Homeworld: Emergence

Homeworld: Calaclysm... *ahem* Emergence has amazing music, challenging and interesting scenarios, well written story line that expands the universe seen in the original game and much more. Still visually impressive albeit few textures here and there could be higher resolution. Performs superbly and everything just works. Original Homeworld is amazing game but this one is in many ways a little bit more polished experience. Highly recommended. UI requires little bit of learning but as far as 3D RTS games go this is the best one by far.

When i first played Homeworld back when it was initially released, like most people i was totally blown away by it. The immense atmosphere of seeking your destiny and overcoming insurmountable odds along the way. Like, how are you even supposed to take on a freaking galactic empire? There has to be some clever trick, like blowing up a death star with your space magic noone has ever heard about. Surely a frontal assault won't work. Only closer to the final mission you realise that it actually will work. There is no clever trick to it. You just bash the emperor's mothership until it explodes and that's that. And that was the only part of Homeworld that i it never completely sold me. Despite the amazing atmosphere, storytelling, soundtrack, voice acting and challenging gameplay. It just didn't make sense. Now enter Homeworld: Cataclysm, i'm sorry Emergence. You are taking a role of a mining vessel of kiith (or clan) Samtaaw (or something). Hiigarans have a clan-based political system, and your clan is an equivalent of a menial labour. You just mine deep space asteroids and get pushed around by the more noble clans a lot. You don't get any respect. Your epic journey is now a journey to fame and power. Your evil empire is now the rest of Hiigaran political system. And this i find a much more realistic setup. You stumble upon an alien organism and fight it's corruption across a series of challenging, fun and perfectly paced missions. You are stopping a great threat to the Homeworld while earning some much needed respect for your clan. And this is exactly the missing piece that i felt was lacking in the original and what makes this entry my favourite in the series. The alien threat itself is huge, but not impossible to overcome. And you do find yourself using some clever schemes to defeat. But this is still a journey worthy of the original, except much more thought out this time.

I bought this game when it first came out, on a whim. I didn't know anything of the series, but needed something new and different to play. As soon as I saw this on GOG, I bought it. This game sucked me in from the start, I was the commander of a vessel, not a military one, just a day-to-day mining vessel. As the story progressed, at certain points I felt real peril. There are only a few games that have made me feel that my choices affected the story... I made some bad ones on this game and had to restart levels. This game can be challenging at points, but highly enjoyable, I definitely recommend it. As for the change to "Emergence" this was out long before blizzard released WoW(which I also play), so there shouldn't have been any need to change it from "Cataclysm" and the "Homeworld" defines which series its from... but Blizzard are money grabbers at the best of times. Once again, I highly recommend it... As you can probably tell I don't write reviews, but I felt I had to say something about this game. I have nothing but good memories and can't wait to finish this game again.

Homeworld: Cataclysm is one of the best games I've ever played. Essentially an expansion pack for the original game with a whole new campaign, Cataclysm ups the fidelity of Homeworld, improves the graphics and adds a vitally-needed Time Acceleration feature to the classic formula. The plot is a deliciously dark and creepy Cosmic Horror Story, with great voice acting and emotional performances that make it surprisingly easy to connect with the otherwise faceless and nameless command crew of the Mothership. The tragedy of Cataclysm is its status as a lost gem. It has been years since the hard copy release, and getting it to run on modern operating systems has been a nightmare. This GoG release is absolutely stellar in my opinion, and proof that the best forgotten gems can be brought back to life by this platform.

It starts you off with a bang, in a huge space battle, and ends with a far bigger one. The gameplay is everything you loved about Homeworld except streamlined and better. The story is solid, taking you from a mining expedition on the outskirts of nowhere to an intense series of narrow escapes to the point where you turn and face the enemy and start kicking its ass. The scenarios are interesting and challenging without being puzzle-gimmicks. The ships are cool and inventive and fun to play with. The voice acting is excellent, giving tremendous personality to the crews and personnel of the Kuun-Laan and its escorts. (I'll never hear the phrase "Good timing" without adding to myself, "there's a rattle in the manifold".) And finally, the Kuun-Laan itself: one of the greatest sci-fi ships you'll ever meet, reminiscent of the Precursor flagship in Star Control 2. You'll take it from its humble origins as a gritty impoverished jury-rigged miner through a crucible of fire and destruction, ending with a battleship to shake the heavens. Old sailors will tell you some ships have souls of their own. If they do, Kuun-Laan is one.