One of the most innovative strategy games i've played.
The first time I played the demo of Homeworld 2, I knew I had something great on my hands. It felt like nothing I had ever seen before and it looked awesome. That lead me to buy Homeworld: Cataclysm and the original Homeworld since I decided I wanted to start at the beginning, not at the end.
So here I am, reviewing Homeworld.
The story in Homeworld is interesting. You are the Kushans (or the Taiidan, you can choose but both stories are strangely the same. In regard to Homeworld continuity though, the real story is the Kushans), a species of human beings living on a very harsh planet. Eventually, someone on the planet finds an artifact on which is written "Hiigara, our home", which throws the whole population of the planet in a quest to find the place where they were born, hoping that life would be easier there than on the desert world they're living on currently. So for 60 years they build this huge mothership, and finally, they are ready. Thus starts the game. It's an hollywood movie type story and it is very well told, one of the best parts in the game. It really keeps you moving.
This game was released in May of 2000 and it STILL looks totally amazing, especially at high resolution with 6x Anti-Aliasing. Space battles can be breathtaking, with huge ships exchanging shots and smaller fighters circling in space. It's a sight to behold.
The most interesting thing in this game is the gameplay. It is a strategy game, but in full 3D. Indeed, you never fight on the ground, you're always in space, so you can control your ships on all three planes. This can get pretty darn confusing and does require a lot of practice, but once you get the hang of it it`s a piece of cake really. Moving, that is. Fighting is HARD, with a capital H. Homeworld has to be one of the toughest games i've ever played. They could have included a difficulty level slider or something, this really isn't a game for novice strategy gamers.
Also, another interesting thing is that you keep your units from one level to the next. Now that might sound totally awesome, and in a way it is, but it adds to the difficulty. After all, in a typical strategy game, if you BARELY pass a mission, it's no big deal right? There is no difference between barely passing a mission or slaughtering it. But in Homeworld, you absolutely need to pass every mission with the least amount of casualties possible, and the game is already hard as hell. That means that you need to redo the same mission over and over before finally going through it, but then after that you need to redo the mission again over and over because you need to pass it with flying colors. This makes the game very long, very hard, and very annoying if you ask me.
The voice acting is well done although probably slightly unemotional. I think the only time they show any emotion is when their desert planet Kharak has been destroyed in the second level. I guess that highly trained space military officers don't have a fear of dying or whatever.
No one plays this game on the internet anymore, but it's worth it for the singleplayer alone. The story is great, the game is lengthy because of the difficulty and the carry over system. However, I feel like everyone should try Homeworld at least once, it's that special.
P.S: Homeworld: Cataclysm is the only game in the series to have a difficulty slider, so that probably makes it the best suited game for novice homeworld players.
