Follow Connor. Follow Conner. Every five minutes with the Follow Connor.
Homefront houses an assortment of attention-grabbing treats - from stirringly evil antagonists to the fiery splendour of a phosphorous downpour; heartbreakingly childish reminders of your domiciliary surroundings to the bullet spray of Sentry towers that test every morsel of your flanking smarts.
But far too much of your time is taken up staring at Connor, being barked at by Connor and, naturally, following Connor. It's more than a little annoying - because quite frankly, Connor is a massive pillock. By the end of Homefront's compact campaign, you're likely to end up hating him almost as much as your conscience-free Commie enemy.
Connor's crimes include an irritating adoration for "motherf*cker", which rather loses its impact when employed as punctuation. You're a "motherf*cker", the enemy's a "motherf*cker", obstacles are "motherf*ckers", physical pain is a "motherf*cker" and so on. (It doesn't help that he's almost certainly a stranger to a cotton bud - at least a waxy aural build-up would explain why he only has one volume setting.)
But his most imbecilic quality is much worse - a consistently infuriating habit of hogging cover. Not only does he steal your best tactical spots to shield from the enemy, he's also very hard to budge. You're often left performing a lifesaving Riverdance in the middle of vicious firefights, as bullets whiz past your ears and grenades are dolloped around your feet. Trust us; in most cases, you'll do better not to 'Follow Connor', and to follow your instincts instead.
There also exists the irritation that Connor - much like fellow freedom fighting ally Rianna - is pretty damn useless on the battlefield. He remains oblivious to and unharmed by ticking explosives, occasionally even instructing you to walk right on top of them. In addition, his bullets would struggle to crack porcelain and he's a complete stranger to tossing a frag.
You're supposed to bond with this pair, but between the belligerent, strategically incompetent Connor and lifeless, undefined Rianna, very little team spirit ensues; kind of a bummer during a national Resistance movement which relies heavily on compatriotism.
So it's testament to the heart-thumping rollercoaster of Homefront's single-player experience that, despite his best efforts, Connor can't ruin proceedings. There is much to be applauded in terms of spectacle and cinematic 'moments', but let's do the basics first: Kaos has got one thing spot on with Homefront that experience tells us is no easy feat in an FPS - a rewarding, involving narrative progression.
Okay, so the premise is very far-fetched. The rise of a United Korea, the powerlessness of a fuel-deficient US, the successful EMP blast which knocks out Uncle Sam's defences and the eventual occupation of the Land Of The Free; it's tough to swallow at first. But in a genre where worlds based on grotesque teleporting aliens and faceless interstellar plasma gunners are acclaimed as 'intelligent', a little suspension of disbelief goes a long way. And Homefront's is perhaps the realest unreal dystopia the FPS has ever seen.
The enemy, for one, are the most disgusting, savage scumbags you could imagine. Within five minutes of the campaign's opening moments - where you're bloodied, beaten and corralled onto a bus, then forced to witness the sustained slaughter of innocents mere metres from your window - you despise the Korean People's Army from your intestines upwards.
The gunning down of two cuddling, screaming parents in front of their disbelieving offspring obviously riles the most, but the sheer spiritless, almost gleeful extinguishing of life all around will have you itching to find a trigger. Luckily, you don't have to wait too long to get your hands on one, and the uncommon motivation for vengeance which resonates throughout the duration of Homefront is a real achievement on the part of Kaos.
The execution of civilians by the KPA is almost alien (and, indeed, Alien) in its malevolence. The viciousness of these harbourers of doom, the way they seem to get a kick out of murder and torture, never leaves you. Thought Makarov was malicious? Imagine cloning him tens of thousands times over, each in a suitably nefarious-looking dragon-emblazoned uniform, and letting him wreak havoc on an entire nation.
Happily, there is a gigantic medley of weapons with which to dispense of these amoral assailants. The difference in weight, kickback and audio between each is very impressive, with no two guns feeling the same - but you won't be able to get used to a favourite for very long.
The ammo capacity of the various assault, sniper and mounted shooters - alongside grenade packs, RPGs etc. - is notably meagre compared to, say, Black Ops. This helps bring a real sense of panic to Homefront's many action-packed skirmishes, where you're often left bunkered down without a bullet to your name. Dropping a close-range KPA operative becomes a tactical necessity; setting you up to rush and grab his abandoned artillery to continue your defence.
