Homeworld Remastered Collection

Editor's Notes

Steam PC version reviewed. The key updates of the remastered versions are covered in Video and Audio sections. The multiplayer component as covered is in early beta stages.

Introduction

When publishing company THQ died in late 2012, its intellectual properties exploded all over the gaming industry. All of THQ's developers and game franchises that survived were sold at auction and went off to many different parents. Gearbox, developer of the 'Borderlands' franchise, acquired the 'Homeworld' property. 'Homeworld' was first released in 1999 by Relic Entertainment and became very popular, eventually spawning an expansion and full sequel. The series has been quiet since 2003, but now Gearbox has finished their remastering of 'Homeworld' and 'Homeworld 2' and bundled them together with their original versions in the 'Homeworld Remastered Collection'.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

'Homeworld' is real-time strategy (RTS), but markedly different from most titles in that genre. It is a science fiction game set in deep space, and so all battlefields are three-dimensional. The combatants are spaceships or gun platforms, and have tactics not generally seen typical RTS units, such as the ability to fly in formations.

The 3D Space RTS

Despite these differences, the games still follow many RTS conventions. The player has a pool of resources that must be replenished in order to continue building ships and researching new technologies. These resources come in the form of asteroids that are harvested by mining vessels. By researching new tech, I gained access to increasingly powerful (and expensive) spacecraft. At the lower tiers are small strike ships and fighters - interceptors, bombers and the like. Eventually corvette, frigate, and capital ship options become available. The player can have a fleet of over 100 vessels, allowing for massive dogfights.

During battle, ships typically behave as they would be expected to, depending on their size and role. The small vessels careen around wildly, focusing on small enemies and screening for the larger ships. Capital vessels are slow and cumbersome, but once in position can bring withering fire down on enemies. Support vessels can accompany the fleet to repair ships on the fly or offer bonuses. During all of this, a small flotilla of logistics ships works back at the base, harvesting resources and developing new techs.

Building Combat

'Homeworld' is a slower RTS experience than most of its contemporary siblings. Resource ships take a long while to get into position and fill their holds, after which they begin the sluggish process of returning to their resource controller, docking, and unloading. Research is ponderous, especially at the capital level. Fights are long, but rather than drag on in tedium, they provide the player with meaningful avenues for strategy. The player has time to take control of a losing engagement and either withdraw or change tactics to push back. Each battlefield is expansive, bringing flanking and surprise attacks into play (especially with the cloaking fields in later levels).

The Story

The storyline of both games follows the Kushan people, seemingly in a different galaxy, or at least a different time period, as no mention of Earth is made. The Kushan have lived on a searing desert world for millennia and have recently discovered a shipwreck with advanced technology, allowing them to leave their planet and solar system. Their world is soon destroyed by a race of people offended that they have developed hyperspace technology, as the Kushan apparently signed a treaty four thousand years ago that specifically forbade such technology. Left with only their advanced mothership and less than a million people, the plot of 'Homeworld' has them searching for Hiigara, a mythical planet they believe to be their ancestral home. In 'Homeworld 2' the Kushan story continues as a powerful warlord looking to make a name for himself comes into direct conflict with the upstarts.

The only real issues with the campaign are the continuity and the controls (to be discussed in the video section). Unlike most RTS titles, in which the player is given a fresh base in most missions, the Kushan mothership mostly stays the same from the end of one mission to the beginning of the next. This means that if I found myself winning a pyrrhic victory in one mission, losing most of my forces and depleting my resources, the next mission was extremely painful. Early attacks would erode my ability to defend myself further, and if it weren’t for the huge health bar of the mothership herself, I wouldn’t have been able to recover in many missions. On the other hand, on the rare occasion I was able to build a surplus of ships, they all came with me into the next mission.