Hands-On with Homefront Multiplayer

Remember that terrible, terrible novel that I had the misfortune of reviewing not so long ago? Well, I got to try out the multiplayer side to the Homefront game last week. Good fun. The vehicle spawning and weapons remind me of Warhawk but done far better.

So yeah, Homefront. Koreans have successfully invaded the US. Cue lots of military bravado, funny accents and urban destruction. The maps I played are very nice, at least to a multiplayer newbie like me. For a start, they actually look like we’re fighting an embattled city, as opposed to a world full of conveniently-placed chest-high walls. You have plenty of sniper positions up in the hills and lots of cover in the form of trucks, flyovers and building ruins.

We spent the afternoon playing 32-player Ground Control mode on the Xbox 360. These matches are essentially a form of domination but when one team racks up enough control points, your team gets to advance (or retreat) to another set of objectives on the same map. Capturing objectives is the same as it always is in these modes – clear the area of hostiles and stay alive on the point for long enough to make the capture.

Audio feedback is pretty handy – at all times there’s a commander shouting in your ear about control points being captured or under attack, in addition to the hovering HUD indicators. When you’re playing the Korean side, he has a pretty convincing Korean accent, even though I seem to recall a fair bit of Engrish going on in there too. Still, it does the job of reminding you which team you’re on.

What makes the Homefront multiplayer special is the range of vehicles and tools that you can purchase. Every kill or capture wins you “Battle Points” (BP) which you use to purchase class-specific items or vehicles with gun turrets into which your teammates can spawn.

For a numpty like the me, the vehicles are particularly useful. The majority of my points actually came from co-op kills; in other words, I softened someone up for another player to finish off. These don’t net you a whole load of points. The only way I could rack up some decent BP was to pop into a tank’s turret and either shoot down player controlled helicopters or machine-gun a load of players in rapid succession. It’s a nice touch that helps make the multiplayer side accessible for those of us who aren’t that good at rapid-fire deathmatch.

Why do I need BP? Well, when you first start out, no matter what class you are, you have pretty basic weapons. As a sniper you would get a sniper rifle (obv) and an EMP grenade. You also have the option to buy a sweet MQ50 MG Wolverine complete with machine guns and/or a Hellfire missile. The handy thing is that you can purchase these at any time during the battle – there’s no tedious menu to navigate and you don’t have to run to a shop on the map. Just hit the right button on the D-pad and whoomp, there it is.

Classes:
Assault
SMG
Heavy
Sniper
Tactical
Explosive

Purchasable tools/weapons (incomplete list):
Hellfire
RPG Launcher
Flak Jacket
Proximity Launcher
MQ50 MG Wolverine (remote controlled machine-gunning ground drone)
AQ11 Buzzard (remote controlled rocket-launching helicopter drone \m/)

Vehicles:
M1151 Humvee
LAV Piranha
T-99 Battle Tank
AH-700 Scout
Z-10 Chimera

The game will be released in the UK this Friday, March 18th on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Pre-order Homefront from Play.com or wait for our review later this week which will be written by someone who knows how to play these crazy military FPS games ;)

Undecided on whether you want it? Check out this video of multiplayer action from fellow UK gamer site XG247:

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