Screeching gears, rhythmic boot steps, and the soft crunch of fresh snow. These were the first notes of my invasion. I sought the Dwarfen capital of Karak Varn. The Dwarfs, hardy and resilient though they may be, were a thorn for my new allies, the green-skinned Orcs and goblins. I held my siege for weeks, and while my foes' numbers dwindled, mine grew. After each clash, I wrenched the newly dead from the earth and added them to my fiendish, Vampire hordes. Siege engines ready, and carried yon by fresh Dwarfen zombies, I steeled my undead warriors for the final assault.
When the battle started, I surrounded my enemy's commander with Vargheists--monstrous, man-eating bats--and sent battering rams for the gates. But that wasn't enough, not nearly. Dwarfs are hardy. They rarely break ranks or flee in terror no matter how ferocious their opponent. I needed more. When the gates broke, I rushed in with ethereal cavalry, immune to normal weapons and equipped with scythes that bypassed even the sturdiest armor. In minutes, my ghastly corps had torn through Karak Varn's defenders. This was Warhammer, and this was Total War.
The Total War series has, until now, balanced historical realism with strategic play. During campaigns (which you can play either alone or with others) you'll refine your statecraft, research technology, and manage your economy to keep your armies well-supplied. All this takes place on a continent scaling political map detailing borders, important landmarks and troop detachments. Should two opposing forces meet, the game will pull in to show the skirmish. Here, you'll micromanage movement and use battlefield tactics to out maneuver foes. Your decisions and political position throughout the game would have major effects on the sorts of troops and supplies you could field for any given battle. Warhammer, however, has always been about tactics, and for more than 30 years, it's been one of the most popular fantasy settings around, with a rich lore and vibrant tournament scene for its tabletop miniature game. Mixing the two raised a lot of questions about how Creative Assembly's attentiveness to historical detail would work with vampires, demons, and magic. But, the result is a sight to behold. Not only is it one of the most faithful adaptations of Warhammer's mythos, it is also far and away the best Total War has ever been.
That is, in no small part, due to the natural marriage of Warhammer as a setting and Total War's gameplay as a foundation. While troop movements and formations have always been an essential part of Total War, you were always playing with human beings as your pawns. That foundation in real-world history kept the series somewhat limited. Yes, it was a joy to see elite Celtic warriors square off against Caesar's legions, but there are only so many ways those fights can go.
Warhammer shakes that up in a big way. With the addition of irresponsibly large cannons, apparitions, gyrocopters, and powerful spells, the amount of time you need to spend learning what you and your foes can bring to bear on the battlefield is staggering. But it's worth it. Skirmishes are an artful dictation with two (or more) minds jockeying for control, prodding weak points, breaking lines, and exploiting new fronts of attack. These fights don't get old.
Total War: Warhammer is an interlocking network of smart decisions. Integrating the Warhammer universe with Total War's systems was the first of these.
Part of that comes from how distinct all of the main factions are. The Empire is a Roman-esque monolithic force. They're organized, effective generalists. Bretonnians, an Arthurian band of humans, use pegasi and holy lances to cleanse evil. The Greenskins pull from Warhammer's own brand of classic fantasy orcs and goblins. Silly, obnoxious, and blood-thirsty, they come with complex internal politics. If you're not waging enough war, measured by a stat called "fightiness," other factions will sprout and make with the killing that you haven't.
Vampire Counts are a genuine undead faction. They bolster their lines by draining life from others and reviving the dead from massive battles. They can swarm the field with countless warriors and can even raise more midway through a bout. In exchange, their units usually fall apart. They will never run in fear, though; instead, they crumble as their will to press on after death fades. Dwarfs are their opposite, with heavily armored and armed troops. They pull in staunch defenders that will hold a battle line long enough for their enemies to be ripped to shreds with machine guns and cannon fire.
Like its tabletop namesake, Total War: Warhammer balances these disparate forces well. Each faction has a bevy of gameplay options that mesh, but there is no one right way to play--leaning into their strengths and mixing it up with the occasional oddball tactic works here. That's supported with magic, which can turn the tide of all kinds of fights. From chasing down an opposing lord and sapping his life with a Vampiric curse to causing an enemy unit to chafe and itch, magic augments formations and movements and only ever broadens your scope of tactical choices.
