Homefront
Dog eat dog
Review THQ has made it abundantly clear that it intends to step it up as a publisher, marquee titles – the likes of De Blob 2, Red Faction: Armageddon and indeed Homefront are all part of that plan – as the publishing house looks to take on Activision and EA, specialists in the art of the cross-platform blockbuster.
Cop a load of this
Opening with a scripted sequence which brings Half-Life’s now legendary Black Mesa tram sequence immediately to mind, we find protagonist Robert Jacobs being forced onto a secured bus by armed forces. As the bus departs Jacobs is party to atrocity after atrocity, as innocent civilians are beaten, bloodied and even murdered on the roadside.
Of course, given the game’s well-publicised twist, it’s the Koreans toying with the Geneva Convention, while their hapless American captors cower before their feet. The thought occurs: what would Jack Bauer do? This riff on the alternative history (alternative future?) storyline is introduced by a brilliantly edited newsreel at the game's opening.
Blue some school kids
The synopsis tells that by 2012 Kim Jong-il will have long passed on, leaving the reins of North Korea to his son, Kim Jong-un. Reins he seizes with relish, soon uniting Korea by force. By 2014 social and economic factors have combined to leave the world (well, the US, there’s not much mention of Europe) in deep recession, short of oil, power and, by 2017, in the mire of civil unrest.
Next page: Korea advancement
COMMENTS
The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.
70% is far too nice a score for this game, after playing it I dug out my copy of BFBC2 and had a game. It plays so much better!
Playing Homefront makes you realise why they did not release a demo first, shame on you THQ!
"...hapless American captors cower before their feet. "
I would have thought that it was normally the CAPTIVES that do the cowering.
Please check your homonyms, grammar and typos.
Nice description of the background to the game, I would like to know the final set piece. I am imagining 1:1 combat with Kim Jong-un (a la Killzone 2 / Team America).
I tried to stop myself commenting on some of the mistakes in the article, but was unable to do so (it is Friday afternoon).
"leaving the reigns of North Korea... reigns he seizes with relish..."
I was not sure whether you meant "reign of North Korea", until I read the next line about "reigns" and "relish".
In this context, I think REINS would be more appropiate.
After an escape, a prisoner does not go on the 'lamb'. (Cue kebab and/or regional jokes)
It is more usual to go on the 'lam'.
Oh, "KIM" was mis-spelt also (final paragraph, first page).
A pint of beer to whoever finds the remaining grammatical error(s). :-)
@Peter Kay
Fair enough, different strokes for different folks.
Given your comments, I would suggest you give Deus Ex Invisible War a try. It's old-sh, 2004 I think but it is very playable whether you want to kill everything or finesse your way past obstacles. A very sophisticated game IMHO.
You might like mindlessness; I prefer plot
I'm not a huge multiplayer fan. I don't do online gaming, and I like a strong story driven FPS.
That's probably why my favourite FPS is Jedi Knight. Granted, I enjoyed Doom (but not Doom 2), Rise of The Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake and Quake 2 (I haven't played much more modern FPS). I thought the move to the Quake III era of no single player campaign and endless bot/online fights was a tremendous step backwards.
I'd far sooner travel through a level where the objective is obtaining an item, rather than killing everything, then finding out that obtaining it causes the spaceship you're rushing through to plunge to the ground leaving three real time minutes to get to an exit.
That's much more fun than any number of monster kills.
