Thats right Folks!  Your friendly neighborhood video-game-guinea-pig is back with another review.  This time on the chopping block is Homefront, a FPS offering from THQ.  

The game is set ~40 years in the future, and the basic premise is that North Korea has taken over pretty much the whole world except Europe ('cuz frankly, who would want Europe?!   ).  You start the game as a helecopter pilot living in suburbia, Colorado.  The NorK's (north koreans) come sweeping in, grab you, and throw you on a prison bus.  From there, you get rescued by the Resistance, a group of freedom fighters fighting against the NorK oppression.  To be honest, the whole set-up kinda reminded me of the opening of Half-Life 2... which I guess I would have to classify as a good thing ^.^

Gameplay wise, this is a fairly solid game.  The graphics aren't quite as pretty as MW2 or Crysis, but they quite close, and do not detract. this is a game of Details, you can look everywhere in the environment and see normal things from suburbia repurposed for use by the resistance.  The weapons feel real and responsive to handle, and the control input will be quite familiar to any Shooter veterans. Where the weapons fall short is the sounds. The knife slash, in particular, sounds like a shotgun going off, yet will alert no one if you are sneaking...  

The story of this game is great, it has good pacing, the action and environment is varied enough that you can stay engaged and finish the game in a single 6 hour sitting (if you have that much time).  Where things stumble is with the character, they are so one-dimensional, and the voice acting so over-dramatic, that I could never bring myself to care about any of them.  I found myself more broken up over the loss of a robot tank that helps you out for the first act, than I was about one of the main character shortly before... (hey, don't judge, that tank was awesome!)

The other complaint that I have is the predictability.  Being a veteran FPS gamer has something to do with this, I'm sure, but when there is only one door, you don't need the game to erect an invisible wall, while the NPC's to pause and tell you how your going to go through it, ITS THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!  and some of the event triggers are a bit fiddly to activate, but now I'm nit-picking.

Overall, a diverting 6-hours.  Granted, I have not tried the Multi-player at time of writing, but to be honest, I cant really see how that will tear me away from COD...

Verdict: go watch the Vid's about the single player on Steam or YouTube, if they pique your interest, Pick this up. If you don't care about the story, and just want to shoot something, go load up Black Ops.

SSG.Braxis*BK*

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