I crouched on my belly and inched forward. Looking through my scope, I could see several Greater Korean Republic troops making their way down a ridge. They were totally exposed. I fired. Pop, pop. Time to buy a drone.
It was September during the Tokyo Game Show, and a group of the gaming press had been given hands on with the pre-alpha build of Homefront’s multiplayer. The Western press was divvied up from the Japanese press, but I, due to timing issues, ended up with the Japanese press.
Set in 2027, Homefront is a near-future war game from Kaos Studios (Frontlines: Fuel of War) and filmmaker John Milius (Big Wednesday, Red Dawn).
It was odder still when you watch documentaries like Vice’s trip to North Korea. As I fired up the multiplayer, I couldn’t help but think the game preys on the fears and insecurities of Americans – a new yellow peril makes its way West. But Homefront does it well. The game’s trailer is crackerjack.
The game’s multiplayer can handle up to 32 players at once and pits the civilian-turned-freedom-fighters against the Greater Korean Republic troops. There will be dedicated servers for both PC and console versions, meaning less lag and less latency. What separates Homefront from other multi-player modes is the title’s in-game economy.
It is also possible to buy vehicles with Battle Points, but not on the fly. Vehicles must be purchased in the spawn screen so that players load out in said vehicle. The “cheapest” vehicle is the Humvee at 300BP. During my multiplayer hands-on, I found it extremely hard to control the Humvee. The vehicle did not handle smoothly or naturally like in, say, the vehicles in a Battlefield game. Players use both thumbsticks to drive – one to go forward or back and one to go right or left. It gives the ground vehicles a sluggish, almost chess-like sense of movement. Granted it did feel better with the 1000BP Tank and really did work well with the 1400BP Attack Helicopter. The Humvee? Not a pleasant road experience.
Playing in the “Ground Control” mode, two maps were shown: “Cul-de-sac” and “Farm”. Cul-de-sac took place in a residential neighbourhood and featured infantry-only with drones. The other map, Farm, took place in a New England-esque rural setting and featured infantry, drones and vehicles. Both maps were fun, and the room of Japanese press seemed to get into the multiplayer – especially the Battle Point system.
Homefront will be released on the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the PC in March 2011.
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