North Korea invades United States, new first person shooter

Huan Vo

Unconventional and original ideas thrive in the game industry. An adventure takes place in Chopin’s deathbed dreams, a pile of meat’s on a quest to rescue his bandage girlfriend from a fetus, just to name a few. As one of those ideas, Homefront tells the story of an occupied United States in 2027.

After an EMP attack that leaves it crippled and vulnerable, the United States is invaded by a unified Korea under the leadership of North Korea.

As the faceless and voiceless protagonist Richard Jacobs, you join the Resistance to take back the country piece by piece.

Penned by John Milius, the writer of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now, Homefront delivers unforgettable moments and successfully conveys the despair and brutality of an occupied United States with interment camps and executions on the street.

Even with an intrigue setting, the campaign of Homefront fails to stand out. It has everything you can find from a generic first-person shooter: a sniping mission, an escort mission, and a big finale, capped with an ending that’s open for a sequel.

Its length also fails to impress. With only three to five hours of game play, gamers who demand value from the single player should look elsewhere.

But if you decide to stay, you’ll find a fun and enjoyable campaign to tackle. Since your squad only has three people, including you, at any given time, you’re always outnumbered.

It gives players a great sense of urgency and helplessness of a country being invaded.

Just like any other shooters on the market, Homefront comes with a multiplayer mode jam-packed with weapons, vehicles, perks and unlockables.

It features a standard Team Death match mode and an objective-based Ground Control mode in which two teams battle to hold a line of objectives and earn points to win.

Though the modes are limited, what sets themselves apart from the flock is the Battle Commander.

In essence, each team is assigned an AI-controlled commander that overlooks a match. It identifies enemies who rack up kills as threats.

Then, it assigns players on its team to eliminate the threats. On the other team, the commander rewards the threats with equipments to give them an edge to survive. It’s a cool mode that mixes things up and keeps multiplayer from getting old.

Thanks to dedicated servers, the multiplayer mode can hold up to 32 players, making the battlefield chaotic and fast-paced. It also features a Battle Point system.

Everything you do, from killing enemies to holding the objectives, earns you points that can be spent on equipments and vehicles.

As opposed to a somewhat lackluster campaign, Homefront’s multiplayer is hands-down one of the best that offers lots of bang for your buck.

But Homefront is not without its flaws. The game’s graphic is dated.

The shadows are messy, low-resolution textures pop in frequently, and the frame rate is choppy. The AI is also buggy from time to time.

During my play through, my AI squad mates got bugged three times and hindered my progress, forcing me to load the last checkpoint. Fortunately, this seems to happen randomly.

On the multiplayer side, although lag is an issue, it doesn’t happen too often to ruin the fun.

With an original story and an intrigue setting, Homefront has everything to be a great game.

Unfortunately, it lacks polish and falls short of expectations.

That being said, if you can overlook its technical shortcomings, you’ll find a fun campaign and a deep multiplayer that will keep you occupied for months to come.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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