Because most magic users are lords and heroes, this also means your leaders play a critical role in battle. They can often handle entire battalions on their own, and when you lose one, it's much more akin to losing a queen in chess than a beefed-up soldier. While protecting a lord was important in prior games, now it's vital, and maneuvers tend to reflect that. Because of their strength, it's advantageous to have them at or very near the front lines. So you're faced with a choice in how you protect the lord and maximize his potential without risking a loss.
That, in turn, influences your other choices. As the Vampires, do you want to take ethereal cavalry and press against enemy lines thereby leaving your often less-than-mobile lord undefended? Or, based on the spells you've taken to battle, will you charge in with your leader, summon a few squadrons of zombies to hold your foe, and sweep with your support units? Your choices are augmented and modified by everything else at play--such as the terrain, which you can use for surprise attacks--as well as the minutiae of your foe's plans. Everything matters, and every choice has an impact.
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Campaigns throw even more variables into that mix. Like previous Total War games, you can take command of a country and balance your strategies (economic, cultural, etc.) and your tactics (individual battles). Here things go from beautifully intricate to elaborate master stroke.
Each of the four major factions (that is Empire, Vampires, Greenskins, and Dwarfs) have their own campaigns with major battles, quests, and goals. Unlike previous Total War games where you'd have a smattering of small distinctions to separate each group, these races are distinct. Vampires are reviled by the living (for good reason) and have a hard time with diplomacy. To survive and remain stable, they have to poison and corrupt the land. Dwarfs and Greenskins can travel underground, and have constructed settlements that only they can capture.
The Empire is all about forming tight diplomatic bonds and working together with the other nations of men. Collectively, each of these groups is preparing for the coming Chaos--an absolute evil corrupting force that marches from the north. The Warriors of Chaos have some of the most powerful and devastating units. They also spread their own corrupting force, which can, on its own, cause rebellion and terror in living and unliving empires alike.
Again, each of these pieces works together and helps texture the overarching narrative. At first, these races push their own petty agenda. But as the Game of Thrones-y threat grows in the north, you can try to band together with the others and hold off the impending invasion. At the same time, you'll have proximal, race-dependent goals for victory, which strain how you'll manage these larger threats. Vampires, for example, not only have to help stop the Chaotic onslaught, but also conquer the Empire and spread their vampirism. And holding off one monstrous, powerful foe while chipping away at your so-called allies is no easy task. As the campaign progresses, you'll have to manage multiple conflicts on many fronts, putting your skills to the test.
Taken together, the campaign is brilliant insofar as it forces your hand and pushes you to take bigger risks, which, in turn, taxes your abilities as a tactician. As with many similar games, armies require upkeep, but in Total War: Warhammer, many of these are expensive. It's often more advantageous to build up rather than out. You can fortify and hold, but after a while, you'll need to start pushing back. Doing that means pulling soldiers away from your main settlements, opening up holes in your defenses that other races will be quick to exploit. Managing that conflict becomes a core concern in the late game, and it's a stellar way to test your mastery of your race's key traits.
The campaign is brilliant ... it forces your hand and pushes you to take bigger risks, which, in turn, taxes your abilities as a tactician
Total War: Warhammer is an interlocking network of smart decisions. Integrating the Warhammer universe with Total War's systems was the first. Massive battles are more challenging because of the addition of magic and flying units, which can flank and break battle lines if you're not attentive. New brands of artillery and different types of units are engaging and keep you changing up your approach. Total War: Warhammer has also seen a massive upgrade to its AI. Where before you might see a AI opponent rush you when you had strong defensive position, now the CPU will employ advanced flanking maneuvers, or use cavalry to pull away key defenders.
Audio design too has picked up an interesting overhaul. The Total War series has always had excellent sound effects that help sell the scope of its battles--especially with a base heavy system and a camera zoomed down to the troop level. But here it's even more noteworthy because of the fantasy elements at play. We know what a Roman gladius striking a rawhide shield sounds like. We can create that sound here in the real-world. But what about Dwarfen organ guns? What about the off-kilter shuffle of Orcish armor? There's no proper equivalent, and that goes for the Vampire Count's monstrosities and the demons that form the ranks of the Warriors of Chaos. In every case, these combatants sound glorious.
