The most underrated game of all time, Homefront The Revolution Review

Homefront The Revolution (Xbox One, PS4, PC) (Rated Mature)

(Video Review)

Never has a game's release been such grand evidence of what happens when a publisher pushes a developer to meet a deadline. Yet, in the madness that would have destroyed any other game; something downright spectacular happened to a game that launched as an unpolished mess. It was given new life by dedicated developers that knew this game only needed a bit of love and care, to bring out it's greatness. Homefront The Revolution is an open-world world first person shooter, which is a rebirth for developers Free Radical Design now known as Dambuster Studios, and the Homefront series that started with so much promise.

As the game begins you are introduced to a world in chaos, North Korea in this universe experienced the tech boom that took place in Silicon Valley in the real world; this led to North Korea creating a company known as Apex that is essentially Apple. They use their monopoly on the tech industry to install backdoors onto all their devices, which they use to launch a massive attack and seize control of the USA; a few years later your character is part of a resistance to take back control of the city of Philadelphia. The set up is excellent and provides a powerful enemy for the lowly rebellion to take on, which adds to the games guerrilla warfare atmosphere. Something that we have rarely seen, and never in the way that Homefront The Revolution presents.

After the game's cold open you will spend around two hours or so, really getting a feel for the controls and general gameplay mechanics. While movement and combat is not a far cry from most modern first person shooter's, it is how everything comes together that provides an experience that is fairly unique in the genre's landscape. While it does inevitability feel similar to the latest entries in the Far Cry series, it is the context and setting that make this game feel more like Skyrim than any other shooter on the market. The real meat of this game is exploring a dilapidated war-torn city and taking it back, you do this by scavenging for supplies and raiding military installations. Certain areas of the city are pure war zones, with the rebelling forces pushing back the opposition simply by raiding key points on the map; others still have people trying to just live their lives. In these areas, you must first inspire others to take up arms against their oppressors, before you can begin dismantling the occupying forces.

To do this you rescue civilians from the evil KPA the Korean People's Army, you sabotage their power sources, you hack their infrastructure and of course you kill the shit out of them. This all brings your hearts and minds meter up, which will allow you to broadcast a message to inspire the people to rise up once the meter is full. Which is quite impressive. I was surprised at how well the game's objectives fit into the world's narrative, every objective made me feel more immersed into this dark, gritty war-torn landscape. The game furthers its impressive sense of immersion with the visceral feeling that all in-game actions have. You feel the weight of your bolt cutters when cutting through a pesky padlock, the savage impact of your blade plunging into a guard's neck, and the kickback from your trusty M4 during frenetic gun battles.

You can lone wolf your way through the game with a stealth approach, or you could recruit some A.I resistance members to back you up for an all out assault. Not only is your approach up to you, but you can customize your weapons to your liking with a plethora of attachments, each weapon has multiple modes to switch between offering you greater flexibility. Your M4, for example, is capable of switching to a magnetic mine mode and a light machine gun variation, each weapon has it's own pros and cons which means it will be your play style that dictates your weapon preferences, as there all satisfying and functional.

You can sprint, jump and clamber over obstacles fairly well, though climbing and platforming can be a bit cumbersome, still during combat you are able to move around fluidly leading to some very exciting combat encounters. This is a game that is about staying constantly on the move, if your stationary for too long your as good as dead. As far as a game providing realistic guerrilla style combat, Homefront The Revolution is the first to really nail this kind of shooting gameplay. Which is what separates it from the set piece driven shooters that over saturate the market today, the feeling of running headfirst into an intense combat engagement guns blazing, leveling the opposition and then dashing away to hit another location is something that only a handful of other FPS's offer.

Beyond all your weapons and gadgets you also have access to motorbikes which are very useful, you can easily speed through each of the game's locales and hop off to engage in a quick act of sabotage then blaze off into the day or night, as the game has a natural day and night cycle, along with dynamic weather effects. The game's visuals are of course extremely beautiful given this is a game made on the Crytek engine, lighting effects are superb and characters animate well; yet at the game's launch, there were quite a few visual bugs and glitches, the worst offender being the sluggish frame rate. The game was playable, but it was one of the roughest games I have played this generation. Nevertheless, the game was such a diamond in the rough due to its meticulous gameplay design and a solid atmospheric foundation, that it was still worth playing bugs and all.

Thankfully as of November 2016, the game's worst issues have all been corrected for the most part. The frame rate is now consistent in most gameplay scenarios, although during the game's most hectic and bombastic onscreen actions things will still occasionally slow down, but never to the extent it had before; visual bugs were also so infrequent that I never noticed one. I have yet to even mention the game's interesting cooperative mode that has it's own missions and characters, basically, this is the campaign but made even tougher and meant to played with teamwork. Many labeled this game dead on arrival, yet they could not have been further from the truth.

It is a shame that the publishers lacked the faith that it would have taken to give this game more development time, yet in spite of all the obstacles in this game's path it has surpassed them and done something few games have ever accomplished, it rose from the ashes and is not only playable but is a masterwork of the genre.