Ok, now that I've had some time to really take my time to get used to the game, I feel that I can agree on many aspects of the game that others have already noted.
I'll grade this game on what I've experienced thus far
Gameplay
To really sum up this game, take the large scale maps of battlefield and then take the lethality of the guns from Rainbow Six Vegas, and a dash of Call of Duty's perk system and weapons modifications into the mix. Homefront does have a few things to call its own, such as controllable combat drones (While can become a nuisance if left alone, are rather easily destroyed even with the "health" buff perk for drones), as well as a system that sort of lights up a player that may be dominating the field so that no one person necessarily can go on for prolonged killing sprees.
The pacing can be just as slow as a low populated BC2 match, or as frantic and chaotic as a match of Left For Dead with bullets flying every which way and explosions decimating you and your team mates to and fro. However, the core of the action at least for me, resides primarily in a game type called Ground Control. This plays out more so as an enlarged version of Call of Duty's Domination mode, where one team must assault and hold a set of objectives while the other team must defend them. The team that holds two out of three if not all three and fills their associated teams "points" meter wins the round, whomever wins two consecutive rounds wins the match.
Team Death Match plays out as much as anyone can expect in a game such
as this. Large numbers of snipers and plays that camp, waiting for the
kills to come to them. Some players may have fun with this game type,
but it definitely not my cup of tea.
Battle Commander is a feature that can be activated to run along
side either game modes, be it in Ground Control or Team Death Match, what
this adds is a computer controlled "commander' that assigns specific
missions within the game, as well as placing "bounties" on various
players whom are becoming a greater threat to the field of battle.
Example: When a player first starts a match with this feature activated, they start off as a 1 star threat level, as they continue to prove their combat prowess, their threat level will increase elevating from a 1
star to a 2 star threat eventually peaking at a 5 star threat if they maintain their kill streaks. Furthermore, as this said player
continues to increase their kill streak, they will receive various power ups as rewards, kill streak rewards if you will. These range from a flak jacket
to increase how much damage you can take, a personal UAV scan to track enemy movement to increased weapon damage.
However, as this players threat level increases, the opposing teams "Commander" will place a bounty on their head, and designate several players as Hunters, whom upon killing the designated "Priority Threat"
will receive the appropriate amount of battle points as well as a sum of bonus points for eliminating the said priority target. The Exact location of the player with the bounty is never given, but a general
location is given, which is shown either on the players mini map or HUD. The higher the threat they become, the more hunters the AI commander will designate to eliminate the player
At this point in time, players are still getting used to the style of play that is required to do well in this game. Personal kills don't really amount to anything other than garnering you points to expend on powerful in field equipment to aid in your teams cause. One of the most lethal if used properly is the Parrot Drone; an aerial recon drone with little health, relatively long battery life, and can spot as many people as you can highlight (It does have an Achilles heel though, you be flying too high or it cannot ID the enemy soldier, balancing has ensured that it remains relatively in the general plain of view for the average player when it is spotting targets).
Killing enemy players does give you points, however defending or assaulting an objective gives you far more points than killing an enemy ever will. This gives incentive to push and try to capture or defend objectives, since more points means more toys to play with, and whomever usually has more points, will dominate the game, provided they use those power ups.
Game play focuses extremely heavily on communication and team work, clan support will thrive in this game if it takes off. A group of seasoned and equally skilled players will decimate the competition if they communicate and work together in this game type. It focuses far more on the strategic and tactical style of first person shooters than both Call of Duty or Battlefield Bad Company 2 combined. In short, no run an gunning, practically none, firing from the hip with anything but a shotgun or SMG will most likely kill you rather than save you.
Presentation
The game is by no means Crysis or Uncharted 2, but it's over all color pallet isn't all that bad. It certainly a lot more colorful that Battlefield with it's rather drab flat colors, and the texture work is a step above Call of Duty's. Audio work isn't bad, and weapons sound rather appropriate for their respective class, but don't really capture the power of the weapons like Medal of Honor which is by far the champion as far as weapon sound effects go. (This is my opinion of course)
The engine is nothing ground breaking, but it certainly isn't bad either, there certainly is room for improvement. Object collision is relatively smooth, and the interesting feature where you must STOP movement before being able to go prone helps prevent players from "drop shooting" and "Dolphin Diving" in combat. Movement feels heavy and sometimes even a little sluggish, but it gives you a sense that you're carrying a lot of heavy gear. Though some of the animations are a little lacking by modern standards, they get the job done, and are far superior to that of MAG'.
