Rating: 
Summary: The story, action, and strategy is GREAT!!!
Review: I bought this game after it was out about 1 month. I installed it, though of it as a little weird, interface was alot different, then I got use to it and I was thinking to my self like WOW!!!! I love this game to death. After about 2 days I mastered the key to this game, having tons of fighters, corvettes, bombers, and your nice frigates and capital ships, not to mention your battlecrusiers. But after I mastered what is needed in every mission to defend and win each one I had no trouble getting through all missions above mission 3 ( well I had trouble but it was easier hehe )Now, in homeworld you run out of resources alot of the time. In homeworld 2, you don't. You always have enough resources if you have a knack for being a good commander. Me, im excellent at commanding and I could always replace my lost battlecrusier or frigate, and I liked that alot. The enemy is very fast at attacking but you can be even faster at attacking I realized. Just speed think like I do and its all a go. The grahpics are amazing!! the best I ever seen in my life!! The story is wild and excellent!! Gameplay is a jewel! I tell you, if you're a excellent Homeworld player than this is your game, its not a waste of money at all!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Let's be objective
Review: I really can not believe the 5 star reviews for this game. I can only assume that it gets an extra 3 automatically for being the sequel to the "1999 Game of the Year" (as Sierra is so fond of advertising). I'm a big fan of the Homeworld series and enjoyed the two previous installments greatly, so needless to say I was quite looking forward to cracking open HW2. The demo wasn't exactly inspiring, I wasn't really fond of some of the modifications that were made to the game's basic formula. Namely the inclusion of unit "squadrons" and a more emphasised "paper-rock-scissors" balance scheme. Even so, I managed to talk myself into shelling out 40 bucks for the game... d'oh! Despite all the "its too hard!" comments floating around, I was undaunted, I don't mind a challenge. Unfortunately, the challenge in HW2 is afforded mostly by a test of how fast you can click your mouse and navigate around the (nicely updated) interface. A typical campaign mission in HW2 consists mostly of you constantly trying to repel a ceaseless barrage of enemy ships... while trying to complete both your mission goals, AND without sucking up every single resource unit on the map before you get there. I'm giving it 3 stars, for the following things: Graphics, Sound, Design, and an at least moderately fun Skirmish mode. Everything else, in my humble opinion, is just nonexistant. I shudder to think how well a newcommer would fare in HW2, I consider myself a pretty decent RTS gamer and I still find it a frustrating experience. Not to mention, there is only a single campaign, rather than one for each faction... I hope this doesn't become the next RTS trend. In short, HW2 has everything going for it except what matters - gameplay. I play games to relax and enjoy, not to be irritated and driven out of my mind. Very disappointed, I hope Relic lets Barking Dog Studios (who did HW: Cataclysm) handle the next installment of this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Way too difficult to enjoy
Review: A game is supposed to be fun but this one is an absolute torture. Like everyone said that this game is such a frustration you will get more enjoyment from reading a phone book instead. Try an older sleeper game - Conquest: Frontier Wars. The graphics is just as good and a much more superior game.
Rating: 
Summary: Better graphics, worse gameplay
Review: After having finished HW1, I was more than eager to start HW2. At first I was stunned to find smoother textures, better graphics, and a better designed interface (yeah, I think it improved). However, the gameplay itself changed, and that much to the worse. In HW1 you could load a carrier with fighters - traverse the galaxy and have escort fighters protect against pockets of enemy aircraft - finally unload the carrier before the target destination to strike with bitter force (or fail). In HW1 you could also send out fighters for reconnaissance missions, and still hope for their return. In HW2 this no longer is possible. With continous raides on your ships, and no time to think about "strategy" you get pounded on every damn free moment - ultimatley leading to only one form of strategy: PAUSE-command defence-UNPAUSE-see action-PAUSE-command repair, etc. No more surprise attacks on your side, the AI knows you're there (which makes sometimes no sense - like in mission 4). Gone are the times where you sent fighters out to explore, they'll most likely not return if you decide too. You're pretty much lucky if you only have one fighter group, and one corvette group attack your ships at any given time (yeah, this pattern never stops). Repetative? You bet! And thats where I believe a game should be entertaining, not frustrating. It really frustrates, since they improved virtually everything else, but changed the gameplay for the worse. If you purchase this game in the belief its a good strategy game, reconsider. If you're more action oriented, with little strategy in mind, maybe this game is right for you. I hope that someone from Relic/Sierra reads the comments posted around the web, a patch is greatly appreciated that stops this redundant game play (less attacks?). And no, I don't agree with the theory that the joy of completing this game is satisfaction. Like you torture yourself through the levels only to see the fireworks in the end? Shouldn't it be enjoyable throughout? After HW1, this comes as a very big dissapointment. I'll stop playing, and am waiting for a patch. If no patch comes, I'll post it on Amazon's Marketplace for sale.
