Reviewed on PS3, also available on PC and Xbox 360

Have you ever taken home a call girl after being promised an unforgettable night of passion and excitement (and something called a Mississippi Handbag) only to have her snatch away your money, give you a peck on the cheek and walk out the door just as the foreplay got interesting?

You have, metaphorically speaking, if you’ve played Homefront.

Yes, the rumours of Homefront being an exciting yet fleeting mistress are true, and while the multiplayer and what little story there is are both actually quite good there’s not much else here to justify purchase.

The storyline, a completely implausible but coherent thumbsuck, sees Korea becoming stupidly powerful over the course of the next couple of decades and invading various countries, all culminating in a full scale attack on the US of A. Naturally a small resistance group forms to combat the evil aggressors, and you play as their new inductee who’s been enlisted to play a crucial role in the resistance’s plans.

The narrative is strong and each mission feels like it’s leading the group towards the greater goal rather than just being an excuse to shoot pesky invaders. Although much of the game takes place on a small scale in comparison to the huge war we get to see practically nothing of, the more focused story from the pen of famed screenwriter John Milius is compelling enough to keep you playing through a variety of smaller, more intimate experiences like hiding in a mass grave, witnessing a shocking execution or trying to get past a single but seemingly insurmountable sentry gun.

The problem with this though is twofold: first, it all ends far too quickly. While the story feels like a chapter that plays out in a much bigger story, the game comes to a frustrating and inconclusive halt just as things start getting interesting. Had Homefront stretched it all out a little more we might’ve had a real gem here, but it all feels like wasted potential as the final credits roll just as you’ve started to get into the swing of things.

The second problem, to be blunt, is that Homefront’s actual gameplay just isn’t very good. There’s nothing you haven’t seen here before with an extremely vanilla selection of weapons and lacklustre combat, and there isn’t even so much as a hint of something as interesting as a cover mechanic or squad commands. This could be overlooked as the scenarios you have to fight your way out of are usually interesting and varied, but since the story’s so short and the progression completely linear there’s no reason to go back once the 5-6 hour campaign is clocked.

On the techie side I was also somewhat underwhelmed: here again a flash of brilliance is let down by another flaw. The locales you’ll fight through are believable and perfect for the story (think war-torn streets, abandoned farms, etc.) but the graphics and textures are embarrassingly chunky for a game released in 2011. The framerate’s not bad and the overall art direction is done well enough to make you feel like you’re really in the aftermath of a war in your backyard, but this is definitely not a game to play in your local game store’s window to lure customers into buying a PS3.

The one redeeming aspect of Homefront is the multiplayer which made me feel a lot better about the whole package within minutes of firing it up as it was mere seconds before the game found me a decent server and catapulted me into the action; a big plus in comparison to the last few shooters I’ve played where matchmaking is excruciatingly slow.

Though there are only two game types, traditional deathmatch and capture/hold, the gameplay here is a hell of a lot of fun mostly thanks to the introduction of what Homefront calls Battle Points. These points (accumulated from kills, captures, revenge kills, etc.) are spent in-battle to give you various perks dependent on what class you’ve picked for that particular match. Abilities include equipping simple items like a flak jacket or an RPG, and go all the way up to letting you call in a wicked cluster bomb or cruise around in an Apache.

Being a not-so-professional multiplayer FPS gamer I found the Battle Points system very simple to get to grips with, and there’s a good feeling of overall balance to matches thanks to the constant ebb and flow of points between different conflicts. (To illustrate this, I find Modern Warfare almost overwhelming because of the hardcore veterans constantly handing my ass to me, but Homefront feels much more accessible and less daunting.) Overall there could definitely be more gameplay modes and some extra maps, but for a game still in its infancy the multiplayer is remarkably solid and should be enough of a motivator if you’re not all that fussed about the brief single player experience.

Overall, Homefront is not a bad game by any means. I enjoyed the campaign and its tight story until I blinked and found myself at the end credits, and the multiplayer has lured me back several times (an impressive feat for someone who’s usually not into online play), but if you’re after a purely single player experience or looking for something innovative then you’re far better off putting your pennies towards something else or waiting around your game store’s bargain bin.

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