Weapons
Assault rifles have the broadest selection to choose from with 6 different rifles to choose from, 2 light machine guns, 2 sub machine gun, 1 type of shotgun and 2 different sniper rifles, one being semi automatic and the other being a bolt action. Both factions carry the same 15 round 9mm M9 pistol as their side arm. Currently there is no other option to carry a different side arm. To be Honest I have never shot my pistol, you die so fast that ammunition is almost never an issue unless you like to spray.
SMG's dominate in close quarters but anything further that semi medium range, and they begin to have problems with stopping power and accuracy. I unfortunately have not tried these too much, but they are definitely great for the one Urban map that exists in the game.
Assault rifles are jacks of all trades, not excelling in close nor long range even when burst firing. They are the workhorse of the battlefield, and will most likely be the weapon you'll most likely be killed by the most.
Light Machine Guns are sort of the oddball in some respects (I'm most familiar with these weapons) they have horrible accuracy at range, and you'll find it difficult to hit a target at excessive distance even if you burst fire, don't even bother trying to fire one of these while standing, your shots will fly wild and you'll almost always be at a disadvantage. Crouching will improve your accuracy, but prone is the most ideal position when using these kinds of weapons. Burst fire is an absolute must regardless of posture, and these weapons work wonders as defensive weapons in narrow corridors with few entrances or from a good perch overlooking an objective. Essentially you wont see someone storming the front hipfiring an LMG, the play style required to use one of these effectively is aggressive defense. Creeping forward and being extremely mindful of cover while trying to identify possible threats and eliminating them then moving. Similar to a sniper without the long range threat neutralization ability.
Sniper rifles do exactly what they're supposed to do. Provide relatively laser point accuracy at excessive ranges, but suffer from a great deal of recoil and reasonably slow rates of fire. All shots to the head are OHK regardless of the type of rifle, and if within semi medium to close range, will usually kill you in a single shot to the chest. Before you go and think that this may be over powered, it's not the weapon itself that's op, it's the way the game mechanics function that causes an issue here.
On the PC version at least, there is ZERO sway, or if there is any, it's very negligible. considering there is no shaking of any sort or bullet drop, all one would need is to lead and shoot, and head shots are very easy to line up with a mouse. Furthermore, after each shot, the cross hairs reset exactly to where you previously aimed, making followup shots ridiculously easy. So it's not so much the weapons fault when it comes to Sniper Rifles being slightly OP, but it's the game mechanics that make it so.
One nice feature though regarding sniper rifles is that they leave a smoke trail each time they fire, making it relatively easy to pin point the general area of a sniper, so a good sniper will be required to fire one or two rounds and then immediately relocate if they don't wish to be knifed.
Power Ups and Balancing?
Ok, many of you may seem skeptical concerning how these power ups work.
So far, the few that I've used and have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of, they are all relatively balanced. Drones as I've mentioned before, are potent to some degree, but are easily taken out. Power ups such as the Hell Fire UAV drone have a rather limited amount of fuel, and only two rockets at their disposal. They rockets must be guided in to their location, and are rather expensive to purchase.
Vehicles are powerful, but seem a little squishy, it really does not take much to take them out, three or four well placed rockets or two hell fire drones will take out even the heaviest of tanks. Helicopters are fairly easy to shoot down, and are not necessarily easy to fly. Sure grasping the basics are easy, however to fly effectively it may take some time in practice mode before you're doing strafing runs on anybody. They are however not impossible to shoot down with rockets, as I've seen MANY get blown out of the sky by purchasable RPG's.
The LAV's or Armored cars are by far the best of the bunch, heavily armored and immune to small arms fire outside of rockets, they offer the best anti infantry capabilities while still offering AT capabilities as well in the form of their secondary position which uses a TOW rocket.
Online Server Stability
I've heard from several members that the console versions are experiencing server issues, however the PC version is rock solid. I've had absolutely zero issues concerning the servers, and if I had to suggest a specific version of this game, I'd personally say the PC one appears to be superior. However I understand the budget constraints of many, and know why many of you decided to play the console version.
Summary
After having some more time with this game, it does have its own charms to it that have me coming back to it for more. By no means is it a Call of Duty or Battlefield Killer, but it certainly has the potential of becoming something great if not unique. The things that it's taken from other franchises seem to compliment it rather nicely, and the change of pace is certainly nice. With some balance changes and perhaps a little bit of DLC in the form of maps or weapons, Homefront can become a truly great game.
My over all suggestion to skeptics is to rent this particular title. It's fun, and can be addicting with a good clan that you can run with. The experience was so very different when I first picked up multiplayer, and at first I didn't care for it. It has since then began to grow on me, and in the rare occasions where you do have a good team, the game is an absolute blast to play. Team up with a couple buddies and this will quite possibly be one of the more enjoyable titles out there.
My rating?
7.6
This has the potential of going up if Kaos Studios and THQ actually decide to support this title, or just as easily going down if they decide not to.
