Homeworld

Rating:
Summary: In some ways better, in some ways stuck in the past
Review: I must say that I enjoyed Homeworld... for a while. I did not, in all honesty, finish the game because I felt it degenerated into a pure slugfest, no tactics or strategy involved (for the most part). The short summary is that Homeworld is a fairly typical harvest resources, build forces, kill the enemy sort of game. A couple frills with the attempted 3D interface and the salvage capabilities, but nothing to write home about. If you want real-time strategy, there are better choices out there.

First, though the game is, in theory, 3D, very little is actually done in 3D, and the interface for trying to do so is difficult to manage. Almost the entire game takes place in effectively one plane (for the core game, there are a couple of exceptions). So, while the 3D idea is neat, very little is done to develop and exploit it. Second, very little strategy seems to be involved in the game. The interface is a little too clunky and micro-manage centric (to use any units with intelligence, YOU must be in direct control of them) to allow for grand tactics and strategies, and there is a sad emphasis on the captial ships. To a large degree, you can do entirely without fighter class ships (once you reach a certain tech level). Obviously, game designers have yet to notice that there are often very good reasons for having smaller stuff on the scene. The formations attempt to bring some semblance of order to the game, but those same formations rapidly disappear in actual combat, making them fairly pointless. Third, unit intelligence is miserable. This is not a problem liited to Homeworld, but seems to be endemic to the strategy genre. Fight to the death, you cannot establish a target priority intelligence. you cannot setup a series of orders (shoot your designated target unless something juicier or more deadly appears, run to a certain staging area if you are damaged, guard this ship, but do not leave it's immediate vicinity, etc.).

On the plus side, the game is pretty smooth. The views are great, and the perspective control is very useful (though a camera angle change could be nice, ie, view out from a unit's perspective, rather than always looking at a particular unit or view of any area, rather than a unit). The repair/refuel and docking capability is cool, as is the ability to jump around the map (mp only though). Sadly, I don't think the game lived up to its hype.

Rating:
Summary: Homeworld
Review: Homeworld -- Relic Entertainment's masterpiece. The winner of the E3 Game Critics Award '99 for Best Strategy and a twenty feet list of other awards. It's several reasons for this: The killer graphics, the awesome game play, the thrilling skirmish mode, the beautiful ambient music, I can just go on and on.

I bought Homeworld the day it hit store shelves and I have yet to get bored while playing it. I have to admit that I don't play the campaign anymore (playing the same story over again and over again is a bit repetitive), but every now and then I play a round of multiplayer skirmish and it's great fun every time.

Homeworld goes out highly recommended, not just to strategy gamers but also to players of other genres. This is not just a thinkers game. It's also packed with a lot of sweet guns and heavy action. Ever wanted to control an ion cannon the size of a medium sky scraper? Now is your chance.

Real-time strategy. Real 3D. Real Game.

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking as no games has been for long
Review: Homeworld deserves EVERY bit of the game of the year accolade.

I have never seen such a breathtaking and stunning game/piece of entertainment before, and I seriously doubt something like this will surface again the next few decades.

Is Homeworld the best game ever made? That is a tough decission, but it sure comes pretty damn close!

Anyway the game/experience should be a must-have for anybody interested in a completely controlable 3D universe, science fiction, tactics, space, simulations, strategy and an extraordinary experience.

Rating:
Summary: Blows me away...
Review: Think Starcraft - take away a bit of the story and the uniqueness of each faction, set it in space and make it fully 3D - you've got HomeWorld.

I don't know what can be said about the graphics in this game that haven't already been said, but let me try to briefly explain their detail, if not their beauty. Some of the ships have turreted weapons. Not only can you zoom in on a ship and watch its turrets independently rotate and fire, but when they fire, you see the turrets recoil from the shot. Zoom in close enough and you can even hear the turrets rotating. Other impressive details include docking ports on support ships that open and close.

Even more so than the graphics, the user interface in this game is (to me, at least) very intuitive and easy to learn with the included tutorial. My only complaint is that there are two views - the basic in game view and the overall map view - both of which work in real time. My complaint here would be that in the normal view, you can only zoom out so far (making it difficult to manage a large scale battle) without switching to the map view. Sierra should have made switching between these two simply a function of your zoom level, rather than a seperate key.

This is a minor complaint, however.

Finally, I want to say what a good job this game does creating a believable environment - a lot of this has to do with sounds - you hear radio calls of your pilots as they comment on how their routing the enemy, in trouble, running low on fuel etc. Zoom in on an individual ship and see its exhaust. Zoom out on a large space battle and you'll see the closest thing you'll ever see to Return of the Jedi on your computer. Bravo.

This has to be one of the best games to come along in quite a while. Homeworld does for RTS what Wing Commander did for space combat

Rating:
Summary: Forget It
Review: Forget your job. Forget your family. Forget the outdoors. Forget food and water. Forget StarCraft, WarCraft, Tiberian Sun, Dark Reign, Ground Control, and anything else you might be vainly trying to hold on to.

Remember: Homeworld.

All those other ground-based RTS games are very good (I do not argue that StarCraft is one of the best games to come along in a long, long time.) but they aren't incredible. After a while, I get tired of viewing the map from the same perspective all the time. I get tired of the sun shining from the same spot in the sky, casting the same shadows. And I get tired of clunky game controls.

