An Old Game but Still a Classic That Can Still Beat Most Modern Games. (Homeworld (PC))

Member Name: Meshek

Product:	Homeworld (PC)
Date:	26/06/02 (489 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Gameplay, 3D Movement, Great Graphics

Disadvantages: A Bit dated

Introduction
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Homeworld is still one of he only rts games (real time strategy) that was ever in true 3d (I do not mean graphics I mean spacial location).It is set entirely in space and follows the story of a race of people who were evicted from their homeworld (hence the title) in the centre of the galaxy by evil conquerers and relocated to a desolate desert world. The ship carrying them there crashed and their advanced technologies were lost. It was only later when they had developed satilites and one malfunctioned and scaned the desert was it found. Inside the ship there was a stone which showed the location of their real home Higara and so the people set about constructing a mothership designed to carry hunderds of thousands of people back to this planet and so starts the game with this ship launching.

Specifications
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Required
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (w/ service pack 4.0)
Pentium II 233 processor
32-MB RAM
80 MB HD Space (plus 50 MB permanent Swap File)
4X CD-ROM
4 MB PCI Video Card (16-bit color, Direct X compatible)
16-bit DirectX compatible soundcard
Win-compatible Mouse
DirectX 6.1.

Recommended
Pentium II 350+
64 MB RAM
600 MB HD Space (For Full Installation)
4X CD-ROM
12 MB+ Accelerated Video Card
16-bit DirectX compatible Soundcard
Win-compatible Mouse with Mousewheel
Modem for Internet play

(As quoted from the homeworld website).

Information about Graphics and Gameplay
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I was playing this game just before I wrote this op and even though it was created in late 1999 it still has amazing graphics that are far better than most games today. The fight scenes can involve over 1000 space craft each pumping out coloured engine smoke (You can define the colours of your race at the beggining) and shooting each other and still are quiet spactavular
. I think part of the reason why was that when they created it they developed it so that some of the better features would not run on the days computers but would later on and so now they are there when in many other games of the day it was not. The resource gathered system is faiirly simplistic with only one peace of currency RUs. Another slight problem is the complete lack of structures (it is in space after all) and so produces quiet different challenges than other RTS games. One has to defend the mothership and resource collectors with fighters. Luckely there are a lot of formations you can set your fighters in which makes this simple. For example You can tell your fighters to form a wall or form a sphere arround a target that needs defending. Another fairly original feature is that you keep your units and money from level to level which I think helps the atmosphere since it portrays a sense of continuity. The cutscenes are also excellent and can produce a fair amount of tension and suspense. The missions are well planed and very varried ranging from capturing a ship to destroying an enemy. Both the missions and cutscenes overall contribute to a very strong storyline. In the game there are just under 20 different levels that can take quite a long time to play through and can easily be played several times..


Music and Sound
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Despite the fact it is set in space one can still hear the sound of the ships which I think is a good thing otherwise the game might seem extremly boring. The sounds of the ships and comentry are fantastic and the music is oof a high quality and fits the mood well at any point.

Muliplayer
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Whenthis game was created multiplayer games were not as popular as they are today and so the multiplayer was not as well developed as it could be. That said it is far from bad and is still quite enjoyable to play. Multiplayer games usually consist of several people situated on op
posite sides of the maps with the resources in the centre. The multiplayer also adds a couple of options not found in thee single player. Such as hypersacing arround the map and moving the mothership. (In the single player the mothership was never completed and one of the things not completed was the conventional engine.

Ships
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In Homeworld there is a vast range of ships which are roughly devided into fighters, corvets, capital ships and super capital ships. The main differenc apart form the size and firepower is that the corvets and fighters need fuel and need something to repair them wheras the capital ships can repair and refuel themselves. This range allows for a vast rang of tactics and stratages which is one of the things that makes this game great. One slightly bad point is that the two sides have identical story lines and only two ships different. Maybe in homeworld 2 one will get to play both sides.

Conclusion
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This game has admittedly become a bit dated now however it is still fun to play and I would recommend it to anyone that has not yet got it since it is now on budget. Also early next year Homeworld 2 will come out and so fans of this game can contine the story with that one. (The designers said they very much disliked Homeworld cataclysme and will ignore the story put forward there and so this might contradict Homeworld 2).

Summary: