Homeworld

Rating:
Summary: The best game Since Pax Imperia: Entiment Domain
Review: PROS:

1) Great single player storyline and plot with good cinimatics in between missions.

2) Most missions are well thought out and unpredictable

3) Optional Great graphics on powerful computers, optional great performance on slower computers

4) Included multiplayer system works well and is free. Usually not to busy but there are always at least 20 people on. Usually over 50!!

5) Build many kinds of ships, each having their own strenths and abilities.

6) 3D enviorment is well designed and easy to manuver through.

7) Use different formations, attack setting, grouping, etc. to make the most out of your attacks.

8) Good sound effects and music

CONS:

1) Harvesting system isn't the best ever, but works well on a good map

2) Included map editor unreliable and hard to use

3) focusing to close on a battle causes incredible lag, esspecially durring internet gameplay.

4) The 2 different races almost exactly alike

5) GRAVITY WELL GENERATORS PISS ME OFF (You'll know what I'm talking about when you start playing this game online!) :)

6) More ships would be nice :)

Rating:
Summary: An innovative game for the true Science Fiction fan
Review: I bought Homeworld when it was first released, in 1999. When I first played the game, my reaction was the same as that of many others who have posted their reviews - the interface was difficult to master, the missions were too difficult. Eventually, I gave up and put Homeworld back onto the shelf. It's now 2001, and Homeworld has built up a huge following on the internet. So I re-installed the game on my computer...and got a major surprise.

The first time round, I'd seen this games flaws. It DOES have a difficult to master interface. Its missions are VERY difficult to play - especially those set in the Garden of Kadesh nebula (missions 7 - 9). The big difference is that there are many sure-fire strategies posted on the internet that can assist you in getting past the more difficult missions.

Once you've gotten used to the interface, and the totally new mind-boggling environment of real 3D space, Homeworld is a surprisingly enjoyable game. The graphics are what draw you in first. Two years after it was first produced, and I find the graphics to be totally entrancing. I'm not sure whether even new games like Sacrifice or Giants: Citizen Kabuto can surpass it...at least not without upgrading your PC to a 1GHz CPU.

Like the Command & Conquer games, you have to harvest resources and build a massive army. But there are two big differences - the space fleet you build in one mission is carried over into the next mission. I enjoy this aspect of the game - there's a deep sense of satisfaction when you see the massive fleet of 10 ion-cannon frigates, 5 destroyers and 2 heavy cruisers you just built.

The second major difference is that you can capture other spaceships and add them to your fleet. Annoyed with those pesky multi ion-beam frigates attacking your mothership? Just send a squadron of salvage corvettes after them and capture the entire fleet! This is definitely one of the most important aspects of playing Homeworld - learning how to sneak a squad of salvage corvettes towards an enemy fleet.

The story isn't terribly original. What is original is the style in which it is presented. This is no slick, Hollywood-produced motion-picture like Tiberian Sun or Red Alert 2. The production style is much closer to a pared-back Japanese anime. To be honest, despite the comparisons to Star Wars or Star Trek, Homeworld is a much closer relation to Star Blazers, Robotech or Macross. Especially when you have spaceships like the Heavy Cruiser (a very close relation to Robotech's SDF-1), or the Destroyer (Star Blazers fans will LOVE the wave-motion gun effects from its ion-cannons!).

In conclusion, I strongly recommend Homeworld to strategy gamers with an open mind. When it was first released, very few people had the PC's with sufficient processing power to play this game. Now? If you have anything faster than a Pentium III 450MHz, then I can't recommend this game highly enough. It is a classic that you'll be hooked on and playing years from now. Just buy this game. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but too slow
Review: When I first got this game I thought it was perfect, but once I got to many ships, I couldn't move my mouse at all. Anyway I thought it had pretty good graphics as long as it didn't freeze. I suggest this software to anyone who has a very fast computer.

Rating:
Summary: Homeworld is the best!
Review: This game ranks number one on my list of favorite computer games. The single player campain is so cool! One of the funest missions was number eight, Cathedral of Cadesh. All in all, with all the different ships, Homeworld is definetly a milestone in PC games.

Rating:
Summary: A excellent game, but very buggy!
Review: Everyone is a right. Homeworld is a game that introduces us to a whole new kind of game. This is not a regular third-person 3D game. It's not like Myth/MythII where there is a limited rotatation around characters and the action. In Homeworld, you can *fully* rotate around ships and other objects in a real 3D world. Over the top, under the bottom, and spin around ships. It actually takes some getting use to, once you do, it's amazing. Another plus is the amazing graphics of not only the ships and objects, but also the explosions, thrust of the ships engines, ships "jumping" into and out of hyperspace, and the other eye candy.

