Homefront
Released by THQ
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Windows
Reviewer: Brandon Ennals

Homefront is a first person shooter based in the year 2027. The world is in turmoil and North Korea has successfully invaded The United States. As always, I started playing the campaign before I played the multiplayer. I usually do this since it gives me a good idea of the map models, how the weapons work, and just to get a feel of the controls overall. The controls can best be compared to the controls in the Call of Duty franchise.
When you start the campaign, your character is captured by the North Koreans. As they transport you to an unknown location, you see Americans being lined up and beaten in the streets. You pass by some locations that appear to be POW camps. Then there is a big explosion and the bus you are riding on flips after an explosion. You see a resistance group has rescued you and that’s when the action begins.
The campaign was pretty fun overall. The action is pretty fun and the AI is pretty challenging. It seems like all of the enemies know exactly where you are, but at least your resistance teammates try to help keep them at bay. Nothing irritates me more than bad AI. I’ve seen opposing forces run past each other in games before and it drives me nuts, so thankfully that wasn’t the case. The weapons were all pretty fun, especially the sniper rifles and the LMGs. The writing in the campaign was very solid. The script was written by John Milius, who also wrote Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now. The acting was pretty solid also. Overall, the campaign was fun.
Now on to the multiplayer. There are really only two different game versions on multiplayer, Team Deathmatch and Ground Control. If you are reading this, I’m pretty sure you know what Team Deathmatch is. Ground Control is a game where you try to capture locations to gain your team points. There are three locations, so it is a constant battle either trying to capture a location or defend the location. For Call of Duty fans out there, its best compared to the Domination game mode but the maps and gameplay are similar to the Battlefield games.
Since there are only two basic multiplayer versions, THQ had to tweak those game modes a bit. You can play those game modes individually, or you can play another version that will rotate between the games. You can also play a version on these games but under the Battle Commander title. This game mode will mark the person with the highest kill streak so everyone on the map knows where this person is. This is a fun game mode because as your notoriety increases, more people set their sights on taking you out.
As with most games, the multiplayer mode is the most important aspect of the game for me. When I buy a game, replay ability is one of the most important aspects of my purchase. This game has pretty good replay ability because as you rank up, you unlock other weapons, abilities, and rewards. Speaking of rewards, the rewards system is probably my favorite thing about the game. You accrue battle points as you capture objectives or kill enemies. You can spend those battle points on weapons, armor, and vehicles. Its not a kill streak reward. The points you earn stay with you, which is a nice change of pace.
Overall, I like the game but don’t love it. I don’t regret buying it, but if someone asked me if they should buy it, I would tell them wait a month and try to buy a used copy. There just aren’t enough game modes or maps to warrant a $60 price tag, especially with games like Bulletstorm and Crysis 2 coming out.
My rating of this game is a 6.5 out of 10. I could see this score going up if THQ decides to release DLC pack with more maps and game modes.