I know that Homefront: The Revolution still has a long way to go before it’s finally released, but I still wasn’t all that impressed with the PAX Prime 2015 demo of the shooter.
It’s not that it’s a bad game — it seems like it has the potential to be pretty entertaining — but it just feels like every other FPS already out on the market. In particular, it feels a lot like the Far Cry games. See, in Homefront, players are tasked with recapturing areas of a broken and destroyed city. Uncaptured areas, called “Red Zones,” are teeming with enemies, which, in the demo, consisted of flying drones and the general, everyday infantryman. After capturing an area, the amount of enemies in it is reduced, and locals start helping protect that are captured.
It is the same idea that the Far Cry games use, and throughout my time with the demo I felt like Homefront could have just been a spin-off of Far Cry. Of course, I did not get to experience the story, and it could likely be that the story missions and side-missions set Homefront apart from other shooters. But, where it stands right now in its early build, it feels a lot like other games on the market.
That being said, I was impressed with the weapon upgrade system. In Homefront, players are able to collect different materials and then use them to upgrade their weapons, or even change the general nature of said weapons. For example, I was able to change my shotgun into a shotgun/grenade launcher type of weapon. It appears as if there are a few variations on each weapon, although blueprints need to be collected to be able to access them.
Another thing I was impressed with was the motorbike. In the beginning of the demo, I found a motorbike, and began driving around the city. There are ramps everywhere, and I was able to drive the bike onto the roofs of buildings and then jump off of the roofs with the bike. The controls felt a little clunky, but I liked the idea of being able to ride a vehicle onto the ruins of buildings — it just gave the game a more open feel to it.
I’m very interested to see how Homefront: The Revolution evolves. As of right now, it could do with some graphical enhancements, as it looks a bit dated, but I chalked that up to it being an early build. The next time I play it, I hope to see enhanced graphics, and I hope to be able to experience more of the actual story, as well as the night/day system and the weather system, neither of which I was able to see at PAX Prime 2015. I want to like Homefront: The Revolution, but for me, it just isn’t there yet.
