Thanks to the developers at Dambusters and Publisher Deep Silver for providing a really fun new IP for me to enjoy and escape.

As one of my most anticipated FPS games this year I never faltered even after a middling beta(I didn't play) and middling reviews(suckers buy games day one) I did my usual.I sat back relaxed and played other games while it received a few patches, updates and a price drop where I was comfortable and upon completion what different gaming universe do I live in? Homefront TR is part Dying Light, Fallout, The Division, Half-Life 2, and Far Cry and while it doesn't achieve greatness as some of those titles it does the next best thing, it provides a helluva lot of fun in both single player and surprising co op gameplay.

Lets talk about performance since everyone today seems to go ballistic if there is a minor issue. During gameplay I had all options set to high including V-sync,playing at 2560x1080 and never had any frame rate(60+), crashes or game breaking issues. In game I did notice enemies would disappear in the distance on occasion and some minor sound outages but game play for the most part is fast and solid. I Also noticed if you downsized the game to the toolbar and brought it back up you would need to restart the game as it just seems to chug. Its an open world game where minor hic cups will exsist and if you dont know that by now stop playing them.

Homefront begins with one of the most brutal opening seqences I can remember it's very disturbing and cringe worthy as are some of the melee kills and just scenes of violence. You are cast as the typical silent protagonist Ethan Brady who arrives to the front lines of the resistance for a meeting with their leader Benjamin Walker. Walker is captured during this meet and greet and this sets up the main story and thrusts you straight into the world of the revolution where North Korea(the Norks as they are called) has taken over the US due to unpaid gas bills. The story is split into 4 acts and it doesn't give a very good first impression but if you hang in there the voice work, mo cap and some moments have feeling but because you are mute with no opinion you just follow orders, whether right or wrong. HUGE problem for the story and huge mistake by the devs but overall its not bad.

While the game bills itself as open world its really divided into three zones. The green and yellow zones are the heart of the enemy and where they are they strongest. The environments are clean and is militarized with constant enemy patrols. This is also where most of the regular population resides and these patrols, scanners, cameras and drones have a constant presence and stealth is required. The red zone is more chaotic, open and war torn. The buildings are bombed out, roads are an obstacle course of carnage and the resistance actually has a small advantage if any. This is where you can freely roam with a gun in the open, easily recruit resistance members to help with missions and you will also be given the ability to use a motorcycle to get around. Breaking these areas up into these zones keeps gameplay from being stagnant and was a great decision by the devs.

In these zones you will be given the usual main or side open world missions which involve sabotage, reconnaissance, retrieval, investigation, etc. All are familiar but depending on the objective and zone there are a lot of ways to approach each mission and end goal. This approach is highlighted by outstanding level(world) design and the tools at your disposal. One additional task you will be given in each zone is to make the people 'rise up' or as its called in game win "hearts and minds". This is mandatory as some missions and zones will stay locked until you reach 100% resistance for that particular zone. Increasing resistance can be accomplished by turning on radios know as the voice of freedom, completing flash missions, liberating strategic sites, saving civilians, assassinating targets, or just blowing stuff up. I can't tell you how awesome this feature is especially as the resistance grows NPCs begin to act different, say different things and it truly feels you are impacting the world and that's pretty cool a definite highlight for the game.

One thing absolutely clear at the start is you are underpowered and its highlighted with limited weapons, gadgets and amount of damage you absorb before falling. It makes sense the resistance is underpowered and the weapons and guerrilla tool kits(GTK) have a unique home made feel which is another cool highlight. However, being able to purchase GTKs and scarce resources at the store is sort of confusing. Every weapon you purchase except the RPG can be converted into 3 weapons and all have different attachments. The animations for the weapon conversions are cool and the weapons themselves are solid, a lot of fun and in some cases a little too good(hello auto matic shotgun). There are also 4 GTks you can equip at all times that include hacking, molotovs, pipe bombs, and firecracker. All of these base GTKs can be converted and then used as a remote(use smart phone to detonate), proximity(land mine), or driven on on an RC car and detonated. As you explore the world you will also be scrounging parts or finding hidden stashes to build gadgets and a reason being able to purchase them at the store is a mistake.

As for the world of Homefront its beautiful though it doesn't look like a Cryengine game in some aspects. Graphically it doesnt compare to the likes of The Diviions but it equals it with its attention to detail. Every room, alley, street, tunnel, and bombed out building all look unique it's really impressive and it makes exploring so much fun. Character models on the other hand look impressive as do animations and mo cap.

