Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

I only really bought this for the campaign (probably for the best since multiplayer was basically dead on arrival) and for me, compared to the Homeworld campaigns, I really hated it. It felt very rushed, very clipped, no dramatic tension or depth to speak of. Just very disappointing all around for me. Some of the concepts and gameplay feel reasonable, they I loath the lack of interactivity between units, again in comparison to Homeworld. The lack of tactical pause was an irritation, though not a deal breaker and they've known done a very crude bodge job of it. Things like that and editable hotkeys are to me indications of the game having been rushed out the door. Balance at release was bad, the game was riddled with bugs and crashing, it seemed like it was just trading on the Homeworld name to grab some cash.

I was surprised with this one. Very good RTS, with good mechanics and controls. The story is great altough it faulters towards the end (its a RTS thing really). Its a bit short in singleplayer, 10H on Hard Campaign, but it cost 5€ so its fine. Recommended. PS: Got it on steam

If you are expecting a successor of homeworld (cataclysm) you will be disappointed. While in the original homeworld game (and especially cataclysm) there was a good balance between fleet-management and micro-management, DOK shifts that balance completely in the direction of micro-management. Without using the special capabilities of your individual units and keeping track of which unit goes where, wou will very soon find yourself without any fleet at all. This would be ok, if the controls were suited to support you in this direction, but they are not. Even basic things like telling you, which units are currently selected have been redacted from homeworld (where you had a textual representation and could select similar ships). While losing the concept of formations might be forgivable in itself, it also gets rid of one important fleet management technique: In HW if you click on one unit within a formation, you select the entire formation. This is not possible here. If you have not pre-arranged your units within the 10 preselection slots, you have to select them one-by-one. Be aware, you might accidentally send your carrier arround, because it is damned easy to select the carrier while selecting freshly produced units. The visuals make it easy, not to realize, which ships got selected as well. All in all it feels like home-world with your mouse hand tied behind your back. The petty is, it looks really nice, has fantastic sound and the voice actors did a good job. It could have been a really great game, if it hadn't been left behind the original homeworld games with respect to unit-management.

I just played initial missions. Loved original Homeworld games. This game is a visual gem but I expected better controls, more un-zoom, tactical pause, better unit AI, ability to auto-search for resources. Instead of quality of life improvements of original Homeworld, it adds unnecessary micromanagement. The game is good, but I would rather play free game like Supreme Commenader inspired Zero-K.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a mediocre title. It feels a bit like Homeworld on ground, you can tell they tried to replicate that. Also, it has a bit of a Supreme Commander vibe with it's map zoom which replaces units with icons. The campaign takes about 6-7 hours to finish on medium difficulty. The storyline is forgettable, the cinematics try to be emotional but overall fall flat. The objectives are simple. In most missions it's either "defend this position for x minutes" or "remove all enemy units". Since your units carry on from one mission to another, as soon as you amass a max supply army, subsequent missions usually revolve around A-moving to the objective. The graphics are nice. Particle effects look great, projectiles and railgun lasers light up the battlefield nicely, I have no complaints in this area. The gameplay is lacking. The main issue is that units are hard to control. They are very slow and the bigger units are very slow to maneuver, which while feels more realistic, feels very clumsy. Another thing is that to play the game properly you need to zoom out to see the battlefield, but from the distance it's very hard to tell units apart (is it a battlecruiser? or artillery cruiser?). Most units have active abilities, but they're not very engaging to use and you'll ignore them for the most part. I wish developers took some hints from Starcraft 2 on how to have recognizable units on the battlefield and snappy controls. Also, the way you have to collect resources is confusing. Homeworld gave you a choice, do you want to hyperspace now or stay (and mine more resources). Here you don't have that choice. Every time you have to guess - should I destroy this group of enemies to stop reinforcements from coming, or should I wait until I mine neverything and then destroy them? I'd have loved the song by Yes or Adagio for Strings to have played during the end credits as a tie-in to the original. Pity they didn't do that.