Homefront's single-player campaign is five hours long, according to the latest review in PSM3 magazine.
Last week Official PlayStation Magazine Italy delivered its verdict on THQ's and Kaos Studios' upcoming shooter, awarding it an impressive 9/10 score.
And despite the campaign's length being on the short side, the mag says it doesn't feel it's a major problem:
"That short, short length of the main story may seem like a major sticking point, but it isn't as significant as you might fear," it says. "Homefront is relentlessly brutal and constantly puts you in new, unusual and memorable scenarios, varying the pace to keep things interesting."
PSM3 admits it was left wanting more at the end, "but not because we felt that the story was lacking or that we hadn't been playing for long enough - we were just keen to keep playing".
Multiplayer also fared well, with PSM3 praising guns that "really come into their own" and a battle point system ensures that games "rarely feel one-sided".
Homefront is already off to a good start thanks to record pre-order numbers for publisher THQ.
Comments
45 comments so far...
StonecoldMC on 8 Mar '11 said:
I must admit, ive been looking forward to this Game for quite sometime, however, a 5 hour campaign does not fill me with confidence that ill get my moneys worth out of it.
Mmmmm. Rock. Hard place.
johnston29 on 8 Mar '11 said:
9/10 for a 5 hour campaign!!?? It better be the best 5 hours of my damn gaming life. IF not, both the developer and the reviewer can go f@@k themselves.
Imaduck on 8 Mar '11 said:
It is to me I'm afraid. Sorry dudes, I'll pass.
benstevens on 8 Mar '11 said:
Consider my pre-order cancelled!!!!!!! SHAME ON YOU GUYS.
townender53 on 8 Mar '11 said:
Wait two weeks it will be £20 , then be worth it
Black Mantis on 8 Mar '11 said:
I'll wait until this hits the £15 mark.
_Marty_ on 8 Mar '11 said:
Not really that disimilar to CoD, is it?
a3HeadedMonkey on 8 Mar '11 said:
Blops is about 7 hours. Also, you know what you're getting on the multiplayer side of things with CoD. The Homefront multiplayer could be crap & with a 5 hour campaign, that's a bit of a gamble I'm not prepared to take with my £40.
The new Medal of Honour is a perfect example. 4-5 hour campaign & terrible multiplayer. I only paid £15 for it, but I still feel it was a waste of money.
MrRage on 8 Mar '11 said:
Yep definitely not getting this any more 5 hours is pitiful for a game that had so much hype about the single player.
gilly83 on 8 Mar '11 said:
disapoint
plightstar on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 hours? Thats a bit of a let down. May just wait till its in a sale somewhere.
DoomGuy84 on 8 Mar '11 said:
Rental it is then. Blockbuster must be chuffed at the amount of 'complete it in a couple of days' shooters being released, *waves at medal of honor*
captain savaloy on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 hours?, fair enough, Vanquish was only around that, and I had a blast with it.
Aslong as the game has some replayability, like Vanquish's score attack stylee, then I am happy.
Not everyone wants, or needs, to plug through 20-30 hr campaigns, infact, I feel that a shorter campaign actually gives a greater gaming experiance, I find a short(er) campaign keeps my attention from start to finish, rather than getting tired with the "same old same old" of a 20hr campaign, with long(er) campaigns I feel that devs tend to pad and draw things out, rather than have a nice, tight one that keeps pace.
I find I get much more out of a short(er) game, games like RE5 and the aforementioned Vanquish have me dipping back into them, where as something longer (like Oblivion or FO3 / NV) tend to "burnout" (although NV is better for me, as it had a tighter narrative, but thats a different subject.....)
jdkoke on 8 Mar '11 said:
Yeah it's important to me too so no longer day one I'm afraid. Will buy it in a month or two when the price drops. Disappointed
RustySpoon80 on 8 Mar '11 said:
Its a sad time when reviewers consider 5 hours acceptable.
Rental it is for me.
As said above, cod isn't much longer but you can get a good few days out of the mp if you dont mind the crashes.
modge on 8 Mar '11 said:
I'm not buying it for the single player,if it plays good using dedicated servers who gives a f#@k about the single player..........
monty_79 on 8 Mar '11 said:
I was going to buy this for the campaign.. but 5 hours?! Nah, I'm good thanks.
I think I will wait until it is 2nd hand or comes down to £20 but by then, I will have Crysis 2, Deus Ex and then only a few months until Battlefield 3.
nathar on 8 Mar '11 said:
Well pretty much everyone else who has posted on this thread except you. It must get lonely being you.
chronicwombat on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 hours is short but i always end up taking longer to complete games than what is stated. vanquish took me about 8-9.
a 5 hour campaign wont put me off if its really good, but what i care about more is something that just seems to get ignored nowadays - is the enemy AI a piece of s**t like in 99% of shooters or have they actually given the baddies a little bit of intelligence? this is as, if not more important, than anything else for me. im just so fed up of playin fps games where the baddies are thicker than my cat.
as for online, from the video ive seen im worried that its gonna be too similar to cod. will take something really special to take over halo and bad company as my online shooters. we shall see.
