The only vehicle I had a chance to play with (besides the drones) was the Humvee which costs 400 Battle Points and is unlockable at level 7. It controls very well and you can change seats depending on if you want to drive, shoot, or ride shotgun. Unfortunately I did not accrue enough Battle Points to get a chopper. This is not due to me not getting enough BP in a game, but more due to the fact that I couldn’t help myself from buying drones and rocket launchers. I did record the costs, level you need to be to purchase, and names of other vehicles though: Light Armor Vehicle (LAV) Piranha – 1400 BPs (Level 10), M1A3 Abrams – 2000 BPs (Level 15), AH-700 Scout – 2400 BPs (Level 22), AH-64 Apache – 3200 BPs (Level 30).

One key thing about the vehicles to note, as many people had questions about this, you can spawn directly into a teammate’s vehicle so they do not have to, for instance, bring their Apache down to ground level and make themselves more vulnerable.

We were only allowed to play three game types in our time with the game. Battle Commander was the most prominent with Team Deathmatch and Ground Control as the other two. I have discussed Battle Commander in depth (although the BC mode can be played over Team Deathmatch or Ground Control, it works the same way but with the star system added), and you all know what Team Deathmatch contains, so that leaves Ground Control. Once again those who played Frontlines will know exactly how to play Ground Control as it is the game’s namesake. In Ground Control, both teams attempt to capture a series of 3 points which, upon capture, pushes the front line up, or upon loss of the points, pushes the front line back.

It is basically a big tug of war mode. The interesting thing about Ground Control will be to see how people play it. It was great in Frontlines because people actually went for the objectives and tried to push the line, but in recent games it seems like even while playing an objective-based game, many players would simply go for kills. I am hoping this trend does not follow into Homefront. Even with the limited amount of gametypes we played, everything felt exciting and fun. I think the Battle Commander addition really added that layer of depth needed to each gametype, and made it seem like a whole new ballgame. Come launch day you will see me in Battle Commander Team Deathmatch quite a bit, it is a very welcome addition to the game, and it is hard to get across in writing just how much fun it was.

The leveling system in the game is very similar to other first person shooters you may have played recently. You accrue XP as you play and unlock items as you level (up to level 75). No word was given if there will be any kind of prestige mode.

Unfortunately I did not get the time to dissect each map we played, but the good news is that none of them stood out as bad. Each map we played, including the Xbox 360 exclusive Suburbs, played great and offered play areas that were both conducive to close battles and vehicle combat. Even the close quarters maps that do away with vehicle combat felt very fun due to the drones everywhere and people calling in air-strikes via the Battle Points system.  The larger maps were played with gametypes like Battle Commander Ground Control and really gave a feeling of what KAOS was going for in differentiating Homefront from the other large-scale offerings in the market.

The Homefront multiplayer is in great shape for being in beta stage internally. KAOS was mum on whether we can expect a public beta or demo, mentioning that they just held their biggest test yet internally throughout the complete THQ organization, but a beta is always possible to help make sure the game is the best it can be. The game feels solid, and was good enough to make me stay in my seat over the five hours without so much as a drink break (which was impressive considering the open bar). Homefront feels fresh.  It feels like a revitalization of the war-based first person shooter genre, and a great counterpart to games like Activision’s Call of Duty and EA’s Battlefield series.  THQ has begun to reinvent itself with the debut of their new logo, and games like Homefront can only help the company move away from its varied past.

Overall, the game seems to fill a different niche than Call of Duty, Battlefield, or any other shooter on the market. Fun modes like Battle Commander and features like Battle Points bring a very different feel to the experience, and the usable equipment adds another layer of depth to an already interesting offering. While we were only allowed a small segment of what the final multiplayer will contain, it was enough to leave me wanting more after a long play session.

I cannot yet say if Homefront will have enough pull to drag players away from Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, Killzone, Crysis, or any other games in the over-saturated genre, but I can say from the small bit I have played, those who choose to invest in KAOS and Homefront will not be disappointed.

- Community Speak

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