I’ll start off by saying this: if you’re looking for an open-world first-person shooter game, look elsewhere. Homefront: The Revolution has all the bells and whistles of what’s typically expected from your regular open-world FPS, but it gets noticeably outclassed by the competition in virtually every way. It certainly doesn’t help that the PS4 version of the game runs terribly, either.
The game chugs along at about 15-20 frames per second, resulting in extremely choppy and sickness-inducing gunplay. Speaking of gunplay, your firearms feel so slow, sluggish, and unresponsive that there’s almost no incentive to engage your foes in a shootout in the first place, which is kind of the point of a first-person shooter game. Weapon customization looks cool in that you’re able to watch your character physically piece apart his gun and put it back together, but what’s the point if you can’t use it to its full potential when facing the KPA troops?
As if the disturbingly bad framerate wasn’t enough, vehicular controls are a mess in Homefront: The Revolution. Occasionally, you’ll get to ride a motorcycle, which is nice, except the controls feel janky and archaic. You’ll turn slightly to the left, and the bike will skid out of control. The brakes don’t do much to control your movement, so basically, riding the motorcycle is simply a surefire way of getting noticed by the KPA, and consequentially getting shot to death.
Honestly, all of these gameplay and graphical issues wouldn’t be such a big deal if the game actually gave you a compelling story, complete with a lively world and characters to interact with. But while the premise of living in an alternate reality where the North Koreans have completely overrun the United States is pretty interesting and unique, the plot itself feels generic and forgettable. The three main characters fall into the boring stereotypes of the sadistic chick, the concerned doctor, and the serious-sounding leader man.
Philadelphia itself looks acceptable, and it can be nice to wander around the city (when you’re not trying to defend yourself from the KPA with terrible gunplay), but the world ultimately feels lifeless. The NPCs mutter about inconsequential nonsense and do nothing to help you but get in your way when traversing narrow corridors. You’ll run into NPCs and enemy troops wandering around aimlessly, muttering repetitive lines of dialogue you’ve heard before, doing generic grunt things like walking around in circles or preparing to raid a house you’ll never enter.
Homefront: The Revolution also comes with a multiplayer co-op mode that’s really just a more challenging version of the same dreary world you’ve come to hate, except you get to play as one of twenty premade characters. It also comes with a crafting system, and terrible stealth gameplay where it’s impossible to predict enemy routes and move quickly enough to get from cover to cover. Simply put, Homefront: The Revolution gives you everything you could ever want in an open-world FPS game, it just can’t manage to get them right.
So here’s the verdict: if you’re looking for a good first-person shooter game to play this month, you’re probably better off going with Doom. Or hey, I hear that Overwatch game that’s releasing next week is pretty popular, too.
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