If you're a developer looking for a way to make tried-and-true shooter gameplay feel fresh, a healthy injection of tension and a sense of danger can go a long way. Even in its early, pre-beta state, Homefront: The Revolution’s four player co-op mode is successfully doing just that in subtle ways, while maintaining the basic shooter appeal of aiming down-sight and snapping off a few shots.
It starts by properly leveraging Homefront’s main plot point: that America has been occupied by a massive, technologically superior North Korean invasion force. At least here in the co-op mode, this idea is applied in practical ways without being heavy-handed or overly-dramatic. The sandbox I played in wasn’t exactly massive, but it was big enough to give me and my three squadmates enough wiggle room to carve our own path through an occupied Philadelphia. Enemies were never looking for us; instead we were dictating the pace, staying low as patrol units mosied by before carefully crossing streets, engaging only when we felt we needed to.
It’s not to say that getting seen sends your mission spiralling inevitably into failure, just that Homefront succeeded, mostly visually, in convincing me I was up against a superior foe that shouldn’t be tackled head on. The North Koreans sport body armor and unmanned drones that you’d think were yanked from the near future, while the empty husks of buildings serve as a constant reminder of their successful military campaign against the United States. Together with the cobbled together look of your own gadgets, these visual cues made me want to keep my head down when I could.
When I couldn’t though, Homefront: The Revolution’s reliable shooting mechanics were there for me. Gunfire sounds as lethal as it is, downing less heavily armed infantry with a trio of well placed bullets or less. The guns are as conventional as can be, but they all felt good to shoot, striking a nice balance between an arcade and tactical shooting model. It made me feel like a good marksmen when I cleanly downed a guard with a quick burst of rounds, while also making me feel ok to get a little wild.
A nice little touch that really made me feel like a guerilla tactician was looting abandoned buildings and fallen foes for various resources, and then using them to craft improvised high explosives, or attention diverting incendiaries when I’d run out. Sitting behind cover on the second floor of destroyed house, frantically crafting a sticky bomb to disable the APC below that’s pinning my allies down feels like the exact kind of thing I would do, were I actually a badass resistance fighter.
My look at Homefront: The Revolution’s co-op was brief, and I didn’t get to see much of its progression system, which includes a sizeable number of weapon and attachment unlocks, as well as different perks for the various classes, but I enjoyed what I played enough to want to see more. While I’d still like to see a proper competitive multiplayer mode for it – especially after how good it was in the first Homefront – what I saw of the co-op looks like it could give the game the legs it needs too.
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