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Where does one start when a game leaves you absolutely speechless?
How about Game of the Year? Beautiful graphics combine with
excellent gameplay and a strong storyline to make Homeworld
a definite contender.
The
story line starts out simple. An ancient starship is discovered
underneath the sands of a great desert on the planet of Karak.
A map of the galaxy is found within the heart of the ship.
on one spot of the map, it is marked with only two words-"our
home". Knowing the true nature of their origin, the people
of Karak unite, building a massive mothership to take them
home. The storyline continues to unfold as the missions progress,
helping Homeworld to come alive.
Relic
has taken the emptiness and vastness of space and provided
us with pure eye candy. The beauty of planets, stars, and
nebulae have all been wonderfully portrayed. However, it is
not only the space environments that look spectacular. HOmeworld's
starships are some of the nicest looking I have ever seen.
Each ship is finely detailed, with every gun turret and antenna
included. This makes zooming in on a single ship quite an
experience to behold, as you can sit and watch the glory of
an Assault Frigate taking out the little guys. The rest of
the graphics are done on an equal scale. From the harvesters'
beams, to contrails of ship engines, to explosions, all look
superb.
By
now, you may have heard conflicting stories on the gameplay.
Some people have stated that it is awkward and difficult to
learn. I for one did not have a problem and mastered it quickly
and easily the first day I played the demo. Almost everything
can be accomplished through the use of the mouse, especially
with a mouse wheel(allowing quick zooming and focusing). Hot
keys can also be used for commands, but I found the mouse
to be quick enough for most tasks. You are provided with a
full rotating and zooming camera, which can be accessed from
the perspective of any one of your ships. This allows one
to watch the action from any angle, which makes it easy to
follow and issue new commands, particularly when the BIG battles
start happening. Starships are easily selected by clicking
and dragging of the mouse. They can be grouped and ordered
formations for better control. Equally, enemies can be attacked
singlely or as group. Each map is quite large and managing
your ships' movemant can get difficult. This is helped out
with the mighty Sensor Manager, which allows you to view the
entire playing field. Perhaps the trickiest part of the interface
is getting used to having a third axis on which to move, but
after a couple missions one should feel like a veteran.
Production
is handled through a single resource-RU's-which can be gathered
from numerous locations using Harvesters. Anything from asteroids,
nebula gas, and enemy ships can be used for RU's. Of course
you will not have access to every ship right away. New technologies
must be researched first, then you will be allowed to build
new, exciting ships. The number of Research Ships you have
with decide how fast your research goes.
The missions themselves are difficult, but not immpossible.
This in part helps to make Homeworld's missions some
of the best I have played, and part of why the game has appealled
to me so much. Even though most missions have the same objective(destroy
the enemy ships), each one has its own difficulties and interesting
twists. As the different alien races are encountered, so are
new technologies and challenges. One worry people had before
Homeworld was released, was that missions would get
tedious and repetitive due to the "same space setting".
This however, does not happen, and each map has its own feel
to it.
The
sound is nicely done with music befitting of 2001: A Space
Odessey. There is even a new song from the group YES(entitled
Homeworld of course) included in the game. The ship sounds
are also appropriately done, with a nice twang of a cannon,
or the hum of the engines.
The
complaints I have are few and far between. There are only
16 missions included, with both race's storylines being the
same. There is a mission editor included to help make up for
the lack of single player missions. Unfortunatly, I have had
trouble learing to use it. because of this, the replay value
will lie within multiplay. There are plenty of strategies
to be created within Homeworld, so each player will
have a unique offering to a multiplayer game. This will present
players with a new challenge everytime they log on.
I
suggest if you have not yet tried Homeworld to download
the demo and give it a whirl. Make sure you try a skirmish
with the computer to give you an idea of the scale of the
game. You should be thoroughly impressed. Then, when you're
done drooling, rush out and buy the game. With very few faults,
Homeworld makes an excellent addition to any strategy
or hardcore gamer's collection. Homeworld is one game
that will be at the top of my charts for months to come.
mr.
weishaar
- November 2000
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