Around five years ago, Homefront received a lot of hype before its release but was later criticized due to a lot of shortcomings the game had. It wasn’t received well by a lot of people though in an attempt to give the franchise a chance to redeem themselves, a new team was tasked to make a follow up title to Homefront and created Homefront: The Revolution. Bringing back the somewhat same concept when it comes to the story and attempting to reinvigorate the gameplay by making it open-world, did the new developer, Dumbuster Studios, do a great job in order to make this game a must-buy?
The story of Homefront: The Revolution takes place in the distant future of sunny Philadelphia where North Korea has once again invaded the United States. You play as a member of the resistance group who will do anything to stop the communist party of Korea and hope to overthrow them away from the United States. Those who are looking for a deep story, Homefront: The Revolution somehow does that but not to the extent people will get interested to see the end of the game’s story. At first, the premise of the story is interesting but as you go through the twenty-hour or so campaign, it slowly drags down, making it a generic story. Some of the game’s characters are interesting, though the majority of them are shallow making them forgettable.
With the game being open-world this time around, you can expect yourself to spend time walking through the city and enjoying the somewhat futuristic design. Missions are scattered throughout Philadelphia and the scale of the areas you’ll explore are pretty big. You’ll get several missions from the resistance group and you’ll receive certain vehicles to help you travel from one point to another. In the first few hours of doing missions for the resistance group, you’ll find the missions seem to be varied but you’ll notice that the more missions you do, the more repetitive it gets, making it a drag to do them. Those who wish to get rare items, you might as well do them as good rewards await at some of the tedious missions of the game.
As a part of the resistance group, there will be a decent amount of missions where you’ll have to infiltrate the enemy zones. Those who are hoping they can do a stealth-style missions similar to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, prepare to be disappointed. Despite the game trying to implement a stealth-approach at some of its missions, the game fails in executing it as even though you are hiding very good, you’ll get detected. Yes, you might wonder at times if the game is broken as no matter how stealthily you approach a mission, you’ll eventually get caught. I tried numerous times in not getting caught but I still got the same outcome and it was a very frustrating experience for me.
When it comes to combat, shooting through enemies feels realistic. One of the things that I like in Homefront: The Revolution are the weapons where you can customize it in any way you want. You can make your handgun turn into a submachine gun by simply converting it. The selection of weapons are varied and players can expect to have a large variety to choose from throughout the game. Another good thing about the combat in Homefront: The Revolution is the crafting. While exploring Philadelphia and doing missions, I suggest to look at every corner of the area you go to as there are items that you can pick up that can be crafted into Molotovs for example. Many will find the crafting to be simplistic but it’s good enough to make the combat somewhat fun. Also, to make the combat somewhat easier, you’ll have an opportunity to recruit other resistance group members. Yes, it does sound that will be useful in battle but I find them annoying when they flock around you.
In terms of visuals, the game looks beautiful but it’s hindered by a lot of technical problems. At some point in the game, certain parts will begin to stutter and you’ll notice the game slows down despite issuing a patch that allegedly fixes the issues. Another weird thing I encountered are NPCs bugging out in the screen. Some of the NPCs you’ll find can be either floating or doing the running man dance. Sometimes, it would make you think if Dambuster Studios really optimized the game to make it run smoothly. Don’t get me wrong, the game looks beautiful, especially the cutscenes but it’s just disappointing that this game is hindered by bugs and glitches. Not to mention frame rates are dropping at some point, which is kinda sad.
The Co-op campaign in Homefront: The Revolution was the most anticipated feature. Sadly, the mode offers little content to make it that much better than the campaign mode. There are about six missions that you and your friends can play though the length of them are pretty short. You can expect to finish at least one mission at around 30 minutes, and that’s already the longest. Upon finishing each mission, there’s a loot crate that you can open that randomly gives you gear from the campaign. Since we are talking about RNG, all you will need in opening these boxes is luck.
Verdict
For those hoping Homefront: The Revolution will redeem the first Homefront, then you’re out of luck. Homefront: The Revolution fails to revolutionize the series due to technical issues, including a generic story, co-op mode, unimpressive visuals, while also being light on content. If there’s one thing that makes Homefront: The Revolution stand out, that would be the shooting mechanics, though that only goes so far. In the end, unless you’re a hardcore fan looking to see where the series latest entry takes it, there is no reason to pick up Homefront: The Revolution.
[Editor’s Note: Homefront: The Revolution was reviewed on PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]