Homefront MP Hands On Impressions

THQ recently invited TotallyGN to check out one of their upcoming shooters, Homefront.  They were showing off how the multiplayer was coming along and allowed us to play a couple of different modes and maps to showcase the general direction that Homefront is going in.  After playing it for a while I can say that I came across happy with what I saw.  Homefront isn’t scheduled to be out until March 2011, however, they appear to be on the right track, at least with the multiplayer.  I haven’t had a chance to check out the single player yet, however, look for my impressions on that in a few weeks.

One of the things that the development team wanted to do was large scale warfare.  The game evolves as you are playing it and will force you to make some on the fly strategic choices.  The maps that I was able to play feature some intense battles on maps that were pretty big.  Following the theme of an evolving battlefield you will see that the map changes over the course of your game.  Kaos also announced that there will be dedicated servers for both the console and PC versions of the game.  The multiplayer is also going to feature a fully featured experience unlock system.

Homefront is set in the not too distant future and as such you will utilize modern weaponry and tactics.  You have infantry combat, vehicular combat, drones and more.  Every time you have to respawn you will also have to make a strategic decision.  You can always respawn as an infantry solider, however, if you have the battle points to do so, you can spawn inside a vehicle as well.  Battle points are essentially the in game economy.  You will earn battle points by performing certain actions.  The better that you are doing in the game the more points you will earn.

Once you have earned battle points you will have a decision to make.  You can use them immediately or you can choose to save them and your number climb until you can afford something bigger and badder.  If you have a tank threatening to run you down you can quickly use battle points to buy a rocket launcher to try and destroy the tank before he destroys you.  You do this by a simple press of a button.  The weapon(s) that you can buy like that will be dependent on the loadout that you previously selected.  If you choose to save your battle points then you will eventually get to a point where you can spawn into a helicopter and rain down death and destruction on the opposition.  This brings up another cool concept and that is that you will automatically spawn into the vehicle you selected.  In this game you won’t have to worry about spawning next to a vehicle and getting sniped before you can get in.  The battle point system goes with the evolving battlefield concept with people starting out as infantry in the beginning and then gradually being able to purchase vehicles and wreak more havoc.  The mode that I was able to play during my hands on time was Ground Control.  In this mode you have control points that shift around the map depending on which team is doing better.  Whatever team is dominating the team will see the battle push forward into where their opposition is.  This is similar to how it was done in Frontlines where the boundary for your area would expand as you moved farther into hostile territory.

The amount of people in any given game will depend on the map itself, however, I did get to play the “Farm” map which can hold up to 32 players.  This is a fairly open map and one where you can really use vehicles and can dominate if you know what you are doing.  You can also send up drones to mark your enemy’s position to make it easier for your teammates to take them out.  I had the chance to play a smaller map as well which featured some more intense close combat fighting as well as a smaller amount of vehicles due to the close quarters.

The build that I was shown was still in its pre-alpha stage and Homefront is already looking like it has a lot of potential. If you have played any other shooter on the XBox360 or Playstation 3 then you will be immediately familiar with the control scheme.  I appreciated that as I was able to immediately jump into the action without worrying about having to learn a new control scheme that might or might not work.  Be sure to keep your eye on Homefront as it appears to be on its way  to being a great shooter.  The multiplayer is in great hands with Kaos Studios and it should be exciting to see how the game further develops as we get closer to the March 2011 release date.  Keep your eye on TotallyGN as we will be giving our hands on impression of the single player in the weeks to come.