Everything here hasn't just been improved, it's been damn near mastered. Total War has always been about balance--between strategy and tactics, realism and engaging play. Warhammer's characters, its history, and its creativity is a shot in the arm for a series. My complaints from a few years ago with Total War II's camera still hold. When pulling the camera out to get a better view, you can't go very far before the game switches to a full overhead view. That be somewhat troublesome and limit how much of any give battle you can see at once, but it's a minor frustration.
When you're in the middle of a siege and you're coordinating an assault with a friend, Total War: Warhammer approaches perfection. You'll be tested on all fronts and asked to manage complex battles with broad, nuanced outcomes. Every system and piece feeds into others, and your choices make all the difference. It's a triumph of real-time strategy design, and the best the Total War series has ever been.
Somewhere within Homefront: The Revolution--beneath the choppy framerate, the hackneyed narrative, and the half-explored mechanics that are hastily introduced then forgotten just as quickly--exists a solid, cinematic shooter. All the ingredients are there. It casts players as American resistance fighters--outmanned and outgunned, but resourceful and resilient--which naturally paves the way for both novel gameplay and daring political themes. Unfortunately, Homefront doesn't quite deliver on either one.
Its attempts to explore those political themes feel clumsy and superficial. Its mechanics embrace the scrappy nature of guerilla combat, but technical shortcomings generally force you into rudimentary run-and-gunning. The lengthy story campaign packs plenty of impressive moments that make good on the promising premise, but the game's myriad flaws turn what could have been a thrilling yet thoughtful shooter into a derivative, mediocre also-ran with serviceable shooting and plenty of unrealized potential.
Despite its name, Homefront: The Revolution is largely unrelated to the original Homefront.
If there's one thing Homefront absolutely nails, however, its variety. The game's near-future version of an occupied Philadelphia is broken into eight districts, each of which is large, open, and dotted with dozens of ambient tasks like outposts to capture and supply caches to uncover. While these activities remain largely the same throughout the game, the districts themselves vary both visually and in the play style they demand. The first area I experienced was basically an open war zone filled with bombed out buildings and on-going firefights. But later on, I found myself in a tranquil, tree-lined district where unholstering a weapon at the wrong time could mean instant death at the hands of watchful, well-armed security officers.
Homefront also never cuts corners when it comes to world building. When I was sent to hijack a super weapon, I got to see it in action and revel in the volley of explosions. When the occupying army ordered blimps to gas the entire city, I saw blimps overhead as green fog filled the streets. And anytime my crew of resistance leaders needed to organize a new plan, there was a full (albeit unskippable) cutscene displaying the debate. Homefront never leans on empty exposition; it actively shows you the world and events surrounding the gameplay, and that, combined with the varied districts, imbues the campaign with an unexpected richness.
Unfortunately, the story stringing it all together fails on several counts. Most notably, there's no relatable hero, no substantial plot development, and no discernable villain beyond the faceless, undeveloped occupying army. You never see or hear protagonist Ethan Brady, and none of his actions imply any kind of personality. He's purely an empty vessel, and while that's fine, there's not enough other story substance to fill the void. There are three characters that stick with Ethan all the way through, but you only interact with them between missions as they lament the latest setback. While I did develop some connection to my comrades, most of their dialogue was trite action movie banter.
Homefront never leans on empty exposition; it actively shows you the world and events surrounding the gameplay, which imbues the campaign with an unexpected richness.
The minimal plot is similarly generic. There's no real arc to the narrative; rather, each new story beat is just another excuse to send you on an errand in the name of gaining some ground for the resistance. This feeling of running in circles stems, at least in part, from the absence of an obvious villain. Not every story needs a Darth Vader, but even the game's most important adversary--the fictional Korean People's Army--remains an entirely abstract entity throughout. You never once hear a KPA officer speak. You're never given any insight into their mindset. All you know about the KPA is you're fighting them, and frankly, it's hard to feel motivated to destroy an enemy you know nothing about--especially when the characters you're intended to empathize with constantly spout a thinly veiled racial slur.