I'll grade this game on what I've experienced thus far
Gameplay
To really sum up this game, take the large scale maps of battlefield and then take the lethality of the guns from Rainbow Six Vegas, and a dash of Call of Duty's perk system and weapons modifications into the mix. Homefront does have a few things to call its own, such as controllable combat drones (While can become a nuisance if left alone, are rather easily destroyed even with the "health" buff perk for drones), as well as a system that sort of lights up a player that may be dominating the field so that no one person necessarily can go on for prolonged killing sprees.
The pacing can be just as slow as a low populated BC2 match, or as frantic and chaotic as a match of Left For Dead with bullets flying every which way and explosions decimating you and your team mates to and fro. However, the core of the action at least for me, resides primarily in a game type called Ground Control. This plays out more so as an enlarged version of Call of Duty's Domination mode, where one team must assault and hold a set of objectives while the other team must defend them. The team that holds two out of three if not all three and fills their associated teams "points" meter wins the round, whomever wins two consecutive rounds wins the match.
Team Death Match plays out as much as anyone can expect in a game such
as this. Large numbers of snipers and plays that camp, waiting for the
kills to come to them. Some players may have fun with this game type,
but it definitely not my cup of tea.
Battle Commander is a feature that can be activated to run along
side either game modes, be it in Ground Control or Team Death Match, what
this adds is a computer controlled "commander' that assigns specific
missions within the game, as well as placing "bounties" on various
players whom are becoming a greater threat to the field of battle.
Example: When a player first starts a match with this feature activated, they start off as a 1 star threat level, as they continue to prove their combat prowess, their threat level will increase elevating from a 1
star to a 2 star threat eventually peaking at a 5 star threat if they maintain their kill streaks. Furthermore, as this said player
continues to increase their kill streak, they will receive various power ups as rewards, kill streak rewards if you will. These range from a flak jacket
to increase how much damage you can take, a personal UAV scan to track enemy movement to increased weapon damage.
However, as this players threat level increases, the opposing teams "Commander" will place a bounty on their head, and designate several players as Hunters, whom upon killing the designated "Priority Threat"
will receive the appropriate amount of battle points as well as a sum of bonus points for eliminating the said priority target. The Exact location of the player with the bounty is never given, but a general
location is given, which is shown either on the players mini map or HUD. The higher the threat they become, the more hunters the AI commander will designate to eliminate the player
At this point in time, players are still getting used to the style of play that is required to do well in this game. Personal kills don't really amount to anything other than garnering you points to expend on powerful in field equipment to aid in your teams cause. One of the most lethal if used properly is the Parrot Drone; an aerial recon drone with little health, relatively long battery life, and can spot as many people as you can highlight (It does have an Achilles heel though, you be flying too high or it cannot ID the enemy soldier, balancing has ensured that it remains relatively in the general plain of view for the average player when it is spotting targets).
Killing enemy players does give you points, however defending or assaulting an objective gives you far more points than killing an enemy ever will. This gives incentive to push and try to capture or defend objectives, since more points means more toys to play with, and whomever usually has more points, will dominate the game, provided they use those power ups.
Game play focuses extremely heavily on communication and team work, clan support will thrive in this game if it takes off. A group of seasoned and equally skilled players will decimate the competition if they communicate and work together in this game type. It focuses far more on the strategic and tactical style of first person shooters than both Call of Duty or Battlefield Bad Company 2 combined. In short, no run an gunning, practically none, firing from the hip with anything but a shotgun or SMG will most likely kill you rather than save you.
Presentation
The game is by no means Crysis or Uncharted 2, but it's over all color pallet isn't all that bad. It certainly a lot more colorful that Battlefield with it's rather drab flat colors, and the texture work is a step above Call of Duty's. Audio work isn't bad, and weapons sound rather appropriate for their respective class, but don't really capture the power of the weapons like Medal of Honor which is by far the champion as far as weapon sound effects go. (This is my opinion of course)
The engine is nothing ground breaking, but it certainly isn't bad either, there certainly is room for improvement. Object collision is relatively smooth, and the interesting feature where you must STOP movement before being able to go prone helps prevent players from "drop shooting" and "Dolphin Diving" in combat. Movement feels heavy and sometimes even a little sluggish, but it gives you a sense that you're carrying a lot of heavy gear. Though some of the animations are a little lacking by modern standards, they get the job done, and are far superior to that of MAG'.
Weapons
Assault rifles have the broadest selection to choose from with 6 different rifles to choose from, 2 light machine guns, 2 sub machine gun, 1 type of shotgun and 2 different sniper rifles, one being semi automatic and the other being a bolt action. Both factions carry the same 15 round 9mm M9 pistol as their side arm. Currently there is no other option to carry a different side arm. To be Honest I have never shot my pistol, you die so fast that ammunition is almost never an issue unless you like to spray.
