Homeworld (Remastered)

Zach Goodier

As a newcomer to the franchise, I had no idea what to expect from this game, and I found myself pleasantly surprised with what I found. You play the commander of a mothership. During your test runs, circumstances arise that leave you as the last hope for your civilization. Desperate, you decide to return to your races ancient home: Hiigara. However, pirates, unexplored space, and a formidable empire stand between you and your home. As you engage in the 16 mission story, you will be tested in a variety of ways that challenge your ability to adapt your fleet as new threats arise.

Even the backgrounds look amazing, and they only get better in later levels.

The story isn’t overly engaging, it simply helps you understand what is going on, and setting up each level. Your ship has an AI and support crew that help with things like research and fleet management, but these characters are simply voices, nothing more. Where this game aims is to deliver strong gameplay, and this it does exceptionally well. Animation and models are all beautifully rendered, with your ships having their own look and feel. Enemy ships are distinctly different, based on who you’re up against, and they all offer unique challenges.

Your mothership is your home, and carries the survivors of your race in stasis. It also produces all your other ships.

One of the major things this game does is carry your fleet over between levels. This means that whatever ships you have remaining following your completed mission, will be the ships you start out with next level. This results in a mechanic that makes you seriously consider what ships your fleet is fielding, and whether your fleet can react to new threats well, or if you are overspecializing in an area. Either method can work, and each carries its own challenges. If your fleet is generalized, then you will have to likely move more slowly to identify threats and position/build yourself accordingly. Specialization results in a fleet that might be exceptional at handling certain types of threats, but obviously would be lacking in every other area.

Outside of the actual game, story is conveyed with various stills and narration.

Ship models are all appealing, and the relationships between ships in combat are interesting, with battles feeling truly life-like, as ships rip into each other. While certain ships specialize against certain enemies, they never feel like single-purpose tools, like they can in other games. Even if a ship specializes in as an anti-fighter corvette, it can still be useful against other corvettes and smaller ships, because lighter armor on most corvettes offers less protection. This keeps things feeling realistic, rather than having to build a particular type of ship to overcome each enemy ship. This is why the game’s flexibility leaves you options in how you want to approach most situations. However, it does challenge you by making certain methods ineffective, so it is still up to the player to adapt.

Good:

-Wonderful models and animation.

-Has that “rock/paper/scissors” dynamic, but doesn’t make it so extreme to make ships broken.

-Having your fleet carry over to the next level adds a new dynamic to how you play.

Bad:

-Story and characters are lacking, but this is an RTS above all else.

Scully Rating: 9 out of 10.