‘Homefront: The Revolution’ Review Round Up: A Critical Revolt

War is a familiar backdrop for first-person shooters, and "Homefront: The Revolution" follows the familiar path of a young recruit fighting against an oppressive regime. Unfortunately, there's little else to differentiate it from the many other action titles with similar themes. Despite the generally solid gameplay, "Homefront: The Revolution" is hindered by a predictable story that lacks sophistication.

Developed by Deep Silver and Dambuster Studios, "Homefront: The Revolution" puts us in a world where North Korea has become an electronics giant. The country’s products are quickly snapped up to the point where they are wildly prevalent in homes across America. Of course, this is all a ploy as North Korea disables all of these devices via pre-installed backdoors. After America is crippled, North Korea quickly invades under the guise of being benevolent rulers. The Korean People's Army rules over the occupied areas.

The city of Philadelphia is separated into zones, which adds variety to "Homefront: The Revolution," according to Eurogamer. The red zones are heavily occupied by the Korean People's Army whereas yellow zones are populated by citizens. Players can cause an uprising in the yellow zones by completing various tasks to gain the support of citizens. The makeshift weapons that can be customized on the fly, without the need to access a menu, are an interesting idea introduced in the game.

Shooting and the stealth elements are handled adeptly, but the game quickly falls apart when it comes to the story. The protagonists, and the group of liberators, are awful people. Usually, there are a few irritating characters who are around to provide some conflict, but "Homefront: The Revolution" has the rebels acting not too differently from the invaders. Instead of following a code of conduct more aligned to being a good guy, the rebels openly talk about assaulting North Koreans. The liberators also drop painful clichés regularly, according to Polygon, whose review also criticizes the limp plot and characters. The repetitive nature of "Homecoming: The Revolution" is also mentioned in IGN's negative review.

On Metacritc, "Homefront: The Revolution" has a score of 57 based on 18 reviews. Players were similarly unimpressed with the game, with a user score of 3.8 based on 58 reviews. The game is available May 20 for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.