14 DAY TRIAL // Homefront was launched last week by THQ and Kaos Studios, trying to establish itself as a franchise on the same equal footing as behemoths like Call of Duty, Battlefield or Medal of Honor, shooters that are reaching massive sales with each iteration.
After playing through its first mission, you can clearly see that Kaos, its developer, borrowed quite a lot of things from the aforementioned franchises.
Homefront takes place in a near future America, which was invaded by a united Korea and subjugated under a totalitarian regime. The resistance is still strong, remnants of the US Army are present, but the Korean forces are becoming more and more powerful.
The game sticks to the first-person perspective at all times, and, seeing as how you control a silent protagonist, Kaos really encourages players to project themselves into the main character.
The story is quite beefy, and there are a lot of things that need to be digested before starting the actual game. If you want even more information, Homefront has an array of newspapers scattered throughout levels, detailing some of the events leading up to the Korean invasion of the USA.
The actual gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from a first-person shooter running on the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games. One big drawback is that firing from the hip is extremely inaccurate, and the game practically forces you to go through it aiming on your iron sights or tactical scopes.
Enemies use a lot of cover, and only pop out when they're sure to fire at you. They also make generous use of the grenades they have equipped, lobbing them on your position every time they can.
This can get quite annoying, as they do a lot of damage and you don't even have the option to throw them back, like in Call of Duty.
The characters met by the player at the beginning try to sound important and different, but, in the end, you won't be able to tell them apart all that much.
Homefront hasn't impressed me very much, but who knows what others surprises are in store in its next chapters.