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By: Mason Price: $39.95 Developer: Sierra Minimum system requirements and options: Pentium II® 233, 32 MB RAM, 100 MB HD Space (+50MB Permanent Swap File), 4x CD ROM, Drive, 4MB PCI Video Card (16-bit color, DirectX® compatible), 16-bit DirectX® compatible Soundcard, Win-compatible mouse. Multiplayer: Won.net up to 8 players. 3dAcceleration:Software, Opengl/3dfx Mini Gl, Direct 3d

Almost any person who played the original Homeworld was stunned by its awesome graphics, sound, and above all, gameplay. There were so many more variables in Homeworld than there were in any other RTS (Real Time Strategy) before it since it was in 3D space. You could attack from all 360-degree angles, not just on 4 2D sides. Homeworld was a game that actually required strategy to beat it. While you still could just plainly overwhelm the opponent with 10 screens full of units as in any RTS, it was very hard to do because of limited resources. While people did use resource injections, it still required more strategy than games like Starcraft or Tiberian Sun. In the normal game, you MUST harvest every single bit of cash or you would be in a heap of trouble later on. Unfortunately, many people did not like this style of gameplay and many overlooked Homeworld. Homeworld Cataclysm has all the stuff that Homeworld did, but tweaked and as with any other expansion, a new story, and new characters. For those who don't know, Cataclysm is a stand-alone game and does NOT require the original Homeworld to play. With that said, lets continue on with the review of Homeworld Cataclysm.

Ahh there goes my Homeworld!
In the original Homeworld, both the Kushan and Taiden were fighting for the same "Homeworld"; hence the title. As you might be wondering, why is it that the Kushan wins, and you have a homeworld when you played as the Taiden? That's because you were meant to play as Kushan and get your Homeworld, but you were just able to switch sides. Well the Taiden empire falls and chaos is all over the Taiden empire after you defeat them above your Homeworld named Hiigara. After many years of civil war, a new Taiden Republic is put up and they are great allies of the exiled Kushan. Once the Kushan land on their new planet, they find out that life is just as bad as it was on Kharak. Their mothership is now in permanent orbit around Hiigara as a space outpost to build an army. Now 15 years later, back on Hiigara, the Kushan try to setup a government, but one kiith (clan) called the Naabal is trying to suppress everyone else. Although all the kiith are fighting, they all know that their original planet was blown up and have allied together to protect their 5 lightyear space around their planet Hiigara. Another clan, called the Somtaaw (one race you can play as - known for their mining skills,), finally receives the rights to use the mothership to build things and they make lots of carriers, 2 mining ships, and a research ship. One day one of the 2 mining ships is under attack by the Taiden again and the ship you control hyperspaces in to save the day.

Push a button here and see all hell break loose! Excellent
As with any RTS game, the object is to collect something and kill stuff while you're at it, or kill everyone and everything that isn't you or your allies. Unlike the original Homeworld, there are actually different units now! There are two races, The Beast and the Somtaaw. The beast is basically original Homeworld units while the Somtaaw have some newer ships like Multibeam Frigate, Acolyte, and Dreadnaught. Another difference from the original Homeworld is that there are things called Supply Units that limit how big your army can get now. This is really great since now Homeworld Cataclysm is the only game that actually REQUIRES strategy. In games like Starcraft and Command & Conquer, the object was just build the biggest army you could and overrun the enemy. The limit provided you with enough supplies that you could get a HUGE army. If there were limited resources, you had to use strategy, but still not quite as much as in Cataclysm. In this new game, each person can get lots and lots of cash, but resourcing takes a lot longer, and thus you have to use your resources wisely. The game is based on a rock, paper, scissor idea with super capital ships (really big ships) as rock, Frigates (medium class) as scissor, and Fighters (small ships) as paper. So you have to have a balanced army in order to succeed. Another thing Sierra added was the much needed armor and shields. You can upgrade the armor on your ships now and have a force field around any ship you want, which can suck huge amounts of fire. This also adds enormously to the length of each individual game. Each skirmish takes almost twice as long as it did in the original Homeworld since people can actually be defensive and just have shields all day long. Also, since you cannot upgrade firepower, each unit is harder to kill. Finally, since there is unit capping, one cannot make one big strike against an intermediate player and expect to win, since of course that player will have units. To win, you will most likley have to send strikes and keep the opponent busy which adds to the strategy of the game. You cannot just rush from the beginning with some weak unit and win, as you cannot also win with just one type of unit since it is easily countered.

