Homeworld: Cataclysm
[ANT Rating: 93%]

Platform: PC
Category: Strategy
Maker: Sierra
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Reviewed by: ANTPogo

Homeworld: Cataclysm is one seriously complex game. From the moment you crack open the manual, you're immersed in an alien universe so complete that it makes Star Trek's background look like something whipped up by Ed Wood ten minutes before filming started. The Kushan refugees from Homeworld finally reached their promised land of Hiigara, and settled onto their ancient home. However, not all is peaches and cream (or quasars and milky way, as the case may be). The survivors of the destruction of Kharak have to deal with the loss of their entire race, the difficulty in reestablishing a damaged social structure, old prejudices, factional infighting, the Taiidan civil war that threatens to engulf the Kushan worlds, Turanic raiders wreaking havoc, and the horrific danger of the Beast.

And that's just for starters!

Cataclysm (which is a stand-alone game, not an expansion pack) is not a game for people with short attention spans. You will find yourself glued to your computer chair, planning fleet construction, sensor sweeps, flank assaults, technological research, and other matters usually considered the province of Pentagon thinktank eggheads. You take command of a Kushan Kiith Somtaaw mining ship, forced to go it alone against all these enemies. By mining asteroids for material, your ship can construct starships, research new technologies, and more (in grand RTS tradition). Building and commanding all these ships in a 3D universe, with all the sensors, movement and attack options, and technology upgrades, is a complicated task. Fortunately, all this complexity doesn't make playing this game a sterile, boring chore. Thanks to the extremely versatile and intuitive interface, all of these tasks can be easily completed.

Sierra apparently decided not to fix what wasn't broken, and instead worked on expanding the original Homeworld interface. The addition of new hotkeys, menu modes, and waypoint controls make completing the missions...well, not easy, but easiER. You don't have to fight the controls to get the game to do what you want. All you have to do is figure out where you need to send your ships and what they have to do there! And best of all, there's a time-compression mode! No longer do you have to sit around, bored, as your workers try to harvest enough resources for you do something. You can just set them to mine asteroids, boost the time compression, and voila! Your mothership's holds are full in seconds! For the most part, though, if you're familiar with Homeworld's controls and gameplay, you won't have much trouble adjusting to Cataclysm at all.

The missions don't pull any punches, either. From the very first one, you're tossed into a complicated war, with swarms of capital ships and fighters duking it out. There aren't any slow exploratory missions like in the original Homeworld! Instead, you're tossed headfirst into a living, breathing, DEEP universe, filled with mystery, conflict, and drama, and you have to survive. This sense of "Tom Clancy in space", though, doesn't replace the sense of mystery established in the first game, as the Kushan set out to explore the brand-new worlds outside their home system. There are still plenty of mysteries to be uncovered here, and the game as a whole is more upbeat. You're carving out your place in the universe, after all, not struggling to prevent the final extinction of your people!

To enhance this exploratory feel, the fog of war has been expanded, and you'll find yourself using your scouts a lot more. This new freeform mission structure also lets you pick and choose the style of game you prefer. If you want to build mass numbers of fighters and clash with the enemy head-on, you can do that. If you want to sit back and build up technological superiority via research, you can do that, too.

This game is also remarkably user-friendly. Not only are you given specific goals to accomplish in each mission, but there are very few times where you're suddenly thrust into a situation and HAVE to make a decision. You can explore, consider your options, and then act, which suits my own thoughtful style of RTS play. In other words, twitch gamers are probably going to be bored.

And lest you feel intimidated by all the controls, options, 3D movement, research technologies, and attack patterns/stances/maneuvers, there's an exhaustive training mode. This mode will take you through everything you need to know to play this game...and best of all, it doesn't treat you like an idiot. You can skip past tutorials you feel you don't need to, and replay those you feel you need extra help on. You aren't forced to go through every little handholding step, a feature I found particularly nice!

The sound in Cataclysm was a bit of a mixed bag, but overall fairly good. The voices are about the same as the original in terms of quality, with a few gems (like the Worker). And I swear the narrator for the opening scenes is the narrator from Gundam Wing! The music is just as haunting and alien as in the original, and even reuses some of the sad, atmospheric melodies of that game. Really good stuff. And, since this game uses what is basically the same graphics engine as the original Homeworld, the graphics are just as impressive, with beautifully rendered ships moving about silently in full three-dimensional space.

If you liked Homeworld, you'll love Cataclysm. If you like space action, you'll love Cataclysm. If you love building specialized ships with an array of exotic and devastating weaponry, you'll love Cataclysm. If you love thought-provoking and original science-fiction stories, you'll love Cataclysm. Let's face it...unless you're one of those gamers who refuses to play anything that moves at a slower pace than Quake II, you'll love Cataclysm!

Good Stuff: Deep, complex gameplay, a fascinating story, and enough mystery and action to keep you on the edge of your seat for hours.

Bad Stuff: Things sometimes get a little TOO complex. It's all too easy to feel overwhelmed before getting into the groove. The camera angles can be a bit tricky at times, too.

Bottom Line: Any fans of space sims, RTS games, and brain-intensive strategy games need this game!