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Mixed or average reviews - based on 36 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 420 Ratings

  • Summary: The year is 2027. The world has suffered a decade-long energy crisis, and economies have crumbled. Reduced to a mere shadow of the super power it once was, the United States became the target of a North Korean takeover. American malls, suburbs and city streets are now battlegrounds as the civilian resistance fights for freedom. Featuring a compelling single player story crafted by John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn), Homefront immerses gamers in an interactive and cinematic FPS experience where they assume an infantry role or take command of a wide variety of aerial and ground vehicles. In a land stripped of freedom, the brave will fight for their home. [THQ] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 36
  2. Negative: 3 out of 36
  1. Mar 23, 2011
    88
    I love this game, and despite a few forgivable flaws Homefront is easily one of the most immersive and emotional campaigns that come to mind in my 30 years of gaming. Sure, the campaign is short. Deal with it. With that ending there is either going to be a sequel or some killer DLC. Meanwhile, you can reap the rewards and satisfaction of some of the best multiplayer combat we've seen so far in 2011.
  2. Mar 29, 2011
    85
    An interesting background and some multiplayer goodness make Homefront a good buy if you love story-driven FPS and some online squad-based massacre. With some more polish, a tighter and slightly longer campaign and more content it could've been a great title.
  3. Mar 17, 2011
    74
    It features plenty of enemies, some pretty awesome locations, and a killer premise. Though the story falls flat about halfway through, and the game needs at least five more chapters to feel complete, you will have lots of fun in the short amount of time that you do have with the single player.
  4. Mar 23, 2011
    40
    The problem with Homefront isn't just that it sucks, which it certainly does. The problem is that it reveals just how badly many first-person shooters are starting to suck. It's a game that magnifies the preexisting trend of developing to the lowest common denominator.