Homeworld does away with all of these things. Finally, someone sat down and said, "Gee, why are all these games in only TWO dimensions?" Thus was created Homeworld. Along with the extremely forward-thinking game environment, there is a VERY compelling storyline, and well developed characters with whom you must interact. The controls for commands issued are very intuitive, and very easy to learn. Unlike Starcraft, where there is a whole list of shortcut keys to remember, Homeworld uses only a handful. Every special function in your fleet, from activating a gravity well generator, to stealing a ship, to cloaking, is activated with the <<Z>> key. Researching, building, launching docked vessels, all of tehse functions use one key each, so learning your way around the keyboard is easy. Once you get used to the 3D environment, the game is completely intuitive. I find myself moving around in deep space reflexively, and I only play moderately.

And that's the kicker. This is the first game to REALLY use 3D, as opposed to just placing 3D characters on an essentially 2D map (which seems to be the case with the much-vaunted WarCraft III, and Ground Control). You can attack from above, below, sideways; what ever direction you choose. It forces you to actually think when engaging in combat.

There's plenty more i could talk about. If you have the hardware, the graphics can be stunning. The different ships are very subtle in their different abilities, and you must use them all to succeed. All in all, it's the best RTS I've seen. Do yourself a favor. Play this one. After Homeworld, I and my gaming companions find ourselves greatly disappointed with other, lesser games.

Rating:
Summary: Good Graphic/gameplay/plot
Review: This game has great Graphics (assuming you have a pretty good card, My ATI All-In-Wonder 128 stank, but my ASUS V6800 makes this game rock). You can see very fine game details, and the large scale things look very imposing and impressive.

Gameplay is great, controles are a bit awkward, as would be expected from a 3d game, however, if you are fast enough, and coordinated enough you will survive. It isn't the most difficult RTS in the world, but it's a lot of fun anyway. Also, as far as cheats go, you need a trainer, normal cheats are nonexistant.

Plot is intreguing, you are drawn in by a whole bunch of clues about what happened in the past. You learn a lot about your race on your journey to the homeworld, You make friends and enemies. And you discover some not-so happy cousins along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely superb!
Review: I can say, without exaggeration, that this is one of the best games I have ever played. I have longed for a game like this. The graphics are unbelievable. The interface can't be beat. The 3D nature of the game is truly a pleasure. Being an out-and-out combat fan, I spend much more time playing the multiplayer missions than the actual "storyline" missions. And let me tell you...there are few things in life more satisfying than to see your ion cannon frigates vaporize an enemy capital ship, or to see your attack bombers rain blue plasma bombs on their targets....

Get this game. Yes, it takes more than just mediocre hardware to run it effectively, but you will not be disappointed.

Now, if only there were a Star Trek-based starship combat game like this, then I truly would be in heaven....

Rating:
Summary: Mind Boggling Incredible Entertainment
Review: The user interface took some getting used to and I still find myself trying to recall the command keys, but then again, I try to have life outside computer games. Still, this is the first space combat game involving large capital spaceships that is oh so fun to play. The story has a very "Battlestar Galactica" theme to it of a mother ship trying to reach a new home.The graphics are out of this world. I was nearly disgusted forever a few years ago by my first big ship space game, Battlecruiser 3000, that I thought they could NEVER make a decent game involving anything bigger than an X-wing fighter. Homeworld has reclaimed my faith that there are actually some imaginative programmers out there who knows what the public likes, instead of just rehashing what's already out there. The only weird thing I experienced was that while D3D mode showed beautiful graphics, the even more impressive opengl mode was not available until I installed the latest patch. This game is a breakthrough though in originality in a time when everything else out there seems to be a first person Doom, Quake, or Unreal shooter.

Rating:
Summary: The Game I Have Always Wanted!
Review: I have to admit, If I had three wishes, one of them would be for a game like this. If you like a game that is realistic and beautiful, this one is for you. The graphics are simply splendid. Each ship is detailed down to the metal plates and paint schemes - that cover art is a screen shot! The music is both haunting and intense, it really evokes emotion and pulls you into the game. On the flip side, music is not always available during multiplayer games. Multiplayer games against the AI are way too easy, but are great training for learning how to control the game. The preset mission is very challenging but has limited replay appeal. It is fun to play it over to see if you can do better than the last time, though. The game comes with a scenario generation tool for creating your own multi-player games. You can customize your ships' color scheme. A suggested improvement is to include a tool for customizing the shape of the ships. This will make multiplayer games against other humans even more interesting. If you haven't bought a copy yet, I highly recommend it. As I write this, the Game of the Year edition is the same price as the original, so I recommend you pick that one up because it includes a player's guide and a CD of the music score. Happy playing!

Rating:
Summary: WOW WOW WOW! Buy now!
Review: This game is one of the most incredible new games in 2000 Ihave ever seen. It . . . was made by a new developer, Relic. Ithas been published by Sierra.

Homeworld is an incedibly innovative game, turning the RTS genre upside down as did early games like Command and Conquer and Doom. The game is graphically beautiful -- ion cannons flare across space, backgrounds of the galaxy amaze you, the ships are incredibly detailed, and the story is hard to beat.

You're a member of the Kushan, a race who were exiled by a vicious race (the Taiidan) to a desert planet. Your race discovers an ancient starship in the sand, where they discover their heritage and also hyperspace technology.

The race builds a starship to travel to their Homeworld (Hiigara) which is called the Mothership. The 16 missions are wonderful, giving suprises and suspense.

Multiplayer is also quite good, although the WON.net interface should be improved somewhat. It's incredibly fun!

What made Homeworld so incredible is the fact that it is a truly 3D game. The game is not played in 2 dimensions, you must also plan your attacks in the Z-axis. This makes for a whole new level of play -- you can attack from above, below, behind, in front, sides, etc. The camera control is very easy to master, and the wonderful tutorial helps with this. The interface is one of the best I've ever seen.

If you're at all a fan of space simulations, Star Wars or Star Trek, real time strategy, or good graphics and gameplay, get this Game of the Year now!