Homefront: Home is where the war is

It is the near future, the world is in turmoil. As oil fields in the middle east are ablaze, making fuel very unavailable and prices skyrocket, North Korea's arms program grows larger. It annexes the South, creating a united Korea, and force Japan to surrender. Under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, it invades North America. While Koreans occupy cities in the west coast, the Americans try to resist with little success.

That is the premise, more or less, of today's game:

 

I had seen some advertisements for this game and after reading about it in someone else's blog, described as a piece of shit, I was going to steer clear of this one. But alas, I am way too bored, so I had to give it a go.

With low expectations and not much information I started playing and what greeted me was a quite normal, enjoyable shooter. I didn't understand why my fellow blogger had to uninstall it after playing a bit. It was quite averagely normal game with an interesting "what if" scenario for a story.
As I've mentioned, the Koreans invade America and after a bit of an intro you're rescued by the local resistance and taken to their headquarters. They give you some guns and say "Hey come along we're going to do some resistanc-y stuff all together it's gonna be fun!". You greet some chick named Rianna too... which extracted a chuckle.
So, game, started.


The controls are pretty standard, no crazy keys to do crazy things. The graphics are adequate, not revolutionary, but not bad either. Although I do have to complain about some crazy, weird lightning issues where people just glitter like a Christmas decoration, which is something like sunshine I guess and looks good when people are hit by direct light, but they remain on even while indoors or under shadow.

What the shit is this shit? Was a fairy flying around illuminating your face?

The sound is good although the voice acting could be better, specially when people are talking like they're in a relaxed library reading session while their characters are sprinting towards cover. There's some selection of weapons, not as huge as other games though.
I was pleased with the variety of missions and objectives there were, from the normal run and kill everything to sniping, flying a helicopter and manning the machinegun in the back of the Humvee, it doesn't feel repetitive. The different scenery only adds up to this: suburbia, the heartlands, San Francisco. They're all nicely built and detailed.

Small tribute to Red Dawn I guess?

But then as the game was getting increasingly fun and interesting... roll credits. After 3 short hours of gameplay it ended, just like that.

I'm guessing they are planning on making a shit-ton of sequels to keep the story flowing, but they're not selling this game as an introduction or demo, it's a full game priced at 50 euros in Steam! I don't think it's being hailed as the future of multiplayer combat, either, so there's not a whole lot more content there.

So I guess that's what breaks this game, it's too short, you're left with a feeling of unfinished business. 

I leave it up to you to decide if it's worth it's price, if you have a chance to play it or if you're a fan of shooters, check it out.