Ooh, this one. I remember it had the advertising hype, and when it was released developers and publishers faced the commercial failure. Both of them are to blame for this - developers for making a generic First Person Shooter, publishers for hyping this ♥♥♥♥ up. I have played it before, beaten it to the end, I did it for the sake of completing it, not because I was enjoying it. Then, when I got it on Steam, I have decided to give it another try, just to see if I can find it more enjoyable than the last time, but no, this game is bad in many ways.

The game is set in the United States Of America, after they got invaded by North Korea. Yeah, get the taste of your own medicine, boo hoo. But seriously, 'Muricans should think about this scenario, you know, sometimes. Not always like every single day, but sometimes... Anyway, while the plot was a good idea, the game failed to deliver almost every single thing that makes an FPS game good. I will break it down to good and bad stuff about it.

The game has good variety of weapons, and you can tell that from the very start, when enemies drop their cool weaponry. Most remarkable being the assault rifles with different scopes and different firing modes, and all of them having different, unique design. Other types of weapons include pistols, shotguns, snipers, machine guns and anti-armour weapons, but they seem less impressive in design and variety. The shooting sounds sound convincing and appropriate, the recoil is not obstructive, voice acting is solid and the graphics look decent. That is it. That is all the good stuff Homefront has to offer. Now for the bad stuff.

Let us start with the movement. The game has linear level design, with buildings, walls and ruins creating natural obstacles, but on certain occasions players will stumble upon invisible walls. Imagine that, invisible walls in an already linear game design. Sometimes on the open surfaces, which are small areas in this game, if you decide to wander off a bit away from the NPCs, you will hit the invisible wall. That feels so pathetic, because it takes away the immersion. I have never played a First Person Shooter with the invisible walls on linearly designed maps, it is something that should not be in a game. I don’t know what is with the games which use Nvidia Physics in the development process. Some developers do it right, like 4A Games, with the Metro series, but others don’t. Most developers who use Nvidia Physics tend to make the games with invisible walls, clunky movement which can be caused by a slightest bump in the ground. That can be witnessed in Call Of Duty – World At War, when one walks over small stones and cans on the ground. Some other examples of games with clunky movement using Nvidia Physics include Darkest Of Days and The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing – Final Cut. Nvidia advertised its engine as a revolutionary thing, with all the crazy physics details in the presentation video. The question is do they deliver, or do developers fail to implement it properly. Who can tell. Back to Homefront now.

While assault rifles are great to shoot with, and are available in variety of models, other weapons are not so diverse in models. One of the funny things I have noticed is the Steam achievement for killing 25 enemies with a knife. The level design is so poorly done, it is hard to get close to the enemies, and kill them with a knife. Maybe it’s doable on the easiest difficulty, but on normal and higher, it is not. The enemies hit so hard with their bullets, it is hard to break through their suppressing fire, let alone to score some melee kills. Since I was disappointed with the single player campaign I have decided to try out the multiplayer instead. I was in for another surprise – the multiplayer servers are almost always empty. No wonder, since the game was a failure, as I mentioned earlier. The single player campaign is very short, less than 4 hours short, and while the setting is unique, the story is not so good.

Homefront fails on many fronts, so it is the best to wage war in other First Person Shooters. Not recommended.

Ooh, this one. I remember it had the advertising hype, and when it was released developers and publishers faced the commercial failure. Both of them are to blame for this - developers for making a generic First Person Shooter, publishers for hyping this shit up. I have played it before, beaten it to the end, I did it for the sake of completing it, not because I was enjoying it. Then, when I got it on Steam, I have decided to give it another try, just to see if I can find it more enjoyable than the last time, but no, this game is bad in many ways. The game is set in the United States Of America, after they got invaded by North Korea. Yeah, get the taste of your own medicine, boo hoo. But seriously, 'Muricans should think about this scenario, you know, sometimes. Not always like every single day, but sometimes... Anyway, while the plot was a good idea, the game failed to deliver almost every single thing that makes an FPS game good. I will break it down to good and bad stuff about it. The game has good variety of weapons, and you can tell that from the very start, when enemies drop their cool weaponry. Most remarkable being the assault rifles with different scopes and different firing modes, and all of them having different, unique design. Other types of weapons include pistols, shotguns, snipers, machine guns and anti-armour weapons, but they seem less impressive in design and variety. The shooting sounds sound convincing and appropriate, the recoil is not obstructive, voice acting is solid and the graphics look decent. That is it. That is all the good stuff Homefront has to offer. Now for the bad stuff. Let us start with the movement. The game has linear level design, with buildings, walls and ruins creating natural obstacles, but on certain occasions players will stumble upon invisible walls. Imagine that, invisible walls in an already linear game design. Sometimes on the open surfaces, which are small areas in this game, if you decide to wander off a bit away from the NPCs, you will hit the invisible wall. That feels so pathetic, because it takes away the immersion. I have never played a First Person Shooter with the invisible walls on linearly designed maps, it is something that should not be in a game. I don’t know what is with the games which use Nvidia Physics in the development process. Some developers do it right, like 4A Games, with the Metro series, but others don’t. Most developers who use Nvidia Physics tend to make the games with invisible walls, clunky movement which can be caused by a slightest bump in the ground. That can be witnessed in Call Of Duty – World At War, when one walks over small stones and cans on the ground. Some other examples of games with clunky movement using Nvidia Physics include Darkest Of Days and The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing – Final Cut. Nvidia advertised its engine as a revolutionary thing, with all the crazy physics details in the presentation video. The question is do they deliver, or do developers fail to implement it properly. Who can tell. Back to Homefront now. While assault rifles are great to shoot with, and are available in variety of models, other weapons are not so diverse in models. One of the funny things I have noticed is the Steam achievement for killing 25 enemies with a knife. The level design is so poorly done, it is hard to get close to the enemies, and kill them with a knife. Maybe it’s doable on the easiest difficulty, but on normal and higher, it is not. The enemies hit so hard with their bullets, it is hard to break through their suppressing fire, let alone to score some melee kills. Since I was disappointed with the single player campaign I have decided to try out the multiplayer instead. I was in for another surprise – the multiplayer servers are almost always empty. No wonder, since the game was a failure, as I mentioned earlier. The single player campaign is very short, less than 4 hours short, and while the setting is unique, the story is not so good. Homefront fails on many fronts, so it is the best to wage war in other First Person Shooters. Not recommended.