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I am guessing that there are at least a few people over at Sierra
Studios that are smiling this year. With the release of winning
games such as Ground Control earlier this year, and the much-anticipated
soon-to-be released Tribes 2, Sierra has a lot to be happy about.
Adding to it all is the recently released add-on to the Game-of-the-Year
Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, which in my opinion won't do
anything to deaden the moods of the folks at Sierra. As a side
note, I remember reading in a PC gaming magazine that Electronic
Arts declined the opportunity publish the Homeworld line of
games…I wonder if anyone over there is kicking themselves
(or being kicked by others) for that decision…but I digress…
Background
Story
For thoses of you unfamiliar with the original Homeworld game,
let me just bring you up to speed. In Homeworld, you take command
of the Kushan fleet throughout their exodus from the exile planet
Kharak to their ancient home-world of Hiigara. In the course
of the exodus, the ruling galactic empire, the Taidani empire,
declares war on the Kushan, destroying Kharak and all the clans
that have remained behind. The surviving Kushan aboard the gigantic
mothership and the rest of the fleet, with no home and families
to return to, have no choice to proceed forward in search of
their ancient home. The original Homeworld plays through their
struggle with the Taidani empire, along the way making new allies,
including Taidani rebels. The game concludes with the final
showdown at Hiigara, ending with the destruction of the emperor
and the reclaiming of Hiigara by the Kushan people (after which
they become know as the Hiigarans).
Homeworld: Cataclysm, developed by Barking Dog Studios, picks
up the story a short time later. Cataclysm plays more of a side
story than a full sequel, which is probably why it has been
called an add-on. I should just mention that if you haven't
played Homeworld, the Cataclysm manual does an excellent job
of filling in all the details of the Homeworld history and setting
the stage for Cataclysm. In Cataclysm, rather than taking control
of the full Hiigaran fleet, as was the case in Homeworld, you
now have control of the small fleet of a single Hiigaran clan,
the Somtaaw. With the destruction of the exile world of Kharak
and all Hiigarans that had remained behind, many clans awoke
from cryogenic sleep at Hiigara to find that the majority of
their clan had been wiped out. In this way many larger clans
were reduced to lesser clans, losing much of their claim within
the new Hiigaran society. Such was the case for the Somtaaw
clan, with the destruction of Kharak reducing them from being
the greatest mining clan to a lesser clan forced to scavenge
the asteroid fields around Hiigara for resources.
During the course of mining the outskirts of Hiigaran space,
the Somtaaw mining ship (your mothership) encounters a new alien
organism, which simply becomes known as "The Beast".
Some kind of mutagenic virus, the Beast is capable of subverting
both organic life and machines, adding them to itself as it
grows (think of it as sort of a BORG virus). The first to encounter
it, the Somtaaw realize they are the only ones who can stop
it in time. Add to this the constant threat of attack by Raider
fleets and the remnants of the Taidani Imperial fleet, and you
have yourself one exciting and challenging game.
Next
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