Homefront: The Revolution is a mess, but there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon

Homefront: The Revolution is a sequel to 2011’s Homefront. The game has barely been out a few days (it was released on 17 May) and has already been panned by critics for its lack-lustre plot, major technical issues and a myriad of other issues.The original game featured a rather unusual plot which, without spoiling anything, involves the U.S.A. getting indebted to A.P.E.X., a North Korean tech company. The company provided hardware and technology to various countries, the U.S.A. being the primary client. A.P.E.X. takes advantage of American dependence on their tech, shuts down their entire defence network and paves the way for a North Korean ‘peace-keeping’ force to take over the country.The plot involved you and a rag-tag bunch of “freedom fighters” doing their best to rid ‘murica of the North Koreans. The first game offered a relatively novel setting and did a reasonably good job of showcasing an America under an oppressive military regime. It faltered when it came to combat and the game was ludicrously short, but it still had potential.Fast-forward to 2016 and Homefront: The Revolution, which attempts to build on the foundations laid by the first game. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have really succeeded because just about every review pans the game for its lack of character and disappointing combat mechanics. If that wasn’t bad enough, the game has been plagued by bugs and users on consoles and PC are complaining of severe performance issues and frame-rate drops.Considering the struggle that was this game’s development however, the lack of polish is understandable. The game’s original developer (THQ) went bankrupt, the rights were purchased by CryTek (of Crysis fame), CryTek almost went bankrupt itself and sold the rights of the game to Koch Media, which then continued development at its own studio, Dambuster Studios.Addressing the performance issues, the studio said, “We're also aware that performance - particularly frame rate - is not currently where we want it to be, and we are working on additional patches to help address these issues and more. Patch notes per platform will be available on the community forums and on Steam when they go live.”The game will also be receiving additional “polished” missions in June and 3 free missions will follow shortly thereafter.