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Barking Dog Studios used to share an office with Relic and, with the full support of Relic, the idea of Homeworld:Cataclysm has been knocking around since late 1998. Since they've added a few staff members since '98 (approximately 35 people as of last count), Barking Dog Studios has moved out of Relic's area, but they still have close ties to the company, especially since Relic isn't going to let the folks at Barking Dog do anything drastic to their established universe -- killing off the entirety of the Kushan race for example.

Despite what early reports on the web have said, Homeworld: Cataclysm won't be an expansion or add-on pack for the original Homeworld. It will be a stand-alone package complete with 17 missions -- one more than the original game.

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GameSpy: How did Barking Dog get involved with the Homeworld saga? Wasn't Barking Dog originally in the same building as Relic?

Chris Stewart: In the spring of '98 Barking Dog was brought on board to provide some programming for Homeworld. Sierra and Relic were confident about the game and since we had worked before with some of the guys at Relic, they endorsed Barking Dog's desire to work on an expansion pack. Sierra was happy with our work and gave us the green light to make Homeworld: Cataclysm a stand-alone product

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FiringSquad is credited in the end game sequence of the original Homeworld. Thanks Relic! What do you think of Cataclysm? Talk about it on our news board!

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Relic made the first Homeworld, Barking Dog has taken up the fight for Cataclysm as their first major product. They are certainly qualified however. They were involved in the original Homeworld, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Power Play '96 and '98 and ESPN X-Games Pro-Boarder.

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Cataclysm made use of the same engine as the first, the Homeworld engine. There are numerous changes, including: holographic projection effects, lens flares, and dynamic Gourard shading.

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Ahh, the children of the night, what sweet music they make
The opening music of the original Homeworld did one of two things; You wept openly like the sensitive guy you are, or, you acted the part of the manly man and stared off blankly into space fighting the urge to cry. The music was beyond beautiful, it truly expressed the awe of a group of visionaries treading out into the great unknown for the sole benefit of discovery and truth.

Paul Ruskay, the musical mastermind behind the original has returned. This time, however, it is obvious that the folks at Barking Dog didn't want just the epic, that is there too, but also the eerie. You are fighting a creature capable of turning the entirety of the known universe into slaves with but the shot of a few beams, or the touch of a corrupted finger. The music had to reflect this. Creepy ambience pervades the music, soft and minimal, but suggesting an evil just outside of your view.

Elements of Brian Eno, Robert Rich, Brian Lustmord, and Philip Glass all work their way into the ambient soundtrack. The final thing worth mentioning is that in the course of the 17-mission campaign, I heard each track probably two or three times. In the course of hours upon hours of gameplay, the soundtrack never got old. Most RTS games make use of one track, sometimes three, the music of Cataclysm is lightyears beyond other RTS games. The music isn't quite as good as the original, but still above and beyond what you hear in most games.

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The game had so much epic music involved, it was necessary to continue that trend while the review was crafted. Every epic MP3 was queued up, including but not limited to: An industrial cover of For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Doors-The End, the particularly trailer worthy tracks from Carmina Burana, numerous other classical pieces and Soft Cell's Tainted Love. (So, it's not epic, but it's a really good song.)

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You can play the big, bad Beast in multiplayer. Research is limited to a very slow pace, but you can retroactively learn research from the ships that you capture. You also don't have to worry about building upgrades for your command ship or carriers.