Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

It's 2022 and the game never got rebindable keys.

This title is a prequel to the famous Homeworld RTS series. Visually it borrows the game mechanics of its predecessors: scanner view, unit icons, carriers. But the theater of action is now on land. Cons: — I had been having a weird feeling I already played something like that in the past. Mobile manufacturing base? Updates for artifacts? Ah, yes! That's the titile-killing Command & Conquer 4, incarnate; — The computer AI. I mean, lack of thereof. That is what it is programmed to do: (1) attack with strikecraft (2) reinforcements (3) armor (4) railguns (5) air (6) cruisers (7) sit and wait to be killed. Even in FFA all of them still engage /you/. Sometimes able to send resourcing operations, but usually not; — The campaign. Nurture your units, avoid losses, hoard res. The only thing keeping AI afloat is an endless stream of free reinforcements. Sounds familiar? That's Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, early 90s; — The story is told nicely but is so short and weak (by Homeworld measures) they had to release an 'Expedition Guide'. In HW1-2 we got to visit amazing places and meet astonishing entities. Here we visit desert with more rocks, desert with less rocks, desert at night. And meet cliché crazed cultists (it's somewhat fun to realize they were right all along, though); — Programming level: below average. Load times: crazy. Several bugs. There's a physics engine, it often looks ridiculous (under artillery fire light units do... imagine a rubber ducky in a washing machine). Multiplayer crashes; — Global multiplayer is dead (defunct?); — Campaign difficulties: easy, very easy, obnoxiously easy. Cons: — Great job on audio. Battle chatter is cool. The music is "Genuine Homeworld", hand composed for every mission to feel right; — Height advantage and veterancy mechanics are interesting. Rating motivation: music and sound meet the expectations. Visuals are decent. There are traces of work in other directions, but weak and unsuccessful. Brings nothing new to the genre.

As a long time fan of Homeworld, and a fan of Ground Control, I am in love. It's the feel and art of Homeworld, with a great story and impecable art direction, but in the sand. But it adds a level of strategy that far surpasses the original Ground Control with a very fun elevation and physics system, which makes attack vectors, proper use of smoke screens, air strikes and proper postioning the meat of this game. - Of SPECIAL mention is the physics system in the simulation of the vehicle movements. A small vehicle is not just a x,y,z coordinate wiht stats on a symple 3d map. The dust, rock, sand, the speed as well as the elevation all come into play, and the projectle systems are simulated. If there is ever another Dune game, this is what it should be like.

As some people may know this game was never intended to be a prequel to the Homeworld Franchise. It was a simple game about scavengers on a desert planet. And mechanically it's exactly that. This game, while missing some of the tactical depth of the Homeworld franchise, has one up on them in terms of the twists and turns and simple strategic differences. This game plays very different from HW, it's a 2d strategy with scarce resources, and an incentive to keep your units alive for as long as possible. The game is a rare example of ludonarrative coherence: the units look and feel like repurposed mining tools. The shipbreaking is the only way of obtaining resources, and you don't have that many of the latter. The factions are very different, from each other. The Gaalsien give you the HW2 experience of building as many production vessels as possible, the SJet Coalition have the HW1 approach of multiple production lines per carrier. Needless to say, in order to succeed, the two need to do very different things. I only wish that some of the quality of life improvements were to be carried over to the future releases, and that this game isn't the last one the franchise. Hopefully this cult classic is still kicking.

I've completed the campaign once on Classic difficulty. The game is a hybrid of 2-D Homeworld and Ground Control. The story explores the events on Kharak leading up to the many kiiths of the Kushan uniting as a people. It seems to be consistent with the Homeworld manual. Each unit has a well-thought-out purpose. The queen of this game is the Carrier, a capital ship unit that can be upgraded with salvaged artifacts, can shunt power to different systems, can launch strike craft and can research new technology. Cutscenes/videos look amazing, and also remind me of the similarly amazing ones in Homeworld. I especially like the seemingly alien design chosen for the Gaalsien Kiith-Sa. The soundtrack is great, very fitting. The desert looks amazing with dunes, wind... While playing, I couldn't help wondering why noone's made a Dune game using the same engine/tech. Resourcing is handled by harvesting Construction Units ('minerals') and Resource Units ('gas'). There are shipwrecks that have to be broken up using demolition charges. Sometimes, artifacts are revealed that can be used to upgrade the Carrier. Now, about the campaign. When choosing the difficulty level, it's not explained what the selected level actually changes - hit points? Build times? Resource availability? Scripting is overused; sometimes enemy groups of ships just spawn out of nowhere. Lazy and not very inspired. I finished it in about 20 hours, with some reloading. Some tips: Extract every resource and salvage every artifact you can find. Don't use Rachel's Hack ability as it costs RU that you may need later. Gunships function as AC-130s, just don't use them when Missile Batteries or Missile Ships are present. The Carrier, when repaired by Support Cruisers, can take tons of beating, especially when power is shunted to weapons systems and/or armor systems. Get this game when discounted. Don't forget to play the original Homeworld at some point.