Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour of Homefront is effective because it does not ease you in. Robert Jacobs is swept into an occupied America, pulled free by a resistance cell, and immediately forced to keep moving. That momentum is the campaign’s chief strength. You are rarely invited to settle down; the game pushes you through guerrilla attacks, escapes, and the effort to get beyond Montrose, Colorado.

If you have played a Modern Warfare-era military shooter, the gunplay will feel instantly familiar. You snap onto targets, aim down sights, carry two weapons, and use a control scheme deliberately close to that series. That makes it easy to pick up, though it also means Homefront seldom surprises you with its basic shooting. Randomized scopes and attachments on enemy weapons add a little uncertainty when you swap gear, but they do not transform the familiar formula.

The Goliath is where the campaign finds a more distinctive wrinkle. Rather than simply handing you another gun, it asks you to point out targets for an autonomous robotic assault vehicle to destroy. Directing it toward enemy infantry or tanks gives the larger fights a satisfying sense of support and scale. It is a good idea precisely because it breaks up the standard corridor-shooter routine without abandoning the fast, direct pace.

Multiplayer is the more ambitious half. Matches mix infantry combat with vehicles, and Battle Points create a useful match-to-match decision: spend what you earn on weapons, upgrades, or vehicles that help right now, while XP continues to build your rank over time. Battle Commander is the standout mode. An AI commander assigns objectives, including particular enemy players to pursue, then raises your notoriety as you succeed. That turns a match into more than a chase for kills; doing well can put a bigger target on your back.

Graphics

The first-person view keeps the action close to the weapons in your hands, while the Goliath provides the campaign’s most memorable piece of hardware: a large robotic assault vehicle you direct against soldiers and tanks. The occupied, walled Montrose setting gives the campaign a concrete place to run through rather than leaving the invasion premise entirely abstract.

Story

Homefront has a pulpy, confrontational setup: America has fallen from superpower status, a unified Korea invades in 2027, and Jacobs goes from former military pilot and captive to an unwilling resistance fighter. It is a premise designed to provoke a reaction before you fire a shot, and it gives the campaign a clear personal direction. You are not saving the whole country in one grand gesture; you are trying to survive long enough to reach remnants of the U.S. Army outside San Francisco.

The resistance framing works because Jacobs is not presented as a ready-made hero. He is released by locals while on the run, then has little choice but to help them. Traveling with three resistance members gives the journey a small-group focus amid a national crisis, which suits the guerrilla-combat structure better than a broad military command story would.

There is a sharp B-movie conviction to the scenario, unsurprising given John Milius’s involvement. Yet the campaign’s frequently criticized brevity is the real drawback: the game establishes a big occupation narrative and an urgent escape, then reaches its conclusion before that premise has much room to deepen. The story is memorable as a setup, but it leaves you wanting a fuller payoff.

Overall Experience

Homefront is easy to recommend to you if you want a compact, aggressive shooter with a provocative alternate-history hook and no patience for a slow start. The campaign’s familiar Modern Warfare-style foundation keeps every encounter approachable, and the Goliath sections add just enough personality to prevent the action from becoming completely interchangeable.

Its limitation is equally plain: this is a short campaign built around a much larger-sounding conflict. The ending arrives before the resistance journey can feel fully resolved, so the single-player portion plays more like a forceful opening act than a complete war story. If you need a long solo campaign, that frustration will be hard to ignore.

Multiplayer gives the package more substance through 32-player team battles, vehicles, persistent rank progression, and Battle Commander’s escalating assignments. Battle Points are especially smart because they make each match’s success immediately useful, while notoriety creates risk alongside reward. Taken together, Homefront is a solid seven-out-of-ten shooter: sharp in the moment, notably short on the solo side, and at its best when its resistance premise and multiplayer systems are allowed to create some pressure.

Retro Replay Score

7/10