You know, I love a FPS game. There have been so many classics over the year that have made me fall even more and more in love with the FPS genre, that it is always disappointing to see when a FPS shooter lives up to the genre expectations and standards. A few shooters we have seen over the last 12 months have fallen foul of that genre, and it`s something I personally as a fan hate to see. After playing the Homefront Beta not too long ago and being left sincerely disappointed, I was very eager and keen to see whether Deep Silver had listened to fan feedback and improved what was needed in a game that had been preliminarily played in an awful way. However, after about 10 minutes of playing the game, I feared that it was going to be another game that got shelved very quickly.
Homefront: The Revolution is a game developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver, the company behind the Dead Island series, and most recently, have taken over the developing of the Saints Row series. It has been 5 years since we have seen the original release of Homefront on the Xbox 360, and Homefront: The Revolution is very much seen as a re-boot of the series, and after this, gaming fans may well be hoping that we don’t get another game like this.
Now, differentially from the original Homefront game, there are many different districts to explore within the Homefront map, which exploring opening up new missions and side missions to do and conquer. You`re able to scavenge crate, boxes and people for ammo and weapons that will help you take over the city from KPA control. Now, I found this very similar to the Far Cry series in terms of Gameplay, and the objective of exploring different areas of the map in order to open up new progressive missions and objectives. Now, I`m a huge fan of the Far Cry series, but it seems that they`ve taken the very similar approach for Homefront and it hasn’t worked at all. I for one, feel that most FPS games follow the conventions of playing through a narrative storyline, and for me is a typical generic convention of the FPS genre, and although I think Dambuster have tried to do something a bit different within a FPS, similar to a game such as Far Cry or most notably and recently, The Division, they struggle big time.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think the game in parts looks pretty slick and sweet. It doesn’t take full advantage of the graphical capabilities of the next-gen consoles, but in areas it does look good. However, throughout the game, it is very flawed in terms of frame drop rates and bugs. Many times have I found the game lagging and dropping the frame rates, and this is something that appears hasn’t been addressed from the beta. The beta was flawed and bugged very similar to this, and it`s something that has ruined the game from the start. I`d like to think that Dambuster will release a patch for the game that will address these issues, but similar to Unity of the Assassins creed series, that was also plagued at the start with the same sort of issues in terms of low frame rate drops and bugs, but was addressed later on, and I sincerely think and hope that we see something similar.
You can change your guerrilla fighter throughout the game in order to have a more fighting arsenal depending on how you want to approach people. Want to go full in with a heavy assault from the front? You can customize to do that. Are you someone who likes the quiet, stealthier and sneaky approach around the front? You can do that. You have customization over your arsenal, and what you want to do in terms of being loaded to take down the KPA. You`ll need to get the people of Philadelphia (the setting for which the KPA have taken full control over) by tuning in radios to a propaganda channel, freeing prisoners, and killing KPA. You`ll need to gain the respect, trust and build your army against what is a very difficult fight against the KPA. You`ll find though throughout the game that patient is needed, as you`ll come up against several KPA that will much more powered and much more difficult to take down than you. It`s a game that after a while, you could find yourself getting slightly frustrated with. Breaks are needed in what will begin to feel like a down-burden on you, as you try your hardest to take down KPA, only to come up against a much more over-powered match.
I think that Homefront is a game that once fixed, and ridden of lag and frame rate drops, could be a good game. I don’t think it`ll ever be a game that makes people want to go and buy it at the top of their game list, and there`s loads more coming out that will be much higher up the top of your purchase list, but it has the potential to be a good FPS game for those who are fans of that genre. It`s a game that needs to be fixed quickly, as seeing the frame rates drop so often in a little space of time is what will turn people off wanting to get it. It`s a game that I feel has been rushed into final release, and after playing through the beta, there`s not much difference and it doesn’t appear anything has been rectified, and that will cost the game dearly.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a Review copy of Homefront: The Revolution
