People thought I was crazy when I picked a practically unheard of first-person shooter as my top game of E3 2009, the game was Homefront from THQ. At that time the only sign that Homefront was an actual Xbox 360 (also Playstation 3 and PC) was a video that featured Korean soldiers invading a United States suburban neighborhood; no hands-on play was available at that time. Everything changed this past week as PlanetXbox360 was invited to attend the official press unveil of Homefront multiplayer, something up to this point we had heard very little about. Going into the event my expectations were probably a bit higher than most press events, THQ needed to deliver a great experience and anything less would have been a massive disappointment. Thankfully the first-person shooter features the perfect blend of Half Life and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to get a non-traditional FPS gamer such as myself hooked. Throw in some epic 16 on 16 multiplayer matches in huge environments that basically give players the feeling of being right in the middle of an actual World War between the US and the Greater Korean Republic (one unified country). Minutes after tossing an EMP grenade into the air to disable a helicopter drone that was chasing me through a desolate barn, with 30 other combatants going at it outside, I smiled to myself because I knew my E3 award was right-on. THQ was tight-lipped about the Homefront single-player campaign, that event is taking place next week, but the ‘pre-alpha’ multiplayer gameplay was impressive to say the least.
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 has been in development for years now and will release early next year. At a recent press event we were shown a couple of the multiplayer game modes and only two of the location-based maps, a tiny portion of the entire non-campaign feature-set. The head-producer on Homefront told me that the multiplayer portion was a huge focus for Kaos, because they know that it’s the online gameplay that gives a game longevity and allows for a sequel to be made down the road (having the public still interested in your game a year after release is very hard to do). THQ is looking to achieve this goal by using the tested formula for online multiplayer shooters and adding just enough new features to make it for the majority of gamers. Even though this preview focuses on the multiplayer aspects of Homefront you need a little background on the game’s war-ridden story. The year is 2027 and there is a unified Korea beginning to take-over the world, the time has come to attack the United States and the game kicks-off just as that future War is getting started. Multiplayer in Homefront is even interesting to gamers who are usually only captivated by the single-player because it ties in, the large scale battles taking place online are the exact battles you will hear about during the solo campaign.
While this may not sound revolutionary the fact that the single-player story focuses on one main character’s trials during the war and the multiplayer is a focus on the larger scale warfare is exactly what a gamer like me needs to become interested in online play. Thankfully everything in Homefront multiplayer won’t have the tagline – “War on a massive scale” – as there are plenty of small maps that will only feature 8 or 16 players per match. At the press event THQ let the press spend time with one of the small maps (Cul de Sac) and one of the much-larger ones (that featured 32 players at one time – titled Farm), considering Homefront features classic foot soldiers, air/land vehicles (you can spawn instantly into a new or teammate’s vehicle), and a multitude of robotic drones simultaneously on-screen during play, things can get a little crazy. The developers told me that from day-one they knew for this large-scale online multiplayer to work they would have to support dedicated servers, and because of this the lag-issue that many first-person shooters deal with will be non-existent. Mixing the Battlefield style of online play with that of Call of Duty isn’t something that should be taken lightly, and the fact that even at this early state the multiplayer feels revolutionary to a FPS veteran such as myself is astounding. The reason this approach seems to work so well in Homefront is because the development team found a perfect balance, to create some amount of peace in the insane amount of chaos taking place during each MP match. Probably the biggest feature Homefront brings to the multiplayer shooter space is a “perk” system called Battle Points. When I first heard about the BP market I wasn’t that impressed, once I actually used it in an online match that changed to giddy excitement.
Battle Points can change the dynamics of a match instantly, whether it’s a small 4v4 or a large-scale 16v16 match. This system changes the game of online multiplayer because you can use earned battle points (rewarded to the player for kills, location captures, etc.) to refill ammo, purchase drones or vehicles, call for air strikes, and much more (customizable using the d-pad) at any time during battle. For something that seems so simple and was quickly compared to the perk system of Modern Warfare, the BP model in Homefront made for some very fun mid-match moments during the press event. The ability to refill your ammo right after going on getting a kill-streak is a nice reward, and it’s that feeling that kept me coming back for more. At this nowhere near finished stage of development THQ only let event attendees see a handful of load-outs (weapons, accessories, ammo), vehicles, and drones (small versions of tanks, helicoptors, etc.). Even so the basic features/modes that gamers have come to expect from an online first-person shooter are present in Homefront and on some fronts manage to even take things to the next level. Graphically the game is coming along nicely and should be able to stand toe-to-toe with any other shooter on the market. Going into the press event I was more excited to see the single-player aspects of Homefront, but somehow Kaos Studios was able to persuade me into completely forgetting about anything other than going online and kicking-ass in massive 32-player large-scale warfare. This has the chance to be one of the strongest MP titles coming out for the Xbox 360 next year; stay tuned for more coverage on Homefront here at PlanetXbox360.com as 2009 finishes up.