Metagen on 8 Mar '11 said:
This was never going to be a day 1 purchase for me but I was planning to pick it up somewhere down the line as I thought it looked really good but I've just had it with FPS for the moment. I guess I'll still get it when I have some money lying around and play it on the hardest difficulty to increase playtime.
MPH on 8 Mar '11 said:
Maybe it was 5 hours long on the easiest setting? I don't know about you guys but I ALWAYS play games on the hardest setting available. I feel cheated when I have to complete a game to unlock the hardest setting.
shogunreaper on 8 Mar '11 said:
COD games aren't that much longer, if you marathon it then it's only like 5-7 hours tbh, BO was short tbh.
KK-Headcharge78 on 8 Mar '11 said:
What difficulty is it been played on for this review? Half the time these 'campaign times' are balls as they are not played on the highest difficulty, whats the point in not playing on the highest difficulty if you then claim to want a real challenge? For example Black Ops, Battlefield, GOW 2 and MOH would all be 10+ hours for most players, I did all of these on the hardest level and found the experience far more enjoyable. This ignores the argument that it is the actual fictional content that is lacking but only slightly, if it is a choice been Final Fantasy style marathons and a puinchy story like MOH most gamers probably want the latter. Also the biggest caveat to this argument is the clear fact that MP now takes a much larger amount of the production time due to it's ever increasing prominence, this is a shame in some ways but I look at it in the respect that with a good MP and adequate storymode you are kind of getting 2 games for the price of one.
KMakawa on 8 Mar '11 said:
Not entirely sure why people are really getting all angst over 5 hours really, as soon as some individuals see a number, and then an hour marker -- they are like "OMG WHY SO SHORT? CANCELLED." but in effect, these reviewers played the easiest version, so there is no doubt that the game ended so quick.
And when a title is trying to balance out the portion of singleplayer and multiplayer, it is to be expected that a title will always have a short singleplayer, purely because a disc is only so big.
Multiplayer is the main focus for any first person shooter title now, it is where the hours will be spent. Singleplayer is a valued commodity, but not as much as it was in other generations of gaming.
I will still be purchasing it day one, purely because I am not taking reviewers comments to heart and taking it as the gospel. People said Dragon Age was x amount of hours long, when it was way beyond the estimate for me personally. Same with most other estimates, -- purely because I dont rush myself to complete it, merely take it in for its value and the way its meant to be played.
Cant believe people are cancelling their orders based on TWO reviews.. I thought that type of stuff died a long time ago when most reviewers are actually just speaking on personal opinion and not on professional values.
Reviewers play stuff on the easiest difficulty so they can get onto reviewing the next game, how are they giving accross a true review when they are not even fully experiencing it themselves?, shame on some of you for cancelling, but heh your choice and all.
dangermou5e on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 Hours does seem short but for me it's all about the Multi-player which i should at least get another 20 hours of gameplay from. So £36.99 for 25+ hours of gameplay still seems like a good deal plus once done i can always trade.
MANYOO4EVA on 8 Mar '11 said:
What a shocker there! A military FPS with a 5 hour campaign. Why aren't I surprised? Glad I cancelled my pre-order. My money will be going on Dragon Age 2 or The Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Am sick of £40 games, except RPGS, having a miniscule SP in place of the MP. Why even bother with an SP campaign if is that short. Pathetic.
aawells07 on 8 Mar '11 said:
I dunno 5 hrs is really short and that is really dissapointing as they talked there SP up big time all this crap about having a writer from a couple good movies from back in the day. If its thats short why hire someone like that for 5 hrs worth of story.I feel you should never be able to complete a game in one sitting. Im glad i was told tho cus if i would have completed the game in one day and not be expecting it i would have been p**sed .
Headsrinker on 8 Mar '11 said:
KMakawa
Cant believe people are cancelling their orders based on TWO reviews.. I thought that type of stuff died a long time ago when most reviewers are actually just speaking on personal opinion and not on professional values.
The 2 reviews are both 9/10!!! If the reviews had said the game was 7/10 i could understand why people may cancel. I agree that the reviewers are not playing the game on at least 'hard' setting. I play all games on at least hard setting becuase: (1) anything below hard setting is for 2 year olds (2) what the hell is the point in playing a game on easy? What satisfaction is there to gain from it? (3) you dont unlock gold trophies on the PS3 unless you finish it in at least 'hard' mode usually.
Reviewers need to stop reviewing games based on playing in Easy mode, ITS A JOKE AND MISLEADING
The_KFD_Case on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 hour long campaign = definitely not worth the opening RRP.
Better luck (and more effort) next time Kaos Studio and THQ.
The_KFD_Case on 8 Mar '11 said:
Revolutionary as this concept may seem, some people actually play games to have fun. For some of these people "fun" does not include spending hours-upon-hours replaying the same ham fisted, unimaginative, cheap shot difficult choke points in a game over and over and over again until they somehow through a combination of trial-and-error, luck, and sometimes a bit of skill succeed. Never mind those people whom also have an adult life to juggle (bills to pay, part or full-time work, family, other significant social activities, etc.).
