Preview: Homefront: The Revolution
Playing Homefront: The Revolution latest beta was quite a painful experience. 6 hours downloading with several down times, 20 minutes refreshing and waiting to find players which at some points felt like the apocalypse has just happened, random crashes, but eventually I was there. Going in, I already had a bad impression on what to expect. Over the next few paragraphs, I will talk about things that I believe did not work and other things which if worked on, could salvage this game.
Now before I jump onto this, let me give you a quick background on this game. Homefront: The Revolution is an open world first person shooter. The title says it all, the game’s objective is to start a revolution. You are supposed to lead the resistance into battle against a more resourceful and powerful enemy making your life a little bit harder and pushing you to using guerilla warfare.
Overall, the game ran under 30 fps which was not ideal, the gameplay was not smooth. Felt like an Alpha more than anything else. The character animation was jerky and the weapons looked out of proportion. From a graphics point of view, I expected to see better however it felt like it was developed for last gen consoles. But then again, it is more of a demo beta than anything else and I believe that they will patch in many changes specially that it has been in the making for a quite a while now.
Technically, Homefront: The Revolution was a nightmare and required a lot of patience. Half way through a mission, you would find yourself starting from the beginning, other times the checkpoints would just disappear … it was everything but a stable beta. At some points, the AI had no form of movement coordination, I found myself standing in close proximity with some of them and felt like we could sit and have a coffee together. Driving vehicles was not ideal, very sloppy but did the job and kept me entertained.
There is no denying that the game also had some good things and potential into being the one Dambuster Studios promised us. The character selection was rich with options and unique builds. The fact that completing tasks and missions gave you cash and XP The feeling of always being underpowered and having to rely on guerilla warfare was exceptionally realistic and well designed. You never felt that god mode feeling where you go on into a rampage killing streak. Very tactical and self-aware, never going in the open otherwise it’s a million ways to die in the West all over again. The slightest decision you made could be the difference between winning or losing a battle. All this gave me hope.
There is still a lot of things to explore in Homefront and although it was mostly negative, we can’t judge Homefront: The Revolution with three more month to go for the release, and without playing the single player story mode simply because of the idea of leading a revolution excites me.
Homefront: The Revolution launch on the 17th of May 2016 worldwide for Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4. These impressions where only based on the closed beta available to those who preorder the game at participating retailers.