The game's story arc rarely fails to remind you that, for once, you are not a double-hard CIA assassin or a no-nonsense marine in a predictable warzone. Although hand-picked by the Resistance for his 'copter-flying skills, former pilot Jacobs is a very different hero to your average FPS hulk. He's a pissed off everyman given a chance to make a difference. Kaos deliberately enhances this mould with the old Gordon Freeman trick of minimal pre-written interactivity. We've a listener, not a talker on our hands.
You are meant to empathise with Jacobs; to share in his anger and the provocation that surrounds him - and Kaos pulls off this trick with aplomb. Perhaps that's why Connor's graceless pestering wears so thin.
Homefront's prosaic, domiciliary environments may sound alarm bells in those hankering for Modern Warfare snowscapes or Halo's otherworldly expanses - but their place in Jacobs' story works brilliantly.
Baseball stadia, suburbs and highways might sound unexciting theatres for violence, but when twisted by the KPA's neglect for beauty and hunger for slaughter, they become grippingly vital mini-dominions crying out to be conquered.
Call of Duty wants to wow you with scale, but in doing so, cruelly tells you that you're but a speck on its vast wilderness. Homefront allows Jacobs to become the master of smaller locales, enabling true territorial empowerment. Your mission is to take back America car park by car park, block by block. The fact that someone, somewhere may be doing the same in Vegas, or New England, or Texas, or Cleveland gives your role a sense of unity, interconnection and genuine purpose.
That's not to say Kaos can't do spectacle. Some of Homefront's set pieces rival the very best on the market. We'll have to skirt around spoilers here, but a mass civilian grave plays a stomach-churning role in a bit of war voyeurism, whilst an incendiary cloudburst-gone-wrong provides one of the most intense five minutes you'll ever spend with a shooter.
The farmland sections, in which you sneak around morally twisted redneck survivalists - who are neurotically out to kill all and sundry, regardless of ideology - present a charming natural landscape of auburn hues and autumnal yellows. These areas perhaps best typify Homefront's ability to blacken what at first glance are beauteous, familial environments with human tragedy - not to mention a disturbing propensity to use corpses as ornamental garnish.
But Homefront's real showstopper is its final mission, which takes place on, under and through one of San Francisco's most famous landmarks. The midday sun glimmers on the 'frisco Bay, illuminating the giant structure of the Golden Gate Bridge as you scramble up its side. A sense of vertiginous imbalance further intensifies your plight, especially when the heart-in-mouth moment of a near decline sets in. It's spectacular, theatrical stuff - like Mirror's Edge meets Last Action Hero - and a clever comparable to the vast majority of Homefront's whitebread locations.
The game's other true standout moment couldn't be in starker contrast. Following an all-out suburban assault against the KPA the previous evening, Jacobs finds himself in a Resistance hideout. Far from the expected shadowy bunker, this sanctuary is like a heavily paranoid, shielded answer to The Good Life; littered with organic energy creators, self-sufficient vegetable beds and hardened, miserable former teachers and lawyers - whose belief in your uprising is the only thing keeping them from crushing thoughts of futility.
They are cagey but welcoming, and offer varied personal interactions that help enliven the entire setting of Montrose. The section provides an emotive change of pace that's tellingly conspicuous by its inclusion; its subtle, quietened piano and flute soundtrack lend colour to the idea of this previously palatial haven for hardworking families, devastated by power-grabbing atrocity.
Two young children snooze precociously by the fire, and it's not the last time that infantile distress is utilised in Homefront. Traumatic screams, confused breathlessness, the respite of a short-lived giggle; Kaos is unafraid to juxtapose the KPA's evil with innocence at every turn - another cleverly emotive reminder of what once thrived, and why your defence of a way of life matters.
It is strange that with this lightness of storytelling, Connor and Rianna are such two-dimensional dead weights - especially as other prominent NPCs elicit far more sophisticated relationships. Boone, a former Police hero and good-hearted man of the community, offers welcome assistance and conversational depth that would have made him an ideal partner; whilst a toe-rag name Arnie is complicated enough to warrant scrutiny from the outset.
As it promised in interviews, Kaos has taken many lessons from Valve's Half-Life 2. These include an annoyingly sneaky enemy AI that fritters between cover - and a trust in artfully deployed chatter and community friction to propel the story forward. Many non-Korean NPCs in Homefront can't be trusted, with motivations ranging from the wish for a quiet life to altogether more mercenary considerations.
It's a real shame, then, that the studio seems to have overlooked just how much trust Valve places in the player's intellect. This is typified by (who else?) Connor's response to an obviously inflated editorial take on your activities during a state radio broadcast - one which is clearly designed to raise tensions between the Resistance and other civilians. Just as you're shaking your head at the unjustness of it all, your meat-headed ally growls: "God damn propaganda." Thanks for making that clear but, honestly, I was doing fine all by myself.