See all 36 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 73 out of 190
  2. Negative: 77 out of 190
  1. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Single player campaign of this game is fairly average. But I really enjoyed multiplayer. It completely consumed me for 3 days since i bought it and now I play it when I only can. The amount of people hating on the game is driven by being too closed in call of duty games by me. Expand
  2. I wasn't intending to buy this game until I read a preview about it where the writer said it had the suburban look of MW2 and the feel of Half Life 2. It does feel a bit like HL2 but not as much as I was hoping for. MW2 obvious. I'm a bit over 3 hours into the story line and an hour into MP. The single player is fun! It looks great and the best modded Unreal 3 Engine I've seen so far. The physics in the game are very nice and entertaining. Explosions look great and if timed well will send bodies flying a good distance. The level design is done well. Subtle hints here and there to guide you and to catch your attention. The atmosphere is pretty creepy and embodies what an occupation may be like. You can see LOTS of time was put into the environments. Good attention to detail which most games out at the moment don't seem to be doing. The weapons sound punchy and satisfying. The same with ambient sounds. Nice looking blood splatter and animation. No dismemberment though... Why can't more games have this? It made Soldier of Fortune and COD World at War much more entertaining right?! The dialogue has given me a laugh here and there so far, but over all OK. On the other hand though 95% of all First Person Shooter game dialogue is garbage. When will decent writers start on video games? MP is a nice cross between Battle Field and COD World At War (ever notice how much more open the maps in World At War were?) And maybe a nod to counter-strike when purchasing a flak jacket after a re-spawn? The re-spawning is much better than COD, where as it makes sense and not just a blind spot. Not as much running and gunning compared to cod. Group re-spawn like BF a nice thing. Nothing groundbreaking but they have a decent mix of features from other popular MP games. it would be nice to see some more game modes though. The Game for me so far (3 1/4 hours in) is pretty sweet! It's not genre changing but delivers on everything it should just fine and is quite entertaining. I don't understand most of the negative things i read about it. What games are those guys playing that make them feel the need to condescend to most other games? Over all, the game for me is a solid B when most shooters I've played lately are a C+ at best. Thank God it's not like there PR red balloon stunt. LOL
    If the game keeps going like this, it's worth the $50 and you get to help support new games on PC at $50 and not starting at $60.
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  3. Homefront is a decent game. I'm mostly a PC gamer when it comes to shooters, and I'm not all that hardcore. This review is only about the single player campaign because I really care little for modern FPS multiplayer games.
    Homefront feels like another COD clone, because nowadays everything is a "COD clone", as if COD was the first ever FPS. However the singleplayer campaign is much more exciting and appealing than any crappy iteration of the aforementioned franchise. There are some awkward lines of dialogue, especially when the line is spoken out of cue. For instance, at one point the leader tells the girl to kill a guy, and she heads over to the person to be killed and halfway there she yells that she "didn't sign up for this **** This is followed by the leader telling her to grow a pair and the almost immediate execution of the guy. Mind you, this was in the middle of a "stealth" segment. Because apparently deranged American killers with trigger happy fingers don't see or hear you (or your squad) in broad daylight as you prance around their base and scream at each other. Then there's the matter that the leader himself is a weird obstinate guy that is not very likeable. Your squad also has a Korean tech geek that no one really likes. And then there's the chick, who has amazing hips. There was also a previous leader, but he was black and was therefore shot and hanged early on in the game. Oh, and there's this super awesome cannon on wheels thing that you can use to blow **** up by pointing at your target with a monocle.
    The gameplay itself is lots of fun, though. Guns feel amazing, and some of the scopes are super epic. There's not that much variety of weaponry in the game, mostly the same 6 or so guns with different attachments. I didn't find a way to decide what attachments I wanted and I feel that this was absolutely lame. Sure, you're a freedom fighter and have to use what you can grab, but what would stop me from taking a scope from X gun and putting it on X other one? Regardless, it's not that hard to find a nice suitable setup. Now, something that is really awkward is equipment usage. To swap between your two guns, you press 1. To throw a grenade you press G. Then I can't remember how the **** to throw C4, nor how to use a grenade launcher attachment, because it just wasn't intuitive.
    Enough about combat, what about pacing and missions? Missions are paced well. There are times when a tank will appear after obliterating a house next to you and you run away screaming like a little girl (I know I did) and then there's times when you're "sneaking" around. There's also lots of chest high walls, but there's no way to stick to them, which I like. Then there's also a segment where you fly a chopper and have to get your team to highjack some trucks. This part is very easy, slightly very unrealistic, but very fun nonetheless. It is worthy to note that this segment, which is, by the way, over way too soon, is the reason why these freedom fighters wanted you: you're a pilot. And you're really only useful those 5-10 minutes.
    Actually, that's an understatement, because as in many other shooters, your squad is a bunch of brain-dead morons. Upon occasion I would get shot from behind, only to turn around and see "nice hips" chick standing there staring at the guy.
    There's also an issue with the AI always wanting to kill YOU. For instance, an RPG dude on a tower: you haven't messed with him and for all intents and purposes he is blissfully ignorant of your existence; until you pop your head out of a window (a window on his blind side) and aim at him, then he figures out your location, intent, name, date of birth, sexual inclinations, how hot your sister is, etc., and lands a rocket straight down your throat. I guess some Koreans just have a bit of a David Copperfield thing going on.
    As far as rewards go, there are very little. Remember, you're struggling to fight some crazy asian people, seeing another day is your reward. Also, forget about saving Americans, because you pretty much doomed every single civilian you met.
    There is one really big problem I have with this game, and it's the fact that the ending was rushed and uninspired. Almost as if the devs thought: "hmmmm, I don't feel like writing more story, let's just have the leader kill-errrmm sacrifice himself and end it there."
    In conclusion, Homefront is a solid gameplay experience that will keep you on your toes. And, even though I find it to be better than COD, it just isn't too high a praise, it's just an alright game. In fact, I don't think I'll ever touch it again. So, if you'd like something tastier than COD, and happen to see Homefront on a Steam sale, by all means go ahead and grab it.
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  4. The game had an interesting (if nonsensical) premise and had some pretty neat stuff around that; I liked their attempts at building the atmosphere of a threat from the greater Korean republic, even if the basic premises involved were silly.

    This was, unfortunately, the only really good thing about the game. Its single player is very short - even on the highest difficulty on you first playthrough, it will likely take you only six hours to beat, and that's if you look for the collectibles - and the gameplay is cookie cutter, taken from every other FPS ever. Health regeneration is ridiculously fast and really makes it difficult to feel threatened by anything other than rocket launchers and one really neat sequence where you only start out with a pistol to fight back with (which was easily the best part of the game). The plot itself does little to help you feel complete - it felt a bit trite, and I would have liked to have actually done more to liberate America in that world rather than it simply ending with a single battle.

    If it was cheaper, say, $20, it would be an okay buy (I picked it up as part of the THQ collector's pack; I didn't even buy it for the game, but I figured, why not play it?) but for $50 you're setting your money on fire. Even so, though, the price isn't all that relevant; the gameplay experience isn't all that enthralling, so basically the only reason to play the game is if you find the premise interesting - there isn't anything else to it which will interest you.

    Perhaps the most offensive thing about the single player campaign is how you are led by your nose throughout the game - you basically have someone yell at you what to do, and there is only one way to do it, and only one path forward for a great deal of the game. The most decision making you make is whether to take cover on the left side of the street or the right side of the street - and at many points in the game you do not even have THAT much choice.

    It did well on establishing atmosphere, but there is nothing else to recommend it and a great deal to say that you should pass this by and purchase a better title. If you want an interesting FPS, I'd recommend Crysis 2, which has some neat stuff in it and is a lot more fun to play.
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See all 190 User Reviews

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