Rating:
Summary: A short review
Review: This game is a sequel to its revolutionary predecessor Homeworld, the first 3D real time strategy game. This game itself however, is not revolutionary. It's just the old Homeworld with some graphical improvments. This means, great graphics, drains your video card a lot, and not much more in terms of everything else- music, sound, gameplay, story, etc. In fact, the story is much worse then before. For those who don't care about stories, then I should also point out that the gameplay isn't better neither. The variations of squad formations in the original is completely gone, which is a huge loss to players who likes playing fighter squads. Almsot all previous fighter strategies are eliminated through this change. The game does allow 3 types of fleet formations, but these options are as trivial as choosing whether you want fighters, frigates, or capital ships on the front. Unit's target selection is automated, so each ship engages within an area the units it kills best. This may be nice for some, but there's no strategy to it other then pumping out a large fleet of everything. It can be boring because there's no longer battle strategies, only research and production matters- you won't see someone beating another player with the same type of units in lesser quantities because he's better at battle-micro anymore.
There is not a lot of improvments with unit variations. If you expected to see lots of new ships and factions, be disappointed.
A lot of players I talked to say the single player campaign is too hard.
Music and sound is mediocre. Certainly not better then the original.
For fans who owns a pumped up computer with high end video cards, buy it for the nice graphics. Otherwise, it's too expensive to pay for such lack of innovations.
Rating:
Summary: Just another game i WANT to like
Review: I bought this game the day it came out i think, i played it for a while that day, and stopped playing it for about a month. Just today i started playing it again, and i remembered why i stopped playing. I guess the biggest flaw is this game is HARD. For some reason it seems that pc games only have two settings these days: easy and impossibly hard. This game is definatly the latter. The units in this game are evolved around the old silly theory that one unit is strong versus an other type of unit, but completly helpless against some other type. Which always seemed rather stupid to me. A .50 m2 machine gun was designed to be an anti-vehicle weapon. Does that mean it's completly useless against personnel? Uh no...it just happens that it's MORE effective against personnel, because of its obvious over-powerment. So In the game you have to figure out what the enemy's strengths and weaknesses are, and exploit them with the appropriate unit. However...the enemy rarely has just one type of unit, in fact it usually has a pretty well rounded force. So you have to create a well rounded force yourself to deal with them. However the enemy is much faster than you, and can pick and chose your ships while you're trying to make sense of the battle. It amazes me every time how surgical the ai is when it comes to wiping out your force. You'll have a large, well rounded group one second, then notice the enemy is targeting solely one type of unit of yours. Once that unit type is gone, you're force is essentially crippled as it now has a large hole in it that can be easily exploited. It amazes me how the enemy can target those single unit types in a group of 50 other ships, when you can barely even SEE what types of units are in their groups. Add this to the fact that the enemy also has unlimited recources and ships, and you have a rather frustrating puzzle. Every mistake you make is cumulative as well. You cant just barely win a battle. As you'll go into the next battle with basically no units. You always have to find a way to win the battle without crippling your chances for the next battle. The battle really does not give you much time to think either. You have a research capability to improve your units...but you're rarely given a single uneventfull minute to figure out what you want to research. The graphics in this game are pretty stunning...i guess. I run a high end computer (2.6 p4, 1 gig ddr ram, geforce ti 4600 128 mb ddr ram) and the graphics are still EXTREMELY choppy in parts. It's ok if you zoom all the way out, but if you zoom close into the ships everything becomes choppy and the game slows down significantly. The story completly escapes me. I read the little overview of the story in the manual, and i still have no idea what the game is talking about. I never played the original homeworlds, so sue me. Overall...it's just another game i have around that takes up space.
Rating:
Summary: If only this stupid game would work...
Review: I think the video card in my PC won't let me play this game - I wish it had said something on the Amazon site to tell me that. I can't get the game to play. I may just wait until this Winter when I get a new PC.... Very disappointed - liked both the other Homeworlds a lot...
Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes the little things just don't matter...
