasion, my jaw really did drop.
Some of these moments come in the unavoidable vehicle sections. These areas are where Homefront both impressed and disappointed me. I haven't seen another FPS that handles vehicle sections as well as this, and yet Homefront does a lot to ruin that by letting the most initially impressive sections go on for way too long.
Graphically, Homefront is nothing special. Character models are unimpressive, and their faces barely move when they talk. Animations are stiff and robotic, blood looks entirely unrealistic and explosions are pretty tame. Environments look great though, and there are quite a few moments when it completely breaks free of the whole grey-brown shooter deal and throws in some stunning color.
Obviously, since my friend's modded 360 is banned and the game hasn't been released yet anyway, I can't comment on the multiplayer.
In my opinion, the game isn't bad. If you're a fan of Call of Duty you'll love it, 'cause it's basically the same thing but with a handful of new ideas, a few tweaks and more attempts to break up the typical cover-fire-cover-fire action. It doesn't really seem to be trying to set itself apart from the CoD mould, just to improve upon it, which it manages with varying success.
It goes without saying that if you don't like CoD, you won't like Homefront.
Anyway, I'm not a professional reviewer or a rabid CoD fan. I enjoy FPS games and I'll give any a chance. Take from this what you will.
It looks like CoD trying to sell itself on the plot rather than the Multi player... so I'm not gonna get it... it looks stupid too... and chances are the whole "emotional" aspect will just come down to shooting civilians which effects me as much as going on a killing spree in a top down GTA game...
They won't say it looks stupid, they will comment on how the story is unrealistic because their brain can't comprehend what "fiction" is unless it is scifi.Saucycardog said:
OT: Umm... cool, I guess? I don't care much about ratings, but already preordered this...
haha initially I thought the thread was saying it had average reviews so far and I was like ?? with 90%
this looks like a good rental though. though I do want to read the reviews for myself fist
but yeah...seriously people! I didn't realize the Escapist was becoming YouTubeBrian Hendershot said:
this looks like a good rental though. though I do want to read the reviews for myself fist
I've got money to burn so I'm going to buy it when it comes out in the UK on Friday, regardless of the reviews.
Yay! Red scare simulator!
I've seen the first mission. You see Koreans murder innocent civilians in front of their children. Probably would be an outcry over such a portrayal, had it been any country other than NK. Game developers love character assassinations of other nations.
I've seen the first mission. You see Koreans murder innocent civilians in front of their children. Probably would be an outcry over such a portrayal, had it been any country other than NK. Game developers love character assassinations of other nations.
If you haven't played it, don't give it away just yet, it's fantastic.TEMHOTA said:
Good news there, i was a little worried because of all the negativity around here, so much I tried to ignore it but I've seen people reference it in other threads. What do they actually hate about it? Because I wonder whether this is misdirected rage here. A backlash against modern warfare games at the wrong time and on the wrong game. Save it for modern warfare 3 people, even if it fails, homefronts trying to be different.
I think I speak for everyone who says Homefront's story is unrealistic when I say we expected it to be realistic because they told us to. They've been hammering the IT CAN HAPPEN YOU GUYS keys since the internet uttered its first 'uh what'? In fact, if it only took place in an alternate reality instead of THE FUTURE YOU GUYS I wouldn't be harping on it.Assassin Xaero said:
Well, not as much anyway. It's still based on the premise that in a war in which a technologically advanced cultural monopoly invades a small country and destroys it culture, the US would be the invaded. But at least it could be based on a different concept of the US.
I'm still actually thinking of buying it now (which is mega rare because I tend to wait years before I get my money - hell, this week I bought Mass Effect 2 and I think I bought it early) just so I can see the multiplayer as it was meant to be played, because I'm sure that in a few months it'll be a wasteland and out of the score of 'realistic' FPS this is the only one taking Battlefield's lead instead of CoD's.
What I mean is FPS's are about are varied as they can get, while RTS's and RPG's are the ones which are generic.ZombieGenesis said:
So much more could be done with these genres but its often the same thing over and over. Almost all RPG's consist of building a base, gathering resources and crushing the enemy base. I haven't heard of many RPG's that don't focus on leveling up and acquiring more and more powerful items and fighting enemies which get gradually tougher as you level up.
Of course, you could say the same about shooters, but compare Half-Life to Call of Duty, compare Left 4 Dead to Bioshock, compare Doom to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Now, compare practically any RPG with another and they will be even more similar than the shooters, with the only real difference being the setting.
With regard to Homefront itself the developers are at least considering things which others are not, to me that is worthy of merit.