First-person-shooter fatigue. It’s a not entirely uncommon syndrome, and I’m suffering from it. In an already overcrowded genre, with multiple development studios trying desperately to chip away at the market share owned by the Call of Dutys and Halos of this generation, I’ve recently become largely disinterested in anything that proffers the “first-person-shooter” moniker. Lately, I can stomach only so many variations of “Capture The Flag” or “Team Deathmatch” before I start losing interest faster than you can say “kill/death ratio”. After taking a break of sorts, purposely avoiding the genre for little more than a year, my self-imposed hiatus ceased with the recently released Killzone 3, and now (the purpose of this rather long-winded introduction) Kaos Studios’ Homefront. My full impressions after the jump.

In truth, I want nothing more than a change so unique in the genre that it would reignite my interest again, something that would break the mould, that would force me to temporarily put down my controller in order to pick my jaw up off the floor. Homefront certainly attempts to do some things a little differently, but in the end it’s just another first-person-shooter, always treading familiar ground, and always being an inferior carbon-copy of the first-person-shooter genre tropes.

The Ho-Hum Horrors of War

The story, taking place in a not-too-distant future (officially touted as being “frighteningly plausible”), ends up being an awkwardly paced, overly-grim affair that never delivers the emotional punch it so eagerly tries to get across. You’re Robert Jacobs, an ordinary and faceless former US marine drawn into extraordinary circumstances. The introductory cut-scene relates the fictional lead-up of events from 2011 to the current year (2027), cleverly using real-world news footage interspersed with fictional filler to introduce the economic downfall of the U.S., and how they came about finding themselves amidst the chaos of a full-scale invasion by the Greater Korean Republic — a unified North and South Korea.  And like so many other first person shooters, you’re a silent protagonist. When you get prompted to speak with an NPC, you’ll find that, of course, everyone around you will be doing all the talking. Apparently you’re just a mute along for the ride, initiating conversations with perhaps the lift of an eyebrow, or a narrowing of the eyes.

The story feels like endless attempts to grab you by the collar and shake you around screaming “Feel something, dammit!”. It constantly highlights senseless killings, and tries incessantly to convey the senselessness of war itself. It ends up being forced — almost comically so — and with zero emotional investment in yourself as a character, you’re left feeling largely detached from everything happening around you. It often feels like you’re nothing more than a spectator, dragged from the (rather dingy) comforts of home to be guided through a series of half-baked combat scenarios lead by a resistance group as thinly characterized as a Saturday morning Scooby-Doo special. There are some instances here and there where certain events would trigger some interesting scenarios, but they’re almost immediately let down by being followed by completely scripted sequences where you’ll just need to press forward on your analogue stick to get to the next section of actual gameplay.

A First-Person-Shooter Checklist

Luckily, said gameplay is fairly solid. Not exceptional, but certainly serviceable. Most weapons have sufficient and satisfying recoil, headshots are one-shot kills (as they should be), and only the more armoured enemy grunts act as bullet sponges, but it never borders on being ridiculous (Ed — A bullet sponge isn’t ridiculous??). You expect a heavily armoured soldier to take a few more bullets to take down, and you’ll never feel it’s unfairly balanced or that you’re fighting scientifically-engineered super-humans. A.I. is mostly questionable, with enemies constantly casually walking across your line of fire. The game never really excels in any one thing it attempts to achieve, but with the single player campaign being exceptionally short (between five and six hours), it thankfully never outstays its welcome. Add in some much needed unintentional comic relief in the form of some questionable grenade physics (“I’ll just stand next to this here grenade to fly over that building out yonder”), and you’re left with a single player campaign that is a mildly entertaining, utterly average experience — obligatory sniper, turret, and vehicle levels included.

Unfortunately this rather middling trend bleeds over to the graphics and technical department as well. You’ll be fighting mostly through make-shift shanties and suburban areas, while the last few levels open things up a bit. However, it’s only once you reach the final level that the visuals start impressing a bit more.  Jaggies are ever-present, the frame-rate chugs slightly in places where the action gets a bit too frantic, and a bit of anti-aliasing would have gone a long way towards make the game feel a bit smoother. It’s not entirely uneasy on the eyes, but from an aesthetic and artistic direction it’s mostly instantly forgettable.

Capture Dem Flags!

But of course, the meat of the package is the online multiplayer, and so with slightly dampened enthusiasm I fired up the multiplayer portion of the game. It is immediately evident that they clearly need to release another patch for the game, because the effort I expended to get a session going ended up being a laborious slog through numerous freezing issues in the lobby, manual forced restarts, and 20+ minute waits just to get into a game. Apparently, if you simply join a friend already in a multiplayer game, there are far fewer hassles, but it’s hardly a viable permanent solution. So, close to 40 minutes later, I was in a game, Ground Control (essentially a “Capture the Flag” mode), ready to blaze an endless barrage of lead into the digitized faces of my enemies. Contrary to my expectations, I was immediately surprised by how lag-free and smooth the rest of the experience was. Frame-rates seem more stable than in the single player campaign, and I was (almost) having enough fun to forget about the horrible start I had to get the multiplayer experience going.

The trick up its sleeve is something called Battle Points (BP), which are separate from your experience points: it acts as a currency you earn during matches with which to purchase certain perks within the same match. For example, within my very first round I earned enough BP to respawn in a tank. Hell yeah! It’s a great addition, especially for players just starting out and competing against levelled up veterans, and means that rookies are always presented with a possible ace-in-the-hole, something that could end up turning the tide for a match.

Is it enough to lure players away from the more established staple franchises? No. While the multiplayer portion is the only place where the glimmer of innovation sparkles, it’s let down by all its other deficiencies, with the main culprit being that you’ve seen all of this before, and it’s nowhere near as good what you’ve already seen.

In the end, Homefront didn’t succeed in luring me back to the genre. It is completely mired in its own boxed conventions. It’s just another shooter, fresh from the assembly line, indistinguishable from the pack, and inferior in every way to the behemoths leading the charge.

5.5/10