Homefront: The Revolution

Close enough, welcome back Timesplitters 2
No but actually, this game contains the entirety of TS2 within it used for a little easter egg and there's a community patch that can delete everything else and just leave you with a modern port of TS2. It regularly goes on sale for cheap, and it's worth it for that alone in my eyes.

This game has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It gives me this classic gaming feel while also being a pretty addictive open world. Now yes it is a checklist open world “urban far cry” as some call it. I actually prefer it over say Far Cry 6. So here’s Pros & Cons in my opinion.
Pros
• The World is beautiful and Immersive
• Gunplay feels arcade like but weapons have actual feedback(You can just hip fire guns which is the arcade like i speak about)
• Takedowns(are always a win) and can be brutal
• Weapon Conversions(being able to change an AR into an LMG or a Bolt Action into a Firework launcher is so goofy but so awesome)
• Difficulty(I like that you have to actually plan and be cautious when engaging in firefights because if you aren’t careful you can be killed very quickly)

Neutral
• Story( so I’m putting the story in a neutral position because while it isn’t a revolutionary story and the voice acting can be hit or miss it’s enjoyable to play through)
Cons
•AI( I’m not super picky when it comes to this a lot of games I love have not great AI but I can’t lie when the enemies just run in a line at you down an alley or literally watch you stab someone and do nothing can be rough)
• Loading screens( unfortunately pretty much any area you go to you will have atleast 1 or two loading screens. It is bearable but I still count it as a con)
• No Fov Slider( you must go into the config files to change this, which is more of nit pick but for most Pc games it’s a standard. Double note I set mine to 85 anything above crashes my game)
So if someone is reading this and can’t decide imo $20 is actually not a bad amount but waiting for a sale is not a bad choice either. I would recommend the Homefront bundle because I enjoy both the original and this one)

TIMESPLITTERS 2 PSA:
You don't need to play through this terribly mid game in order to play the Timesplitters 2 port, you can just download and install the HFTSRedux/TS2Redux mod which fixes the port and adds saving functionality. On top of that there is an option in the mod to uninstall as much of Homefront: The Revolution as possible whilst still being able to play Timesplitters 2

Not as bad as people say. At times the writing can be weak, and mechanically it's like a stripped down version of Far Cry. But the gunplay and player movement are solid. Enemy AI is servicable, and the story does have it's strong points. It does have a minimalist "crafting" system, which I personally like, but it's not complex enough where it takes you out of the action and bogs you down in some attempt at a crafting minigame, but does allow basic upgrades to weapons and player abilities, which is a nice touch.

If I may go a little off track... as someone who has a friend or two in the game journalism world, allegedly lot of the early reviews on this were from "certain" reviews with "certain" political biases were calling this the worst shooter ever made because they had a problem with the player killing authoritarian communists. Or they may have received money from groups tied to a "certain" country (not North Korea). Ultimately speculation, but i've seen some interesting info.

Anyway, the game itself is fine. Could have been much better if it had a bigger budget. Like a said, a poor man's far cry. 3.5/5 If it's under $10, give it a shot,

This game is very much a diamond in the rough, full of unrealized potential. There are a lot of things this game did right and a lot it could have done better.
Its semi-open world environments are well made, offering more vertical mobility and alternate routes than most similar games. Stealth halfway works but is undermined by the low number of hostile NPCs and how they give up when the player enters a safe house. Coop multiplayer is well designed, but the lack of DLC maps means it can get tiring faster than it should and the most difficult setting can be soloed by a player with moderate experience. The three NPC leader characters feel like cliche archetypes pulled from another game with an idiot plot, but they don't have much impact on gameplay. Story-wise the underlying plot is good, but the way it plays out in the narrative doesn't always make sense and sometimes feels rushed. Liberating a zone is pretty simple since there is no push-back from the KPA, but the basic ideas behind the process are solid.
Combat is a mixed bag as well. Enemy variety is good, but as noted earlier it would be better if there were more of them. KPA outposts in particular are drastically under-manned. I really like the GTK system and the weapon-swapping mechanics are interesting, but some of the configurations are under-powered. Once the SMG is acquired there is no real incentive to use either other pistol mod, and the Freedom launcher is.......different. There are a lot of other things I could say about how it could be better, but this post would be to long of a read.
Overall the game is fair-to-good, but could be so much better. I'd consider buying a copy for a friend when it goes on sale. The full price at the time I am writing this is about $20, a decent price if you are looking for something different but less so if you are looking for something amazing.

4 Hours in so far in the first day of owning the game, it absolutely fills a niche for me being a city based FPS, graphics are fantastic for a 2016 game, way ahead of their time. There is a few breaks in between the chapters the rebellion ideal along with a few moments where I have almost sh%^t its kept me hooked and immersed, if you like the conquering idea of FarCry and or Halo Infinite but prefer something more domesticated i would certainly reccomend giving it a shot.

This game is WILDLY underrated. Missions structure is great. Story is good. Gunplay is top notch. Upgradable weapons. Graphics are great. It had a rocky start, but it is part stealth, part guns blazing, part crafting. The story progresses and so does your armory. I really like the crytek engine better than most anything out there. Aim is spot on. Where the cursor is is where the bullet lands. Looting the enemies is great. You bait them in and farm them for more ammo. Premise is good. Environments are great. The environments are varied as well. Goes from city to industrial to row houses. I really love this game. Played through on PS. Played through on PC. PC was a better experience because of mouse and keyboard. Overall, 9 out of 10.