What Homefront did right and what CryTek need to do with Homefront 2 – Part 2
In the first part of the article we discussed the visceral, raw and slightly traumatic experience which THQ brought to the gaming world with Homefront. The game’s weapons and how they felt so satisfying to shoot was also analysed in detail. Yet, what we
did not touch upon, in significant detail, was how that was so vital for the game.
Homefront was a first person shooter which tried to do two things; firstly, it tried to be different in terms of its plot and premise and secondly, it tried to give everyone a satisfying shooting experience. While the first bit and whether or not the game
satisfied everyone on that front is still debatable, very few would argue with the latter part of the statement.
Guns saved the game from slipping into the mediocre first person shooter category. The premise was a breath of fresh air, yet without shooting mechanics the game would have turned stale, very quickly.
Another reason the shooting was vital, was because it translated directly into a brilliant multiplayer experience. Even here, developers tried to break away from the standard formula when it came to loadouts and rewards for kills.
Rather than earning rewards for a certain number of kills, points would be accumulated over the period of the entire match and could be used at any time to call in a reward such as a vehicle or an airstrike. It was a nice change from the focus of Killstreaks
and made the game much more accessible to a wider audience.
Again, if the shooting was not any good, the multiplayer mode would have failed as well and the game would have been a complete disaster. Readers must be wondering by now, why we are terming the game as one which avoided disaster by the narrowest of margins
and instead became a sort of cult-classic.
There are a number of reasons for that analogy, the most significant being graphics. The game looks like it belongs as a launch title for all the current generation of consoles. Textures are poor to say the least, rendering is below average and character
models lack finish. It almost seems as if the developers made the storyline and gameplay mechanics, and decided to add visuals and environments as an after-thought.
The atmosphere which the plot and premise are trying to create is not done justice by the jaggy graphics. The developer may argue they were going for a gritty feel and look, but Homefront just looks substandard. Another issue with the game was the lack of
punch in the story. The first few missions really hit home, but near the end it seems to lose some its momentum and the way the game ends is so sudden, it seems as if the entire game was nothing but a build up.
While that may have been fine, spending 90% of the time trying to get fuel for US Army and only to have a single level in which players can fight alongside them seems unfair to say the least.
Read on in the next part of the article: What Homefront did right and what CryTek need to do with Homefront 2 – Part 3
Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com
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