Review: Ever since this game came out, I have been playing it and watching to see what people on the web thought of it. Most it would seem love the game immensly. A few, however, have brought up some good points about Homeworld 2's shortcomings. These shortcomings are very real. The Tactics that were required to beat Homeworld and HW Cataclysm are simply not as prevelent. The only time I really needed to use a Defense Field Frigate was for a mission specific objective. I rarelly used capture vehicles because I was never very low on money and the cost of lost Marine Frigates was higher than winning an enemy warship. I liked the story enough but in comparrison to the origional, it was sorely lacking. Even the voices from HW and HWC were more soulful and gripping. And one argument that I have yet to see is the new weakness of frigates, which seem to die with alarming speed once in combat. Only four to five heavy missiles from a destroyer will kill. But as I read all the complaints and found myself agreeing, I also realized that it didn't matter. HW2 is just as incredible as I wanted it to be, shortcommings aside. I sat just as enraptured as my fighters swooped in on enemy carriers. I was just as saddened when my valiant warships burst into flames and groaned loudly before they dissapeared in a ball of burning gas. And even if I wanted the first Mothership to reach home myuch more than I wanted the new one to suceed, when it did, I was cheering just as loudly. That is what HW2 is about. The game is the garnish. The experience of stepping back into the command deck of the Mothership is priceless. Don't deny yourself that chance.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: Great game. I didn't play the first Homeworld - thought it was too much of an insane clickfest. The interface and management enhancements in Homeworld 2 are incredible, to say the least with the ability to pause and issue orders tops among them. The story is great, and voice acting superb. The fact that the story unfolds during, and not just between missions makes you feel like you're really taking part in it. This game goes to show you don't need high-budget flashy cutscenes to tell a story. Note: This game is pretty darn difficult. As a matter of fact, so difficult that if you aren't absolutely sold on the premise, presentation, and story, you might not make it through. You have been warned!
Rating:
Summary: An improvement over the first two.
Review: Homeworld 2 is a great improvement upon the first two installments in the Homeworld universe. Everyone probably mentions the boost HW2 got in the graphics department first, and although I am impressed, I am more pleased with what they did to improve the gameplay. The first big improvement was the way they changed the way the various ship strenghts and weaknesses. In HW1 and HW:C, the capital class ships (Destroyers, Cruisers, ect) would chew up fighter and corvette class ships without taking much of a beating. That and the fact that they were also good at killing large ships discuraged me from purchasing fighter/vettes. HW2 has changed that by taking away the really powerful anti-fighter/vette weaponry from the cap ships (ie the missile launchers) and replacing them with large and ungainly anti-cap ship torpedo launchers, making it possible for the player to take out a Battle Cruiser or a bunch of destroyers with nothing more than the lowly attack-bomber; unless, of course, the enemy has brought some smaller escorts to guard against that very move. Another big improvement is the ship limit built into the game. In both HW1 and HW:C, ships shared the limited supply spots based on their size, allowing you to go for a handfull of capital ships (which took more supply spots), a large swarm of fighters (which took less supply spots), or a compromise with a few of each. In HW2, they have changed that by giving each TYPE of ship their own supply spots. Now, instead of having to worry about whether you can buy a fighter and still have enough supply for a frigate, you can build both (as long as you haven't filled up your Frigate spots and your Fighter spots). The benefit to this system is that it allows players to buy up as many capital ships as they have spot for, AND buy some fighters, vettes, and frigates to escort them to the enemy Mothership. Besides Motherships and Carriers, you get to make Shipyards as well. Shipyards are the only facilities that can make the super-capital class Battle Cruisers. Furthermore, Relic expanded upon HW:C's use of Mothership/Carrier add-ons by making you build modules in order to build certain ships and upgrades. For instance, you need a Frigate Module on your Mothership in order to build frigates from your Mothership. Other modules include Research Modules, Hyperspacing Modules, Gravwell Generator Modules, and a host of others that you can build to "customise" your Mothership/Carrier/Shipyard, and the limited number of spaces for these modules makes choosing which to build on which platform a tricky situation. Pros:
-Strike craft can take out unescorted capital ships
-Strike craft come in formations that are rebuilt with no additional cost as long as one of them docks with a friendly Mothership/CV/ect
-Customizable "modules" available for Motherships, Carriers, Shipyards, and Battle Cruisers (BCs can't build ships, but they can get upgrades that increase the combat effectiveness of nearby friendly ships, modules that enable them to hyperspace jump, and some others)
-Subsytem targetting allows you to take out the engines, modules, or sometimes certain weapons on the larger enemy vessels. This can be critical in those battles where you really need to keep that Destroyer from closing with your Mothership, or you want to take out the resourcing point so the enemy Carrier can't dock workers.
-Great graphical improvements over the previous two incarnations
-"Skirmish vs CPU" mode where you can fight against one or more AI enemy.
-Multiplayer capable with up to 6 players. Cons:
-The storyline completely ignores the events from HW:C (probably because Relic wasn't involved)
-Although the single-player campaign is fun, it has a limited replayability. Multiplayer combat (or skirmish against the AI) is the way to go after playing the single player version.
-There is no mission editor (not surprising, but something that could have helped with single-player replayability)
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