The 'Follow Connor' prompt is symptomatic of our main gameplay gripe - and another indication of Kaos' lack of confidence in the Modern Warfare generation to work things out for themselves. In each section, you'll have to wait for one of your unlikeable accomplices to bound ahead of you; to open doors or kick over obstacles as you do little but observe.
The power is therefore whipped out of your hands at various crucial moments, which kicks back against the 'Me vs. The World' enjoyment that other layers of Homefront nail so well. Whilst we're talking Half-Life, a 'zoom' feature would not have gone amiss in a game that leans so heavily on inter-character discussions and "My God, look over there" observations.
These blows are somewhat softened by the fact that Homefront is a polished beast, making full use of Unreal Engine's lighting effects. Although a general lack of greenness could be pointed to - we're very much in grey, blacks, bronze and muddy territory here - the whole game is lifted by some deft illumination. Shards of sunlight beam into huts through bulletholes, whilst prominent shadows and a myriad of flame, floodlight and spark effects give the Homefront world a expressive sense of place.
An engrossing, good-looking, sophisticated campaign, then - but not one which will require much time off work. Only you know whether five hours will ever be worth a full-price week one purchase, a rental or an impatient wait for the RRP to drop. We can testify that we've already gone back to Homefront's brightest spots to drink them in once again; and there are plans to Achievement gather at the first opportunity. (Trophies usually centre on getting through a level without losing lives.)
In addition, there's very little 'filler' here. With the exception of one frustratingly unclear section in a dilapidated supermarket, you're given plenty of variety, from top-down helicopter rampages to one very cool passage that has you picking off creepy survivalists to order with a sniper rifle. You'll also get to handle The Goliath - a hefty, titanic remote-controlled vehicle that occasionally steams into an area and allows you to unleashed barnstorming destruction. All that being so, augmenting these with another one or two 45-minute levels of similar quality would have definitely been a fairer deal.
Luckily, Homefront's multiplayer goes a long way to making up for this brevity - and comes highly recommended. If you liked Bad Company 2 or Kaos's own Frontlines: Fuel Of War, you're going to love this. Dedicated servers have kept every trial we've tested steady as a rock, whilst the addition of drones and the ability to spawn into someone else's vehicle keep things fresh and varied.
The game's key multiplayer reward system, Battle Points, push you to seek out high-scoring objectives whilst thinking on your feet. For instance, you might have to spend a few minutes flying a recon drone around to bump up your BP enough to afford a devastating airstrike. Sticking to merely popping bullets in brainstems isn't necessarily the best route to becoming BP-rich - although Killstreaks will notch up your currency at a rate.
Continually adding to your BP stockpile is crucial if you want to afford helicopters, tanks and other monsters of mass destruction - and each sprawling Team Deathmatch map (of which there are a generous variety) almost always hosts a natural escalation into all-out vehicular warfare.
Throw in large scale Ground Control missions, a fierce Skirmish mode and an impromptu priority-based mission generator in the form of the Battle Creator, and Homefront's multiplayer really packs a punch. We'd go so far to say that this is the classiest, best value multiplayer shooter on the market, comfortably bettering both recent CoD monsters and edging ahead of Bad Company 2. It deserves a wide, fully engaged audience.
If you're looking for a military-style shooter that offers something genuinely different; one with a smart narrative pull in an evocative world that borrows from the very best, you'll struggle to go wrong with Homefront. The campaign length is an obvious let-down, as is Kaos's refusal to let the player find their own way - but the quality of the multiplayer is a fine counterweight to both.
We'd be over the moon to see Homefront return brighter, ballsier and more self-assured in the next few years. Except for Connor, that is. Fighting for the freedom of the people is made all the tougher when the grunting buffoon to your right deserves to be locked away for good.
Homefront houses an assortment of attention-grabbing treats - from stirringly evil antagonists to the fiery splendour of a phosphorous downpour; heartbreakingly childish reminders of your domiciliary surroundings to the bullet spray of Sentry towers that test every morsel of your flanking smarts.
