OK time for some more in depth impressions.
SP - some really rushed/amateurish/lazy development here. The game is littered with areas that look like little nooks and crannies that I can get to but can't, compounded by the fact that they look just like areas that you CAN get to. For example a jump that is a certain height, if I can't make it then it must be a matter of inches or something. Other times there were literally objects at shin level blocking my way. I think it was like a door on the floor and that was blocking me off. Thats just shoddy and annoying.
Enemies, firefights and encounters in general are poorly scripted. First of all, this whole scripted vs unscripted argument feels like bullshit. Every game scripts events and firefights. Thats why games don't descend into MP-like mayhem. COD gets scripted shootouts down to a Tee. People can get all elitist about it as much as they like, but no other games do it better. Halo gets thrown up as a go-to example, but that's an easy answer that hasn't been thought through. Some elites stand there staring forward doing nothing until you get them in your sights and then they start ducking and diving like a bunch of clowns. That's completely surreal, they're psychic meditative aliens are they? My point is understand what you're criticising before you criticise it.
but Homefront doesn't match up to either of those. Locations are badly put together, bland and uninteresting. I can't be bothered exploring if you can even call it exploring.
The dialogue and mission design is weird. One of the early encounters has the AI team mates shout "pick up those grenades" and I don't know if I was being an idiot or what but for the life of me I couldn't find any grenades until I'd killed the enemies and picked theirs up.
Then you get to an area where I literally just stood still and watched enemy after enemy jump over a fence and die. It was like a weird little glitched enemy spawn. It was a complete nonsense thing for someone to do, run behind a fence, climb on top of something like a car, climb over the fence, land, die. Then another, then another. It's just lame. That pretty much sums up the whole SP game for me. Shoddy, outdated design, clumsy scripting and almost like a token gesture. Shame since the scenario they've created feels well thought through enough that they ruin it by drowning it in apathy.
Multiplayer - ok. It can entertain me a little. I never really get the adrenaline rush that I do from COD, but then nor do I get the same rage. I get a feeling of apathy to be honest. My performances have been middling without really knowing what I've been doing. In contrast to COD where even as an expert I get annihilated if I have a bad game, in this game it seems like I can walk around like a semi zombie and still finish mid table.
I'm not gonna try and understand why but to sum it up in a sentence I would say I constantly feel detached from the action. Like the fight is always happening elsewhere.
Will be swapping for Crysis 2 but will keep giving it a chance in the meantime.