There are also some new twists that differ from the original Homeworld. First of all, since there are different units, you have know what the other race can do or you will be screwed. You must research the infection vaccine or the Beast will easily overpower you. The beast must be able to have enough units to overpower a Dreadnaught. (Strongest Somtaaw unit). Another note that adds to the complexity of Homeworld strategy is the fact your resource units are not safely in your base's protection. You must go far, far, far out of the way to get your resources and you must protect your workers. This strains your supply units even more making big huge attacks less practical since your money supply will constantly be in danger. Thus you must make effecient use of your units to make a decisive painful attack in your favor. Now to move onto the less than stellar things of Cataclysm but the only really bad thing about Homeworld Cataclysm in terms of gameplay is the learning curve. It takes at least an hour or so to get used to the controls. Cataclysm has a nice tutorial which most people should use if the are new to the Homeworld style of gameplay. Once you do know them by heart, the game really shines since you can easily navigate masses of ships and be able to attack in the 3D realm. I also hate the fact that Sierra took out the Proximity Sensor, which enabled you to see where your enemy is. It is a pain to just find your enemy and usually takes 10 minutes since the maps are so huge. With this game you cannot just memorize a map and know instantly where they are since there are anywhere from 1-7 other respawn points all in 3d. Also, there is fog of war (covers areas you have already explored) and so if you forgot where the enemy was, well good luck scouting all over again. Finally, I, along with most people really hate the fact that you have to stop what you are doing to upgrade your ships. There will be a flashing yellow light, which indicates an upgrade after research. Instead of automatically being updated, you have to dock your ships and let them upgrade there. Other than those few minor annoyances, gameplay in Homeworld is rock solid and an enjoyable game.

AHHH, boooom! That boom is going to be heard all around..
As with the original Homeworld, the sound is excellent. Everything from the speech, to the movies, and to the music is a treat for your ears. It is now a standard to include speech when you click on a unit or tell them to do something in ANY RTS game. Not only has Sierra managed to do that, they were able to stuff more than that. When you are in any battle, almost everytime someone will say we outnumber the enemy or this looks about even. In no other RTS game that I can think of will predict the outcome of a battle. Once you hear this you can send more units or just watch as you annihilate your enemy. You can hear your guys scream "AHHHH" if they are dieing. The lasers shooting, engines roaring, workers harvesting, and explosions are all excellent sounds that you will delight your aural senses. If there is any action done by anything in Cataclysm, you will hear it. Constantly you will hear a report of either victory/defeat from the ships in battle. The voices of each race thought are rip offs of Starcraft. The voices of each race are like the Terran/Zerg voices in Starcraft. The Samtaaw are more human like while the Beast have a zergish type of voice. The music is nothing spectacular alone, but instead they add to the overall environment. They are all slow, demonic tunes that give the player a feeling of the void of space and uncertainty all around.

WEEE, look at me fly! Wow, that bullet looks dangerous...
The graphics are basically the Homeworld engine but tweaked. One of the most obvious improvements are the little stars flying by when you go travel through space. The graphics are just visually appealing, pure eye candy. There has been no slacking off in the visual details. Everything looks fantastic whether they are fighting a battle, to sitting around - close up or far away, it looks great. Another great thing about the graphics is that you can see your ships actions through a first person view. The explosions are brilliant and they actually light up the screen when a big ship explodes. Cataclysm is also one of the few games on the market that support Hardware T&L; (Transform and Lighting). You can spin around a ship and watch them fly and attack and be awed by how good the graphics are. Too bad the engine is quite a resource eater. Without a decent video card your Cataclysm experience could be a dull frustrating one. A person would need at least a Voodoo2/TNT class accelerator to get the full delights of the eye candy and I would recommend a Voodoo3/TNT 2 accelerator if you want to watch big battles without getting an amazing whole 5 fps. Don't believe the graphics are this good? Just take a look at the screenshots and that should start you drooling:

Playing Cataclysm sucks when it lags...
Everyone has come face to face with lag and we all hate it. Homeworld Cataclysm is almost as laggy as Diablo 2 was when it first came out. I am on a slow 56K modem, just like many users out there and the lag is unbelievable on the Won.net servers. Once you login to Won.net, you see a chat room as with most online services. Then you click on a games and see a list of games. You double click to join a game as with any other ones. However, 1 out of 5 times I time out and am unable to connect to game. If I successfully get into a game, when the captain/creater pushes go, I sometimes cannot even connect to him and then I get dropped. There are other problems with the online games: the Homeworld community is extremely small, 20-30 people max on at a time. You will be lucky if 10 games are running. It takes an agonizing 10-30 minutes, depending on the time of day, to get into a game without unbearable lag or get into a game of your liking. Then when you do get into a game, there will be constant lag spikes, which deter most people from playing online. Well, when you do finally get into a game (one that isn't lagging like hell) its back to the original Cataclysm gameplay with an added twist. Some people online are really stupid as in they just send swarms and swarms of fighters. Online games require much more strategy since the computer is easy and sometimes you will be shocked at what others will to do you. The risk of backstabbing is there, and people do some crazy things that you would never expect. Others constantly haunt your resources, as with most RTS games, which is bad for you, and good for the opponent. Games go on even longer if this happens, since online everyone is resourcing(up to 8 players) and once those run out, its a standstill. If there are injections, expect a really long game since you will be waiting on injections for 10 minutes or so. With all that said, Cataclysm online isn't quite as good as it could be since it lags, but it could be fun for those with broadband connections.

Cataclysm is an excellent game packed with great graphics, sounds, and best of all, great gameplay. However, the multiplayer lacks not only because of the lag, but because the Homeworld community is extremely small. Cataclysm has everything the excellent Homeworld did and more, and Cataclysm deserves the Homeworld name. Cataclysm would get a higher score, but the games are moving more and more towards online gameplay and Cataclysm doesn't excel at that. In conclusion, rush out and buy Cataclysm today, just good luck getting a good online game going.