But far too much of your time is taken up staring at Connor, being barked at by Connor and, naturally, following Connor. It's more than a little annoying - because quite frankly, Connor is a massive pillock. By the end of Homefront's compact campaign, you're likely to end up hating him almost as much as your conscience-free Commie enemy.
 |
But his most imbecilic quality is much worse - a consistently infuriating habit of hogging cover. Not only does he steal your best tactical spots to shield from the enemy, he's also very hard to budge. You're often left performing a lifesaving Riverdance in the middle of vicious firefights, as bullets whiz past your ears and grenades are dolloped around your feet. Trust us; in most cases, you'll do better not to 'Follow Connor', and to follow your instincts instead.
There also exists the irritation that Connor - much like fellow freedom fighting ally Rianna - is pretty damn useless on the battlefield. He remains oblivious to and unharmed by ticking explosives, occasionally even instructing you to walk right on top of them. In addition, his bullets would struggle to crack porcelain and he's a complete stranger to tossing a frag.
You're supposed to bond with this pair, but between the belligerent, strategically incompetent Connor and lifeless, undefined Rianna, very little team spirit ensues; kind of a bummer during a national Resistance movement which relies heavily on compatriotism.
So it's testament to the heart-thumping rollercoaster of Homefront's single-player experience that, despite his best efforts, Connor can't ruin proceedings. There is much to be applauded in terms of spectacle and cinematic 'moments', but let's do the basics first: Kaos has got one thing spot on with Homefront that experience tells us is no easy feat in an FPS - a rewarding, involving narrative progression.
 |
The enemy, for one, are the most disgusting, savage scumbags you could imagine. Within five minutes of the campaign's opening moments - where you're bloodied, beaten and corralled onto a bus, then forced to witness the sustained slaughter of innocents mere metres from your window - you despise the Korean People's Army from your intestines upwards.
The gunning down of two cuddling, screaming parents in front of their disbelieving offspring obviously riles the most, but the sheer spiritless, almost gleeful extinguishing of life all around will have you itching to find a trigger. Luckily, you don't have to wait too long to get your hands on one, and the uncommon motivation for vengeance which resonates throughout the duration of Homefront is a real achievement on the part of Kaos.
The execution of civilians by the KPA is almost alien (and, indeed, Alien) in its malevolence. The viciousness of these harbourers of doom, the way they seem to get a kick out of murder and torture, never leaves you. Thought Makarov was malicious? Imagine cloning him tens of thousands times over, each in a suitably nefarious-looking dragon-emblazoned uniform, and letting him wreak havoc on an entire nation.
 |
The ammo capacity of the various assault, sniper and mounted shooters - alongside grenade packs, RPGs etc. - is notably meagre compared to, say, Black Ops. This helps bring a real sense of panic to Homefront's many action-packed skirmishes, where you're often left bunkered down without a bullet to your name. Dropping a close-range KPA operative becomes a tactical necessity; setting you up to rush and grab his abandoned artillery to continue your defence.
The game's story arc rarely fails to remind you that, for once, you are not a double-hard CIA assassin or a no-nonsense marine in a predictable warzone. Although hand-picked by the Resistance for his 'copter-flying skills, former pilot Jacobs is a very different hero to your average FPS hulk. He's a pissed off everyman given a chance to make a difference. Kaos deliberately enhances this mould with the old Gordon Freeman trick of minimal pre-written interactivity. We've a listener, not a talker on our hands.
You are meant to empathise with Jacobs; to share in his anger and the provocation that surrounds him - and Kaos pulls off this trick with aplomb. Perhaps that's why Connor's graceless pestering wears so thin.
Homefront's prosaic, domiciliary environments may sound alarm bells in those hankering for Modern Warfare snowscapes or Halo's otherworldly expanses - but their place in Jacobs' story works brilliantly.
Baseball stadia, suburbs and highways might sound unexciting theatres for violence, but when twisted by the KPA's neglect for beauty and hunger for slaughter, they become grippingly vital mini-dominions crying out to be conquered.
 |
That's not to say Kaos can't do spectacle. Some of Homefront's set pieces rival the very best on the market. We'll have to skirt around spoilers here, but a mass civilian grave plays a stomach-churning role in a bit of war voyeurism, whilst an incendiary cloudburst-gone-wrong provides one of the most intense five minutes you'll ever spend with a shooter.
The farmland sections, in which you sneak around morally twisted redneck survivalists - who are neurotically out to kill all and sundry, regardless of ideology - present a charming natural landscape of auburn hues and autumnal yellows. These areas perhaps best typify Homefront's ability to blacken what at first glance are beauteous, familial environments with human tragedy - not to mention a disturbing propensity to use corpses as ornamental garnish.
