Umm... Wolverines?: The "Homefront" Review

In the year 2013, gas will be $20 a gallon. By 2019, we'll be fleeing to Mexico because it's better there, than in the US. By 2026, Korea will unleash an EMP that blacks out all of America, and take over. On top of all this, the Army will be so badly managed that they'll be scattered into two teams of, I'm not kidding, a platoon each.

This is the plot of Homefront, and while the premise of Korea taking over the US could be interesting and scary, the improbability of some of the events happening this fast is one of many things that makes the game's story less intense than it should be. The game seriously seems to forget that the world is suffering from a bad economy, not just the US. It wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't look at the recession with a myopic view. What makes the story all the less impacting is the fact that the team of people you're working with range from bland to undeveloped to being as bad as the enemy.

You're character is saved by Conner, a Resistance member who takes pleasure from torturing the enemy. He leads you to a helicopter that you have to fly in order to steal fuel from the Koreans. This is all your character is good for, because you will die from everything. It's not uncommon to die in one hit in this game. This wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for the fact that you can die because enemies can shoot through and around your cover. I died more times from a bullet turning around a wall I was behind than from getting shot outside of cover.

At its core, there's a almost decent shooter somewhere. That is, when you can get the game to work. The auto-snap aim never works properly, either not snapping onto an enemy within sight range, or missing completely despite having the sight right on them, or by the enemy knowing exactly where you'll hit, and moving an inch to the side. I want to know how exactly every FPS has these enemies, and why our military can never seem to be able to do that in games. What technology is this? Or is it witchery?

The set piece battles are thrown in, but at points pretty good... especially considering that most of them have been done before. The lone one I can think of that wasn't done to death was hijacking trucks from a helicopter. The rest of them feel like they've been done before and better. The same goes for the graphics and acting. The graphics look like the were done in the beginning of the seventh generation of consoles, when we didn't know the extent of what the tech could do. Characters don't seem to animate properly, mouths never close, and the textures are blurry. Voice acting feels like a "C" movie. If Bruce Campbell, Chuck Norris, and Sylvester Stallone can all out act you, you're doing something wrong (note to them... please don't murder me).

This is disappointing too, because the game has the spark that it could've been good. To top it off, it took me about four hours to finish it, and it just ends abruptly. I understand setting up for a sequel, but can we at least end this chapter properly? Even Halo knew that!

Homefront isn't worth $60-- hell, it isn't worth $40. It's a budget title with an advertising team big enough to make it seem more important than it is. Give this one a pass, because even if you buy it for $20 in a few months or a year, you're more than likely going to give it a passing play anyway, and then forget about it.

Overall:

D

+ Almost a good shooter

+ Interesting story...

- ... Made improbable by a rushed timeline

- ... and Characters that are unlikable

- Guerrilla tactics? That's head-on assault right?

- What's cover?

- Acting?!

- Good graphics?! What are these words?!