SMG's dominate in close quarters but anything further that semi medium range, and they begin to have problems with stopping power and accuracy. I unfortunately have not tried these too much, but they are definitely great for the one Urban map that exists in the game.
Assault rifles are jacks of all trades, not excelling in close nor long range even when burst firing. They are the workhorse of the battlefield, and will most likely be the weapon you'll most likely be killed by the most.
Light Machine Guns are sort of the oddball in some respects (I'm most familiar with these weapons) they have horrible accuracy at range, and you'll find it difficult to hit a target at excessive distance even if you burst fire, don't even bother trying to fire one of these while standing, your shots will fly wild and you'll almost always be at a disadvantage. Crouching will improve your accuracy, but prone is the most ideal position when using these kinds of weapons. Burst fire is an absolute must regardless of posture, and these weapons work wonders as defensive weapons in narrow corridors with few entrances or from a good perch overlooking an objective. Essentially you wont see someone storming the front hipfiring an LMG, the play style required to use one of these effectively is aggressive defense. Creeping forward and being extremely mindful of cover while trying to identify possible threats and eliminating them then moving. Similar to a sniper without the long range threat neutralization ability.
Sniper rifles do exactly what they're supposed to do. Provide relatively laser point accuracy at excessive ranges, but suffer from a great deal of recoil and reasonably slow rates of fire. All shots to the head are OHK regardless of the type of rifle, and if within semi medium to close range, will usually kill you in a single shot to the chest. Before you go and think that this may be over powered, it's not the weapon itself that's op, it's the way the game mechanics function that causes an issue here.
On the PC version at least, there is ZERO sway, or if there is any, it's very negligible. considering there is no shaking of any sort or bullet drop, all one would need is to lead and shoot, and head shots are very easy to line up with a mouse. Furthermore, after each shot, the cross hairs reset exactly to where you previously aimed, making followup shots ridiculously easy. So it's not so much the weapons fault when it comes to Sniper Rifles being slightly OP, but it's the game mechanics that make it so.
One nice feature though regarding sniper rifles is that they leave a smoke trail each time they fire, making it relatively easy to pin point the general area of a sniper, so a good sniper will be required to fire one or two rounds and then immediately relocate if they don't wish to be knifed.
Power Ups and Balancing?
Ok, many of you may seem skeptical concerning how these power ups work.
So far, the few that I've used and have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of, they are all relatively balanced. Drones as I've mentioned before, are potent to some degree, but are easily taken out. Power ups such as the Hell Fire UAV drone have a rather limited amount of fuel, and only two rockets at their disposal. They rockets must be guided in to their location, and are rather expensive to purchase.
Vehicles are powerful, but seem a little squishy, it really does not take much to take them out, three or four well placed rockets or two hell fire drones will take out even the heaviest of tanks. Helicopters are fairly easy to shoot down, and are not necessarily easy to fly. Sure grasping the basics are easy, however to fly effectively it may take some time in practice mode before you're doing strafing runs on anybody. They are however not impossible to shoot down with rockets, as I've seen MANY get blown out of the sky by purchasable RPG's.
The LAV's or Armored cars are by far the best of the bunch, heavily armored and immune to small arms fire outside of rockets, they offer the best anti infantry capabilities while still offering AT capabilities as well in the form of their secondary position which uses a TOW rocket.
Online Server Stability
I've heard from several members that the console versions are experiencing server issues, however the PC version is rock solid. I've had absolutely zero issues concerning the servers, and if I had to suggest a specific version of this game, I'd personally say the PC one appears to be superior. However I understand the budget constraints of many, and know why many of you decided to play the console version.
Summary
After having some more time with this game, it does have its own charms to it that have me coming back to it for more. By no means is it a Call of Duty or Battlefield Killer, but it certainly has the potential of becoming something great if not unique. The things that it's taken from other franchises seem to compliment it rather nicely, and the change of pace is certainly nice. With some balance changes and perhaps a little bit of DLC in the form of maps or weapons, Homefront can become a truly great game.
My over all suggestion to skeptics is to rent this particular title. It's fun, and can be addicting with a good clan that you can run with. The experience was so very different when I first picked up multiplayer, and at first I didn't care for it. It has since then began to grow on me, and in the rare occasions where you do have a good team, the game is an absolute blast to play. Team up with a couple buddies and this will quite possibly be one of the more enjoyable titles out there.
My rating?
7.6
This has the potential of going up if Kaos Studios and THQ actually decide to support this title, or just as easily going down if they decide not to.
Last edited by Artimise Flare on 2011-03-17, 17:00; edited 1 time in total