But Homefront's real showstopper is its final mission, which takes place on, under and through one of San Francisco's most famous landmarks. The midday sun glimmers on the 'frisco Bay, illuminating the giant structure of the Golden Gate Bridge as you scramble up its side. A sense of vertiginous imbalance further intensifies your plight, especially when the heart-in-mouth moment of a near decline sets in. It's spectacular, theatrical stuff - like Mirror's Edge meets Last Action Hero - and a clever comparable to the vast majority of Homefront's whitebread locations.
 |
They are cagey but welcoming, and offer varied personal interactions that help enliven the entire setting of Montrose. The section provides an emotive change of pace that's tellingly conspicuous by its inclusion; its subtle, quietened piano and flute soundtrack lend colour to the idea of this previously palatial haven for hardworking families, devastated by power-grabbing atrocity.
Two young children snooze precociously by the fire, and it's not the last time that infantile distress is utilised in Homefront. Traumatic screams, confused breathlessness, the respite of a short-lived giggle; Kaos is unafraid to juxtapose the KPA's evil with innocence at every turn - another cleverly emotive reminder of what once thrived, and why your defence of a way of life matters.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
As it promised in interviews, Kaos has taken many lessons from Valve's Half-Life 2. These include an annoyingly sneaky enemy AI that fritters between cover - and a trust in artfully deployed chatter and community friction to propel the story forward. Many non-Korean NPCs in Homefront can't be trusted, with motivations ranging from the wish for a quiet life to altogether more mercenary considerations.
 |
The 'Follow Connor' prompt is symptomatic of our main gameplay gripe - and another indication of Kaos' lack of confidence in the Modern Warfare generation to work things out for themselves. In each section, you'll have to wait for one of your unlikeable accomplices to bound ahead of you; to open doors or kick over obstacles as you do little but observe.
The power is therefore whipped out of your hands at various crucial moments, which kicks back against the 'Me vs. The World' enjoyment that other layers of Homefront nail so well. Whilst we're talking Half-Life, a 'zoom' feature would not have gone amiss in a game that leans so heavily on inter-character discussions and "My God, look over there" observations.
These blows are somewhat softened by the fact that Homefront is a polished beast, making full use of Unreal Engine's lighting effects. Although a general lack of greenness could be pointed to - we're very much in grey, blacks, bronze and muddy territory here - the whole game is lifted by some deft illumination. Shards of sunlight beam into huts through bulletholes, whilst prominent shadows and a myriad of flame, floodlight and spark effects give the Homefront world a expressive sense of place.
 |
In addition, there's very little 'filler' here. With the exception of one frustratingly unclear section in a dilapidated supermarket, you're given plenty of variety, from top-down helicopter rampages to one very cool passage that has you picking off creepy survivalists to order with a sniper rifle. You'll also get to handle The Goliath - a hefty, titanic remote-controlled vehicle that occasionally steams into an area and allows you to unleashed barnstorming destruction. All that being so, augmenting these with another one or two 45-minute levels of similar quality would have definitely been a fairer deal.
Luckily, Homefront's multiplayer goes a long way to making up for this brevity - and comes highly recommended. If you liked Bad Company 2 or Kaos's own Frontlines: Fuel Of War, you're going to love this. Dedicated servers have kept every trial we've tested steady as a rock, whilst the addition of drones and the ability to spawn into someone else's vehicle keep things fresh and varied.
The game's key multiplayer reward system, Battle Points, push you to seek out high-scoring objectives whilst thinking on your feet. For instance, you might have to spend a few minutes flying a recon drone around to bump up your BP enough to afford a devastating airstrike. Sticking to merely popping bullets in brainstems isn't necessarily the best route to becoming BP-rich - although Killstreaks will notch up your currency at a rate.
 |
Throw in large scale Ground Control missions, a fierce Skirmish mode and an impromptu priority-based mission generator in the form of the Battle Creator, and Homefront's multiplayer really packs a punch. We'd go so far to say that this is the classiest, best value multiplayer shooter on the market, comfortably bettering both recent CoD monsters and edging ahead of Bad Company 2. It deserves a wide, fully engaged audience.
If you're looking for a military-style shooter that offers something genuinely different; one with a smart narrative pull in an evocative world that borrows from the very best, you'll struggle to go wrong with Homefront. The campaign length is an obvious let-down, as is Kaos's refusal to let the player find their own way - but the quality of the multiplayer is a fine counterweight to both.
We'd be over the moon to see Homefront return brighter, ballsier and more self-assured in the next few years. Except for Connor, that is. Fighting for the freedom of the people is made all the tougher when the grunting buffoon to your right deserves to be locked away for good.
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