Hello everybody, Trent’s here to give you a review of possibly one of my favorite shooters of recent release, Homefront for PC.

Before we begin, allow me to give you some insight as to MY personal tastes in the FPS genre. First off let me get it clear that I play shooters for the enjoyment and single-player experience! Those of you already complaining may leave now…. Are they gone? GOOD!

For the few of you still remaining, there are certain key features that a shooter must have to gain my enjoyment; Storyline, Characters, Environmental feel, and lastly is the System. A good example towards what other shooters I’ve enjoyed, the FEAR series has a nice storyline that keeps me coming back for more, though it has many weak points. The Doom series, Metro 2033, Hellgate London, NecroVision series, Rainbow Six: Vegas series, and of course, the Half-Life series.

However, my absolute favorite shooter, until playing Homefront, was Frontlines: Fuels of War! I even went so far as to get the sound track! And strangely enough Kaos Studios has made 2 games, Frontlines and Homefront. These guys have me hooked with their single player experiences. But enough about me, let’s get to the war…

Homefront takes place in an alternate (though not too far fetched) future scenario of the United States. The game starts up with a timeline cutscene of events leading to 2027, with the US being overtaken by Korean forces. The writer for this game, JohnMilius, shows his great talent in giving a compelling story; he did work on Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn after all. The chain of events seems like a possible future, though I doubt many people would want this to happen.

The story’s progression through the game is intriguing. It gives you the feel of how horrible this would be, and kind of makes you think about all those who live among current and past wars. Now, I’m not one for the US always being portrayed as the Governator, big machine gun in one arm with bulging muscles for a body.

The characters in this game are far from that mindset. Hell, even when you get to that big moment,heading into battle once you meet up with the military, squadrons of helicopters filled with troops, victory-enforcing cheesy rock music playing on the radio, the scene always thought up by people thinking “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!” What happens right at that moment, reality sets in within seconds of air time as the squadstarts getting blown away by the superior number and power of the enemy.

That’s the thing I like to see, you aren’t ‘GOD’ and the military isn’t full of superheroes! Great stuff, you use wit and cunning to survive. One of your allies does make a wisecrack about how often the main character survives through dumb luck from multiple falls. It’s great when the cast makes mistakes and acts like a normal person. Most of these people aren’t military, nor are they trained, a few are though and one in particular is a complete nutcase. This is probably why I enjoyed it so much.

The environment is well done, though it mostly makes you feel like hope is hanging by a thin wire, dangling over a 100 foot pit filled with acid, surrounded by those multiplayer tea-baggers who don’t realize what puberty means. The feel as you play through is intense, right from beginning the game by getting hit in the face and thrown down the stairs to be taken away on a damaged school bus, watching civilians being tortured, shot, executed, and even getting a blood smear on your window from one who tried to escape.

This team did a great job getting you into the moment. I often found myself reflecting, “How can anybody be so horrible? What can I possibly do?” There were even moments when I took shots at enemies that were burning to death already, ‘mercy kills’ if you will.

The system used may seem pretty simple to some people, but let’s quickly think about Half-Life, probably one of the simplest systems still used for shooters; it does the job and it does it well. I understand wanting some reality, but it’s still a game and the controls are good. Even vehicle controls were good, no screaming at the computer when you are rushing through and all of a sudden the crazy controls cause you to slide 50 feet. These controls are good, actually no, great!

That’s enough about Homefront for now; I don’t wish to give away any more spoilers than I already have.

This is the voice of freedom, signing off…

Written By Brandon Griggs. Edited by Tyler Clapp. All references, icons, and imagery are trademark to their appropriate owners, and author and editor take no credit for creation/ownership of these things, only the opinions stated in this article.