Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

The good. This game is very well made. First and foremost, the story is very good and is told in an engaging and visually spectacular way. Graphics is wonderful. Level design is very good. Soundtrack is good - perhaps not as good as on previous Homeworlds but still very decent. Overall, the game manages to recreate atmosphere of original Homeworlds and is a worthy addition to the series. The bad. I guess the biggest problem compared to previous games is that the game has been significantly scaled down. In previous Homeworlds the maps were huge and one often had to fight in several distant areas of the map. This made it crucial to have independent fleets with carriers at their heart to produce and repair smaller vessels as the battle went on. There's no such thing in Deserts of Kharak. Although the maps are beautiful, they are small. You can always concentrate all of your units around your main carrier (equivalent of mothership in HW) and this is the only production facility you will ever have. A consequence of having much smaller ships is that there are no such things as subsystems that can be targeted separately. Formations are also gone. The overall effect is that the game is missing much of strategic depth present in earlier Homeworlds. Other reviews have mentioned too short campaign and I fully agree. There are 12 missions that can be completed in about 10 hours. These are good missions and the story doesn't feel incomplete but it makes you want to have more. Also, I found the final missions too trivial. With enough cruisers (which you do have by the final 3 missions) you can just take all of your army and march straight onto the enemy. This doesn't even compare to Homeworld 2, where final missions were a real challenge. The ugly. Version sold by GOG is stripped off multiplayer mode, unless you are willing to install GOG Galaxy bloatware. Clearly, a violation of GOG's promises that Galaxy will always remain an optional addition. Get it for a discounted price.

Generally,I don't like prequels. There's usually some conflict with the lore. In this case, I was expecting just that, but I can't find any. With the original designers at the helm, they are true to the lore and even further flesh it out. The game is amazing. It has the simple unit variety of Homeworld, but it also requires a combined arms fleet to win without significant losses. The music is like Homeworld 2, excellent. The characters and feel of the game is spot on. Some argue it's too short (and it is 3 missions shorter than the original Homeworld), but tacking on useless missions (Homeworld 2 anyone?) would be more annoying. I prefer meaningful and succinct. It's currently patched to the most recent version, so that's not an issue. If GoG was behind Steam, it happens. Some of us wait for sales and reviews anyway. There is a tactical pause. Hit P instead of Pause. The more you know. I think the maps are on par with the first Homeworld in scale, but even if they are smaller, there's still a lot of room for maneuvering. I didn't have to venture away from my carrier too often because, unlike the original Homeworld, the carrier can move. But there are places the carrier can't go and so you will have to venture out. As for having to use GoG Galaxy for multiplayer, all multiplayer requires a server to act as a middle man. That's life. If the makers of the game aren't going to create server support for it, then it falls on GoG or Steam. I ignore such criticisms seeing that it is a technical limitation of technology. There needs to be a coordinating center. Unlike Steam, you can load Galaxy, play multiplayer, and then unload it without loss of single player functionality. So that. Again, this was a surprising gem. I recommend it for fans of the original. And if you enjoyed reading the historical briefing from the original games, then wait for the Expedition Guide (an .exe in the game folder) to go on sale and get it. They even include the Somtaaw as canon now!

Not sure why people are giving low ratings AFTER it is patched, which was the primary complaint. It's working great, it's patched to latest. It's on sale. Win/Win.

This is my second homeworld game, where I'm sensing a pattern of short but very well done campaigns that basically are a road trip with guns, potential for disaster at every turn... and lots of fun. I just finished the first homeworld remastered game a few hours ago, and I can say I actually prefer this one a little. With a similar legnth campaign, less units, and maps not utterly cavernous and vast... it feels a lot more focused. Combat can get utterly intense and losing a few cheap units at the wrong time can utterly wreck your day, and clever tactics will be rewarded. Only knocking points for no rebindable keys and relatively poor preformance on my gaming laptop... the thing utterly refuses to play with anything less than utterly low graphics for me and will often switch it back out of what I only guess is some missplaced concern. Still, look forward to load up the ammo