The absolute biggest suprise in Homefront are the co op missions. A co op vetern with my friend Silver(15+ co op adventures) we absolutely loved this mode. There are 10 missions(2-4 players) that are mulit mission based and avg. about 15-25 minutes each. As it was in single player you begin bare bones and are very vulnerable at the start so a little grinding is necesary. The level cap is only 6 and money(at various prices) is then used to unlock chests which give you armor, consumbles, guns, attachments. As you gain XP and DNA you can then spend them in 4 skill trees labeled Brains, Brawn, fighter, Survivor. None of the trees differentiate themselves and once you have maxed your charcter and skills you are unable to respec those points. All that said its fanatstic co op fun and challenging.

Homefront is a pretty ambitious game that has been through the ringer of development and unfortunately due to bad release it has been killed by the casual reviewers polluting the industry. Dambusters did not waiver and have continued to provide patches, updates and support. I like the game its not perfect and maybe it was too big for this small team but its provided dozens of hours of fun and that's all I ever ask out of a game.

I played the game with m/kb 2560x1080 High setting on Deathwish difficulty

Positives
Great Atmosphere world feels lived in
Solid 60FPS performance 1080P(2560x1080) high settings
Fun gameplay all around
Great level design. Multiple paths offer choice on how to approach objectives
Mo cap and acting is pretty good, story is ok
Hearts and Minds and watching change is unique and awesome
Weapons and GTKs are a lot of fun to use
Suprising and addicting mission based co op

Negatives
Slow start does not give a good first impression
Enemy and variety is very lacking. Also I hated more of my comrades than any of the NKs
Poor sound and graphic optimization
Can't use phone/map while on motorcycle
You are a mute with no opinion
Being able to purchase GTKs and resources at the store makes no sense
A few bugs and obvious game would have benefited with another 6-12 months of development

Game is much better than I expected after reading reviews. Setting is awesome (non-combatants NPC behavior looks very natural, every house/ruin looks different and natural). Checkpoints don’t similar to each other thus not became boring. Graphics is on very good level. Music is also nice. On-fly weapon mods attachment is just awesome. Scenario is quite nice (at least much better that in several recent CoD)

The game constantly locks up, if you wait a little however it will start responding again. The developers are poor programmers and have no idea how to properly manage computer assets particularly memory.

This application was poorly written and the developers need to move to a more managed code design, daily builds, pre-checkin checks, cpp check or sonarQube, like anything really. i feel sorry for any "programmers" that had to work 40 hour weeks on this pile of rubbish.

Its sort of fun in a nutshell.

Has the feeling/gameplay type like far cry 3/4.. you know the so called allied. Those allies not doing anything but yet showing up after the battle to have the stones to take credit for taking credit and then wanting your help. Just like.. far cry 3.

AI sucks though on your side of course, the enemies hack through walls maybe 25-30% of the time so they'll see you through it some how. Or they'll just spawn like directly behind you. Which is annoying as all can get out. No major bugs but I got it when they've probably fixed most of what others had in the beginning plus for 20$.. Its worth it probably. I say 20 cause I got it cheaper with steam wallet.

Also even though I recommend it I doubt there will be a third. Considering that the first homefront botched its release by bugginess and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ campaign. Now this one being the exact same on launch day with having problems. So.. pretty sure sales on both and reviews at the start have killed the franchise.

I had a good time with it. You're looking at around 20 hours give or take worth of content if you're willing to deal with frustrating ai and doing the same objective over and over again. To be fair, it gives you a lot of ways to takle objectives, which i loved. In one part i had to release a prisoner with 2 heavies and a armored convoy nearby. I set up remote decoys ahead of time and approached from a different direction. When the convoy passed i remotely activated the decoys, rushed in and hacked the panels to let the prisoner out, only to have to fight my way out and run. If this game gets something right is the feeling of being chased. In an actual scale of 1 - 10 where anything lower than 7 is ♥♥♥♥ i would give this a 6/10. Super fun.

Lame.

Fun game but needs more content.

awsome graphics, but lowsey gameplay, player hard to control, items vauge. difficult to tell what is colectable/not. targeting is very hard. I love fps. This one is beautiful but looks are in this case are pixel deep. glad I only paid $39 for whole set not the steam price through cdkeys online.

Garbage

I really enjoyed the game, it wasn't such a smooth experience as say Far Cry 3 and 4.

But it was a nice challenge (for me) and you don't really end up like a one man army like Far Cry, you die in a few shots just like your enemies.

It was simply a fun game.

Oh and it ran smoothly 60 fps all game long, it was great. (GTX 970)