After a couple hours playing this game, you will find yourself in the Homeworld universe; you will feel like you are really there. However, Homeworld is not all eye candy, it has a really good story that will keep you stuck to the game and the plot line.

But why did I give this game only 2 stars? It is probably the buggiest game I have ever played, and many of the most anonying bugs were never fixed. I had a number of times where I would hit a bug where I could not complete the level and had to step to the previous level! I would save the buggy game and reload it, still messed up. Would step back to a previous save on the same level, and it would still be messed up. If you hit these bugs in multiplayer, you were screwed (I remember the "build bug" would halt production of large ships). I never did have an enjoyable multiplayer game, since someone in the match would always hit one of the nasty bugs. After that, they would be easy to knock out of the game. The buggyness of Homeworld has prevented me from buy Homeworld 2.

Rating:
Summary: Ender Wiggen eat your heart out!
Review: The best computer game, EVER. true 3D fleet combat in a gorgeous anime-inspired universe. I have been playing it daily for almost a year now. Everthing about this game is perfect, the music is haunting, the background and feel are epic and mature. Truly a masterpeice!

Rating:
Summary: going home
Review: this is simply the best computer game i've ever played. eye opening graphics, huge spaceships, massive backing storyline. what more could you ask for?

Rating:
Summary: A New Breath of Life for RTS
Review: This game got me interested in the RTS genre all over again. It is wonderful: full three dimensions of movement, a camera that's easy to use, beautifully-rendered ships and an engrossing storyline. The only strikes against it, in my view, are the near-identical ships of the playable races, and the lack of variety in Homeworld multiplayer missions.

Still, this game is the first of the 3D RTS genre (or at least, the first to do it with any real style) and the yardstick by which all future comers will be measured - it's still a wonderful game.

Rating:
Summary: Homies
Review: It look stunning - the artwork is obviously inspired by Chris Foss and Peter Elson (sci-fi artists of the old 'Great Space Battles' books from the late-70's), and it's gorgeous, even more so than 'Conflict: Freespace'. Not only is it technically impressive, it has style, too - space itself is a colourful nebula, and the vehicle designs and paintwork give the impression that you have a gigantic set of cool toys at your disposal. Surprisingly, the 'Battlestar: Galactica'-esque story around which the game hangs is a cut above the average - whilst not exactly 'War and Peace' it's still much better you might expect.

The flow of play is less interesting, though. With no terrain as such, it's not so much a tactical game as a strategic one - the side that can field the most amount of units wins. As one of the other reviews mentions, a gigantic asteroid field would have helped things enormously. Furthermore, as in 'Urban Assault', the AI requires that you manage every significant unit at the same time, something which gets on your nerves quite quickly. And it gets very, very hard later on - especially as your status is carried from mission to mission. Often you realise that you're going to have to start again from scratch in order to complete later missions, and having to spend ages after you have 'won' mining for resources in order to build up your forces is very dull.

Do you want this? It's more or less one of a kind, and it's utterly stylish, although in the long run both 'Starcraft' and the older 'Total Annihilation' are more fun to play.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. Simply Beautiful.
Review: My title pretty much sums it up. If you're like me, you've come from a gaming community who fell in love with Warcraft II & Starcraft, but slowly grew tired of the RTS (real-time strategy) clones that have followed ever since then. And you think, "No one can do it better than Blizzard did back then."

And for the most part, you would be right. But what's this Sierra is claiming with Homeworld? A 3-Dimensional RTS? "How's that possible?" you ask. Well, I asked the same thing and plopped my money down (after a while, since I was doubtful) but all my reservations were quickly put to rest. Amazingly, it works. A true 3D RTS on your flat, 2D screen. Sierra did it, and they did it well.

And they didn't stop there. They took the time to make the sound and music great. But they didn't stop there either. It's the graphics which are the cherry on top. It is simply BEAUTIFUL! I've only played this game on my Voodoo 3 graphics card, so I don't know what it looks like without a good graphics card, but you still won't be disappointed. Homeworld is a great game and easily deserves all the awards it received.

Other things to note: It is not 3D in the sense you have completely unlimited height, width, and depth. Height is somewhat restricted, like any gameboard, but not enough to hurt the game, and certainly enough to give it the 3D effect you REALLY will get. And you MAY find yourself getting tired of the RTS resource, gather, fight cycle, as you inevitably do with other RTS's where tactics don't play as much a role as you'd like. In which case, in all honestly, the demo may be enough for you, so download and try that first--you'll love it.

If nothing else can be said about it, this can: It's a fresh approach on a genre that was being overdone, and you'll get that initial "Warcraft II thrill" you first did when you played it back in 1992, which I honestly hadn't had since then, but was glad to have it for a while again with this game.