Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak brings the Homeworld series to the ground in a refreshing way for the franchise. The gameplay has a solid foundation: the units have a good variety and have clear strengths and weaknesses, the UI along with the song design helps keep hectic battlefields managable (and enjoyable), and there's the use of terrain to help make positioning feel more tactical. The overall feel of the gameplay itself seemed a bit lacking. I was left wanting more interaction with unit commands, though what is there is very good. You'll just have trouble with micromanaging as units don't have much automation so it feels like you have to tell them to do EVERYTHING, and I found the ctrl group system was, while very helpful, it didn't satisfy my needs to create groups of units. It would be nice if making groups of varried unit types would respond differently, e.g., LAV's in a group with Railguns wouldn't just run at full speed, but only charged when the Railguns could fire on an enemy. In the end, I only grouped units based on type: LAV group, AAV group, Railgun group, etc. What really excells in this game, however, is the atmoshpere and general level design. The maps feel very disctinct, which is impressive given it all takes place in a desert. The use of terrain such as large canyon walls, tall dunes, and wide open spaces all create a great space to think about tactical positioning while also looking amazing. Just stopping in the middle of a battle to look at your units speed across these massive dunes, while Railgun fire lands all around, hearing the amazing Arabic inspired soundtrack...truly amazing! I've never felt stars were a good metric for ratings, or #/10's for that matter, so instead just think look at this: Homeworld: Desterts of Kharak has a wonderfully realized atmosphere with a solid foundation to enjoy for hours of gameplay, both single and multiplayer. Definity get this game if you're an RTS fan!
