Entertainment

Games: Homefront rebooted but hard to recommend

The Revolution takes another swing at Homefront's commie-baiting hokum
The Revolution takes another swing at Homefront's commie-baiting hokum The Revolution takes another swing at Homefront's commie-baiting hokum

Homefront: The Revolution (PS4)

By: Deep Silver

EVEN a script from Dirty Harry and Conan scribe John Milius couldn’t save 2011's Homefront from mediocrity. Playing out like a grown-up version of the screenwriter's paranoia classic Red Dawn (where Patrick Swayze in none-more-80s feathered hair took on commies in his backyard), the boilerplate blasting squandered its premise with stock-in-trade genre tropes and a glacial pace that had all the urgency of a care home conga line.

The Revolution takes another swing at the commie-baiting hokum, shoe-horning in the feature du jour – a sprawling open world – yet fails so spectacularly, there's little hope of a third strike.

Set in 2029 America, North Korea has become a technological powerhouse, and with Yankee military hardware locked down, Kim Jong's finest have invaded, making Philadelphia their stronghold.

Hitting much of the plot points as its predecessor, Revolution stuffs players into the hobnails of young recruit Ethan Brady as he joins a scrappy bunch of freedom fighters attempting to liberate Philly.

The spirit of 80s action runs through Homefront's veins, where bloodthirsty commies slaughter middle Americans and gun nuts save us from dirty reds. Moving away from the original's tightly constructed set-piece funnelling, Revolution opts instead for an open-world where players liberate areas and goad the populace into fighting back, with the overall goal a 100 per cent Hearts and Minds rating.

North Korean forces patrol the streets and it's Brady's job to clear his Asian foe from factories and the like, turning the map from red to blue. In areas full of civilians, players are more saboteur – creating bases, blowing up supplies and strengthening the resistance.

It's an interesting take not seen in Homefront's blockbuster rivals, while the actual blasting is pleasingly robust, with a varied arsenal and the ability to dismantle and rebuilt guns on the fly. Alas, the number of things to actually do quickly dries up, and you're soon rinse-repeating old maps.

The game is also stuffed with norks. Titter ye not, but our North Korean adversaries are referred to as Norks throughout, which would be startlingly racist were it not so inadvertently Kenneth Williams-esque on these shores.

The game also features the most thinly drawn resistance characters this side of 'Allo 'Allo, full of hateful boo-ya Yank-types whose constant one-dimensional hatred against the Norks almost has you rooting for your mammary-monikered enemy.

Technically, it's a hot mess, chugging and wheezing during autosaves, hanging after checkpoints, while the framerate bungees at will. Homefront's journey hasn't been a happy one, with bankruptcies and dwindling resources meaning a pass-the-parcel development team.

And while there are some decent ideas and solid shooting to be had, technical issues, a dearth of interesting tasks and jingoistic characters make this hard to recommend.