Homeworld® Remastered Collection

First of all, before I start my review, I wanted to say that I got this on a sale -- impacting my rating. Also, I haven't played the original. I just finished both parts for the first time and I have to say that both parts are fundamentally broken. Finishing the last mission from the second game just left me... tired and sad. And its a great representation of the second game as a whole; most of the time pausing and micromanaging (everything from a fighter squadron to a dreadnought because if you let them alone, for a second, they will destroy all of your hard work leading to that point), waiting to finish the mission just to see the next part of the story. Everything computer controlled is just plain stupid, making the game fairly easy because it boils down to figuring out what counters what and concentrating fire on the toughest enemy ship. The game mostly tries to hide it's stupid AI with cheating and overwhelming situations. And it might succeed if the scripted situations are not broken, making the game just frustrating. The first one is broken in other ways; most notably with broken formations (making smaller ships useless) and similarly broken scripted situations (leaving enemy just floating in space, etc.), but rewords micromanagement with salvage mechanic and using original maps (the second game reuses some modified maps/missions, similar to the first game), making it more fun and original. On to the positive: the game is just beautiful, the soundtrack is fantastic, the story is great, cut scenes are wonderful. Ship models are excellent and I can see how they might have impacted other games, movies and series. They just feel so real. Voice acting is okay, but wouldn't mind more variety. Fun and rewarding when working as intended, a frustrating grind when not. Highly recommended when on a sale to all and any sci-fi fans out there.

Homeworld Remastered by Gearbox is in fact a wonderful remastered edition to a well aged Homeworld franchise. Unfortunately as so often and known for fact Gearbox ceased the game support far to soon, as usual. They had 1 huge update in the works when their devs stopped working on it and got relocated to other internal company projects. That being said: There remain many issues in the remastered editions of Hw1 & Hw2. Be it formation breaking - other weird unit behaviors or numerous missing audio components and unit animations the originals held dear. You can take a look here to get a grasp on the Remastered bugs: https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/hwr-bugs-solutions/1639765 Fortunately most of these bugs can get fixed with community work around's. Unfortunately these fixes require to be loaded as mods and so most of the rather small mp player base don't know about them nor care or use them. Game play wise we're lucky that Gearbox implemented the unmodified classic versions of these games and I strongly suggest every newcomer to play these first despite the outdated graphics. Because the whole game play affair will be an entirely different one in regards of balance & bugs and game play in general. Imagine a grand RTS game with strategic depth while hw2 plus there remastered counterparts are more like a Supreme Commander in space with paper thick armored ships. Best to keep the Remastered Editions only for Multiplayer matches and mods such as Hw FX which allows you to play with almost all known Homeworld races while granting them unique game play styles coming along with it. Despite it's bugs and flaws Homeworld Remastered is a wonderful and recommendable game with a strong Story awaiting for for Hw1 and a somewhat lesser good story for Hw2. Graphics are top of the line and it's very enjoyable to see ships engaging in combat.

I am uncertain I will even be able to start this game. I am just into the 2nd mission and wow but the controls on this are horrendous! I have never seen a game with such anti-intuitive and backwards controls. Maybe this was originally a console port, I don't know, but it is very difficult to select your ships, giving orders is a nightmare and the ease at which you can change or cancel a command is staggering. Meanwhile the game runs during cut scenes so you get to sit back and watch the enemy wipe out your forces and are helpless to defend while the ship contoller blathers on and on about this and that. It would be one thing to get your briefing and then get attacked as pretty much every other game out there but having to sit, unable to interact with your forces while the enemy rips you a new one and listen to the Mothership Controller list off your objectives while the enemy destroys your fleet is beyond annoying.

I didn't play this game for the longest time because I had no idea it would work. You're commanding entire fleets? How would that be fun? But this game manages it. You're not so much micromanaging as designating AI groups to full-fill tasks, and making sure they stay bolstered. You're under attack? Better get the right collection of attack ships together in a decent formation. Guard you resource collection vessels as they scavenge asteroids for materials to build and research. And the adorable salvage corvettes actually pick up and carry things you send them to find. I never get tired of them finding objects, latching on, and carrying them home. This is all done on a MASSIVE scale. You will have hundreds of ships zipping around almost out of your control, but that's why you assign groups to numbers and there's plenty of hotkeys and quick dropdown menus. Takes some getting used to flying around in multiple dimensions but luckily you can zoom all the way out and select your targets, and your units are smart enough to adjust altitude. You might feel out of the loop as fights carry on largely independent of you, but behind the scenes you're sending out repair ships, assigning new fleets, researching upgrades, keeping tabs on your other ships and accomplishing missions and sub-missions. It's an interesting balance of slow and spacey one minute, and the next a bee hive of laser beams. The story is intriguing and the voice acting sounds naturalistic, if a bit deadpan. The music is sweeping and strange and accompanies the surprisingly colorful void of deep space. If you prefer to feel like the fleet commander instead of a general deep in the field, this game gives you that experience of designating flight patterns, commanding squadrons by class and speed, defending objectives and always feeling like you squeaked out a victory by ingenuity, not just brute force. Quite a unique experience I'm ashamed to admit I didn't try earlier.

Bought this bundle after seeing a few articles about Homeworld 3 in dev. Thanks GOG for securing this absolute gem of a game. Trying to unearth flaws in a game that's nearly 20 years old is a daunting task when faced with the quality graphics, interface, story, soundtrack and gameplay. The remastered versions provide additional polish to an already outstanding product. I'm by no means a technical person or have any exposure into the nuances of game development, so this from a perspective of an average layperson who has been gaming for well over 30 years. I've plowed through the C&C franchise, Dune 2000, 7th Legion, Supreme Commander, Age of Empires, Settlers, etc. All brought pros and cons to the table, evolving in an already crowded playing field for the genre. HW changed it all. Besides the RTS in 3D space piece, this brings a new level of strategy at a time when a lot of games were won with absolute overwhelming numbers and 'tank' units. HW brings an extra layer of strategy and gives you room to approach the enemy in different ways. Splitting the fleet and flanking an enemy battle group with bombers while your cruisers lead the frontal assault can alter the dynamics of gameplay. Yes, you can spam salvage 'vettes and build your fleet at low cost but thankfully this loophole was eliminated in HW2 (my fav). Finite resources bring another layer of strategy as you progress - managing and maintaining your fleet properly is incredibly rewarding as you watch the last Taiidan cruiser erupt in flames. At the end of the day, the story is what makes this game one of my favorites of all time. There is an emotional component that was rare in 1999 and still remains a benchmark for game writers IMHO. Superb voice acting, gorgeous art in the cutscenes and a layered storyline are the cherry on top of an already delicious Sundae. Get this game.