Homeworld
Homeworld, the 3D space-combat RTS-affair every reviewer seems to love. I really want to too, Homeworld has all the required components. And yet, I feel a bit split. More on that later, on with the facts!
At the core, Homeworld is just another RTS. However, as we all probably know by now, there are some distinct changes from the standard formula. First, it's set in space. This means a distinct lack of terrain features, elevation/cover advantages and strategic choke points. Second, your base has been replaced by an unexpandable mothership, meaning bye bye base construction. What that, a bit odd to me, doesn't mean is a fully mobile headquarters. In multiplayer you can hyperspace the mothership to a new location if you have enough resources, but otherwise it's stuck where it started. Third, which you can't really avoid to notice, it's all 3d. The camera centers around the currently selected ship and allows you to pan around and zoom. The camera, together with the beautiful graphics, means that all gameplay takes place from those cool externa camera views you'd like to use in space combat sims but can't because flying the ship from that view with any precision is hopeless. The controls are quite easy to learn and use, but ordering units around a true 3D space takes some time to get skilled in, and you can forget any precision movement orders in combat.
Two elements in Homeworld which are just like in good old 3D RTS:es are resource gathering and research. Resources are mined from asteroids and gas clouds by the Resource Gatherer (how do they come up with those fantastic names?) and turned into Resourse Units which are used to construct more ships. To cut down on transportation time, you may construct Resource Controllers or a few other ships which can act as dropoff points for collected resources. Research is handled by research ships and is free resource-wise (you can cut down research time by building more reseacrh ships of course). The tech-tree isn't too large, and all upgrades have logical names, making prioritizing what you'll need first the real challenge.
Graphics are beautiful. Backgrounds are bright and atmospheric, ships are detailed and explosions and effects look great too. The long engine trails are a very good idea, not only do they look great they also make spotting small and/or distant ships a lot easier. The ships also move just like you'd expect them to. Fighters pull tight turns, dodge and spin. Larger ships are slow on the move and turn and look really mean and solid. The camera makes things even better, following a small fighter as it bears down on a capital ship, guns blaring is just like Star Wars ... I won't go on about the explosions, I'll just say yummy ...
Sound and music is excellent, even if the music starts feeling a bit repetitive after a while. Unit speech somehow doesn't feel as repetitive as in some other RTS games, even if it consists of the usual acknowledgements and a few other comments.
The single player part of the game consists of a tutorial, one 16 mission campaign and skirmish against the computer. There isn't anything special to say about the tutorial and I haven't played a lot of skirmishes, so let's concentrate on the campaign. You have two sides to choose from for the campaign, but the only differences are the ship models. The story and the way it's told is really good. Between missions there are short black and white "sketch-like" sequences. The story develops during missions too, with scripted sequences during which you lose control of your fleet. Mostly the system works excellent, presenting the new challenges or plot twists and enhancing the mood. A few times toward the end however, there were short interrupts of control at critical moments just for voice messages, which could be very annoying.
The campaign missions are quite innovative and have some really interesting scenarios. Also, mission structure becomes a bit different from other RTS games. In other games, the usual mission starts with a buildup period during which you get you base going, defences up and so on. In Homeworld you fleet carries over from mission to mission and there is no normal base construction to do. Taking advantage of this, action is usually thick and fast right from the start. Then, after you've beaten the enemy back and maybe even completed you mission, the rebuild phase comes. You need this as you never know what will happen in the next mission and you may have researched new technologies you want to try out. Normally there is no time-restraint or threat remaining at this point of the mission, meaning you will naturally want to harvest ever available resource to prepare better for the next mission. However, this takes time, and while you wait for the gatherers to do their job you don't really have anything else to pass time with. There is a "quick docking" feature to speed up the procedure of hyperspacing to the next level, why couldn't there be a "quick harvest" button too once no enemies remain on the map? And after the, so I guess, scripted attacks at the start of the mission the enemy more or less sits there with all its remaining units, forcing you to travel the whope map to take out a few enemies who don't stand a chance. In all, the campaign missions are very well done, but tend to draw out toward the end.
Ok, it's all that good? So why don't I like it more? That's a tough question. Maybe it's just that you need more time to adapt to a new style, but it just isn't the same kick as Tiberian Sun or Starcraft. Yes, it looks a lot better and is a lot more innovative, but the kick isn't there. Maybe it's the lack of control in huge battles, or the lack of terrain to take advantage of. Perhaps the enemy is too anonymous, you don't get to know very much about that Empire of theirs, and there is no Kane or anything anywhere to be found ...