ND1988 on 8 Mar '11 said:
so about 3 and 1/2 hours longer than every COD game, good stuff
Headsrinker on 8 Mar '11 said:
The_KFD_Case
Revolutionary as this concept may seem, some people actually play games to have fun. For some of these people "fun" does not include spending hours-upon-hours replaying the same ham fisted, unimaginative, cheap shot difficult choke points in a game over and over and over again until they somehow through a combination of trial-and-error, luck, and sometimes a bit of skill succeed. Never mind those people whom also have an adult life to juggle (bills to pay, part or full-time work, family, other significant social activities, etc.).
Your idea of fun is not my or many others idea of fun. Being challenged is what gamings about. If i just want a cinematic experience (which is what playing FPS games on easy pretty much is) then i'll watch a film or go to the cinema. END OF.
PS: I have bills to pay/work full time/live with my partner/have other significant social activities- ALL OF WHICH HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GAMING.
groble on 8 Mar '11 said:
A game which has tried to sell itself on it's story from day one should not have a blink and you missed it campaign. Consider my preorder cancelled aswell.
craiglackenby on 8 Mar '11 said:
gutted. I was buying for single player mostly, I'll still pick it up though.
1337er on 8 Mar '11 said:
5 hours is no big deal! Call of Duty is about 5-6 hours long (and the story tends to be a joke). People should remember- if they want to buy this later as a used copy, they can't play full multiplayer without paying another $10 for the online pass. Better to just pony up the dough for the new copy.
gmcb007 on 8 Mar '11 said:
Hmm shame its 5 hours but it sounds like 5 hours of very good gameplay. Multiplayer should keep my plaing it for a while as well
The Bossman on 8 Mar '11 said:
lol. So, after all this time of them talking up single player as an 'emotional' experience, it's over in 5 hours. Barely enough time to finish your coffee while playing it. People moan at COD for single player, even though it's now multiplayer focused, and yet THQ, with all their hype, can't even make their game 10 hours long. I bet this will be over in 4 hours or less, most PS3 mags are crap at playing games.
PS3UberTool on 8 Mar '11 said:
For someone who rarely plays online a 5 hour campaign is a real kick in the balls for me... guess I'll wait till the price drops below £20
BenThomasFoster on 8 Mar '11 said:
Wait i was planning on getting this game on the promise of a great singleplayer. I'm sorry people say call of duty's campigne is good but i didn't find it all that good because kit was over in 4 hours. won't be getting my money now
Very_Silver_Ownz on 8 Mar '11 said:
i knew this game was going to be a fail. all that rubbish of emotional story my arse. you cant have a '' emotional story '' in little less then 5 hours.
THQ FAIL AS ALWAYS.
flickenmaste on 9 Mar '11 said:
Meh, Im in it for MP anyway.
Plus most FPS singleplayers are duck hunts, I dont want to play a shooting gallery for 5 hours.
Hopefully homefront isnt a shooting gallery, and they fill with with things to explore and harder difficulties. You never know, the review may have rushed through it.
TheLastDodo on 9 Mar '11 said:
Little harsh there Silver, THQ dont fail as always. Heres just two good reasons for a start Costume Quest & Stacking.
Plenty of folks like the Red Faction and Saints Row series, respectively, too. I also doubt Guillermo Del Toro (a fantastic movie director and fellow gamer too) would sign up to work with THQ if they are FAILZ.
I think people are getting a bit over dramatic here with their statements. I can completely understand if you are looking forward to Homefront (as I am) and had pre ordered it but think of it this way the game has been given a couple of great reviews, especially the sp campaign, ask yourself this, would you rather have a fantastic 5 hour campaign or a merely average 8-10 hour campaign? I know which I'd go for.
Now as for the multiplayer, is it really gonna change anything? no. Does it bring anything new? no. Are people going to leave Black Ops, Bad Company 2, Killzone 3, Halo Reach or any other top tier shooter in their thousands? no. Is it a game like CoD4, BF2 or Counter Strike that you can see yourself playing for years to come? I doubt it.
So take that into consideration and just do what a regular person with common sense would do and instead of throwing your toys out of your pram, simply wait for a price drop, it will have dropped a reasonable amount within a month or so, who knows maybe Homefront will sell loads then pull a Dead Space 2 and see a ridiculous, out of nowhere massive price drop or of course you could rent it, Homefront sounds like perfect rental material to me.
Ninja Wolfman on 9 Mar '11 said:
The KFD Case,
You are Victor Meldrew in a halloween costume, stop boring us with your mundane comments and go crawl back under the rock you live under.
TheLastDodo on 9 Mar '11 said:
Yeah KFD Case, how dare you play for fun, playing for fun was so last gen
daley86 on 10 Mar '11 said:
hardcore gamers are losers! gaming is for enjoyment, i could care less about s**tty trophies or achievements or online stats, eg kill:death ratios. as long as i enjoy the game when i play it, it doesnt matter what difficulty its on and if i suck online so be it