Homefront's mechanics don't do the campaign justice either. As a resistance fighter faced with impossible odds, it makes sense you'd rely on stealth and subterfuge, and while the game attempts to accommodate that approach, it also constantly undermines itself. The biggest issue is simply the inconsistency of detection. More than once, I was spotted while fully concealed behind a wall. Other times, I would open fire on one guard only to round a corner and find another guy blissfully unaware of the gunshots that rang out just moments before. Because you can never be sure if your attempts at stealth will actually work, it's generally not even worth trying.
But even if you're seriously committed to sneaking, Homefront may not be able to satisfy your inner Solid Snake. Though you're given some helpful tools like diversion-creating firecrackers, certain essential stealth mechanics--like the ability to hide bodies--are missing. Other tools, while helpful in theory, end up being kind of pointless. You can tag enemies using your smartphone's camera, for example, but enemies (and their vision cones) are almost always visible on your mini-map, so why bother? The most effective stealth technique I discovered: awkwardly sprinting away from anyone who's awareness meter was starting to fill.
That just leaves combat, which is unremarkable but still enjoyable. The core shooting mechanics prove satisfying, with reasonably responsive aiming, punchy sound effects, and gruesome enemy death animations. Thankfully, enemies are not bullet sponges, so a few well-placed shots will reward you with an easy kill. You'll also have to contend with armored vehicles and attack drones, but these end up being a welcome sight, not only because they naturally escalate the tension of any conflict but also because they're immensely satisfying to take down with a makeshift bomb or hijack with a hacking device.
More than once, I was spotted while fully concealed behind a wall. Other times, I would open fire on one guard only to round a corner and find another guy blissfully unaware of the gunshots.
The crafting and currency systems--which allow you to create those bombs and hacking tools--are relatively simplistic, but they do allow you to unlock some memorable weapons later on, including a tactical crossbow and jerry rigged mine launcher. You can also modify all your weapons on the fly, adding attachments or swapping major components to convert, say, your pistol to an SMG. In practice, it's not hugely different from simply selecting gear from a radial menu, but it at least fits Homefront's themes.
Weirdly, you can also find mechanics that seem almost abandoned or incomplete. For example, the game never mentions it, but I discovered you can approach allies and recruit them to follow you into battle. Doing so doesn't fundamentally alter the gameplay, but...it's there. This particular mechanic, though strangely superfluous, might have added more to the experience if Homefront's enemy and ally AI were stronger. Currently, their behavior is unpredictable at best. Some enemies would smartly head for cover during firefights while others would mindlessly run towards me despite the pile of dead bodies practically blocking the doorway.
Homefront is mainly guns and carnage, but you'll also encounter a few platforming puzzles while exploring its districts.
Unfortunately, spotty AI isn't Homefront's only technical problem--far from it. You can find rough edges basically everywhere you look, and on all three platforms (Xbox One, PC, and PS4). The screen freezes momentarily each and every time the game autosaves. The framerate is inconsistent, frequently dipping slightly and occasionally stuttering egregiously. The audio sometimes stumbled as well, blasting tense music during non-combat moments or cutting out when a character is speaking. I also encountered several random difficulty spikes and respawn locations that placed me perilously close to the fray.
These issues also extend to the game's co-op component, which is separate from its story campaign. Visually, it can't compare to the decent-looking solo mode, but worse still, it offers an anemic amount of content: six 10- to 15-minute missions. You can select any of three difficulty levels, but the objectives and map layouts don't change, meaning the only reason to replay the missions is to challenge yourself. There is a loot crate system that allows you to randomly unlock gear from the campaign, but you'll have beaten all six missions long before you get lucky enough to acquire the equipment you want.
Ultimately, co-op adds little to the overall package, which is a shame since Homefront definitely needs some help. Its substantial story campaign is impressively rich and its shooting can be tense and fun, but half-baked stealth, an unfulfilling story, and a vast menagerie of technical inadequacies drag the overall experience into disappointing mediocrity.
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