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)
Rating:
Summary: Not a significant improvement over Homeworld 1
Review: Homeworld 2 seemed like a great game concept, so much potential, the first game seemed so simple, yet so amazing. I was really looking forward to the sequel, but unfortunately very few risks were taken by the publisher... I think the original Homeworld's success was the emotional content... and also the angelic nature, almost a religious experience. The sound and the visuals, the voice, was from the heavens. In fact I`d go as far as to say that HW2 is pointless, and not even `more of the same`! I found the single player missions boring, just sending my craft forward and back, forward and back defending or attacking pre-defined waves of things. Once you failed the mission once, the 2nd time you`d win because the attack patterns of the enemy were the same, all scripted (i.e. no strategic enemy AI) And the coolest things have been taken out! Where is the Sphere and wall formations?! - if you played the first one you`ll be familiar with the amazing spectacle of creating a sphere formation, and setting it to GUARD your mother ship.... WOW! Try it... Also works with your carriers etc... but not in HW2!
The formations are far more conventional in HW2. Very flat and boring. The frontend is pretty much the same, the ingame art just seems upgraded (more polygons and textures, more detail) rather than better as such, sort of what you`d minimally expect and nothing more. The whole thing just doesn't feel fresh like the original did back in '99. The UI is behind the times, and hasn't seen enough improvements... games like Stronghold have a much better system where you can easily select all the units of a single type within a larger selection of mixed units. I suggest getting a copy of HW1 and completing it, it's a much more involving experience. Playing against another player without the ship number restrictions is highly recommended... you can fill the screen with ships - the dogfights are a spectacle to behold.
Rating:
Summary: A Little More of the Same
Review: Homeworld 2 is remarkably like Homeworld in almost every way, and that is of course both a good and bad thing. Homeworld was amazing in that it took RTS to a whole new level. Instead of controlling these tiny guys running on a basically 2D or orthographic map, you were controlling ships in 3D in space. And you could zoom all the way in, micro or macro manage, whatever you wanted to do. Except for some tiresome and irritating levels (like the one where you have to navigate the dust clouds or explode due to radiation, or the final mission with the billion enemy ships) it was a lot of fun and very atmospheric. Homeworld 2 is pretty much the same thing, albeit with better graphics and some changes to the controls. Unfortunately the controls aren't really changed enough to get rid of most of the annoyances; I'll talk about this more later. H2's story is completely skippable. I actually found it so slowly delivered, trite, and cliched that I preferred just hitting escape and playing than listening to yet another story about a "chosen one". Also of note is that the music is less involving than the first game. It's just kind of there. I had some problems getting the game running acceptably on my rather powerful system, which was irritating. Finally dropped it down to 800x600 and it works ok. Then I started playing the first mission, and some more annoyances were made clear. First, they still have no easy way to select all ships of a type. The dumb "double click" system is still in place, and it is still just as hard to double-click a moving ship. There is no key equivalent. So in the heat of battle it's extremely hard to tell your interceptors to go attack a fast-moving target. You end up tediously finding them one by one, or in small groups, and sending them off, wasting precious time. The next major annoyance is the continuous interruptions in the game. Just when you're in the middle of doing something important, one of five jillion cutscenes will start playing and you lose control to hear about the Bentusi this or your ships are under attack that. It's all extremely bad timing, particularly when you can't tell your ships what to do while the enemy pounds on you. And the real killer for me is the extreme slowness of the game. Most RTS's have the ability to speed up the game for slow parts. Not this one. Watching your capital ships creep across the void of space, or slowly killing the ridiculously resilient hyperspace inhibitors (four on each asteroid), it just really isn't all that involving. The space battles are still fun, but the tasks are tiresome. The other minor quibbles have been commented on, but bear repeating: you can't change your mouse speed; you can't hang out after a mission is over rebuilding, organizing, or managing your fleet; you can't gather all the resources in an area after a mission is done (although it does it for you some times). So it's a good game, but with all the same problems as its predecessor, which is disappointing. I would wait for this one to come down in price a little.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game but......
Review: This is a great game. The graphics are excellent and so is the game play. The tactical and strategic differences between the Vagyr and Higaraans present intruiging possibilities. So why the but! And they are small buts I found the single player campaign to be less emotionally involving than Homeworld 1 and Cataclysm. In fact I finished the single player campaign with a vague sense of disapointment. I can't put my finger on why. I keep thinking back to the overwhelming first few minutes of the last chapter in Homeworld 1 (and I had a monster fleet). Or the desecration of Kharak. Perhaps it was the decommissioning of the mother ship. In fact I don't think the campaign is as hard. I agree with another reviewers comment about not having the chance to rebuild your fleet at the end of each mission as you collect the remaining resources. Perhaps the time compression system from Cataclysm would have been better employed than simply ending it with all the resources collected. Another feature I missed was being able to increase your fleet above the population limits by absconding with the enemies prize Heavy Cruiser. Though this didn't impact the campaign at all. I said they were small buts. I know I'm nit picking but I'm glad I spent the money. And I think you will be too if you decide to purchase the game.
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