HOMEWORLD - Games - http://maxpages.com/strategyforum/Homeworld

OVERALL: 85%

The Basics:
As a young lad, I remember the look of surprise as I loaded up Warcraft 2 first time. What gleam before me must be a work of true brilliance. This was my impression until the much-awaited StarCraft arose from the ashes of Warcraft 2 to take the place of the best RTS. The graphics, sounds, and total feel of StarCraft made it a memorable experience. But has the come of new RTS, the one they call Home World ripped StarCraft from it is position as top dog. I decided to find out, driven by the quite positive comments I got from friends; I rushed to the store in hopes of buying myself a copy.

As I traveled, to the store I reminisced on the glory days of StarCraft. The strategy that StarCraft brought to the table was un-parallel to anything that was on market, still even to this day nothing even comes close. But Home World, has an edge the bastard is in 3D, how is StarCraft ever going to compare I thought. I abruptly arrive in front of the store, leaped from my vehicle and preceded to push Women, children and Old people out of my path. As I entered the store, my eye caught the only remaining Home World box in the hands of some little brat. Now this was a Dilemma should I strip the Child of the only copy of Home World? Or return home beaten? I paused only for a spilt second, making up my mind. I leaped for the child, he shrieked and stumbled back. My moral obligation as a good human being left me, I towered before him. Using my highly advanced physical strength I stripped the little brat of the box, and retreated to the front desk. I had won; I paid for my prize and returned to my vehicle just in time for a frantic parent to rush from the store in hopes of my Capture.

The Plot:
Homeworld's epic tale begins in the far reaches of the universe. You were the benign lords of a peaceful society located in the center of a lush spiral galaxy. For as long as anyone could remember, no one challenged your peaceful existence. But then came the conquerors, invading with the sole purpose of overtaking your world. Billions died, and the survivors were relocated to a cold, lifeless planet on the edge of the galaxy. Hundreds of years later, all knowledge of your previous existence has been lost. Only vague myths remain, until the discovery of an ancient tablet buried within the ruins of a half-destroyed craft in the great-banded desert. This Guidestone reawakened knowledge of your ancestry, and set your race on the path home - coordinates leading straight into the heart of the galaxy. Sixty years ago, construction began on the giant Mothership that will carry millions of your people into deep space. Construction is now complete. Your journey to the Homeworld begins here...

(Blah Blah Blah ackidy smackity, Relic really didn't put to much detail into this the story is allot more complex.)

Graphics:
Homeworld's Graphical engine is just plain and simply awesome. No game on the market can even compare to Homeworld's crisp fluid camera movement and hold the level of detail that each ship in Homeworld's vast selection of 54 vessels. Lets talk about detail. From what I gather Relic had their hands full on this one, each ship was precisely manufactured, detail ranges from the very tips of the turrets to the hull of the massive motherships. Another thing that needs to be mention are the explosions, never have I seen since Descent:FreeSpace such beautifully craft spontaneous combustion's, Me being the Manly Man that I am (Yes, I am a lumberjack, and I am OK) simply can not refused a nicely crafted explosion and I diffidently get my jollies out of this one.

Homeworld runs great on a normal basis; I received no real harsh FPS loss until I was forced to blast incoming asteroids from space. At this point of the game I had a sizable fleet and I found it hard to select my units to attack the incoming asteroid because of the fact that I was getting about 2 frames per second. I sat pondering, was this the same engine that gave me crisp reliable FPS? At this point I was so frustrated due to the fact I was unable to click on the incoming asteroids, I quit from Homeworld all together. But it was not long (well about 2 minutes, I had to cool done, cause I was still foaming at the mouth from losing my mothership) before I booted my beloved Homeworld Back in the ram and gave it another try. This time I set the video settings lower, and proceed to play with on a 800 X 600 resolution rather than the 1024 X 786 I had prior. This made a little difference, but not enough I again set the lower, and the FPS return to me (some what).

The Backgrounds in Homeworld are definitely good, but not as good as the elaborate background's In Descent:Freespace. This is not a negative effect, they do there job especially well giving the feel of space as vast untamed void . Little white specks represent stars off in the distance, not adding to many as to crowd the background making it impossible to find targets. Although I do believe that the backgrounds in Descent:Freespace (I Refer to freespace, because it was the most graphically inclined Sci-fi shooter in time past) looked better, at times it was impossible to find some targets that blended into the "Space Clouds", Homeworld refines the "Space Clouds" and integrates than more into the total surrounds.

Also upon close inspection of one of my ships, I discovered something I did not noticed before, the lighting system. So highly advanced the light blends in with the scenery, emulating ships and giving an excellent 3D feel to almost the point of realism. Homeworld unlike other "Space Shooters" has gone the distance and added realistic lighting. Dead are the days, of space looking cold and void of light. All hail the new master HOMEWORLD.

Gameplay:
A brief time after writing the paragraphs above, I loaded up Homeworld once again in hopes of finding a better understanding of the games battle tactics. I selected Player Vs CPU and began to use my supreme strategic skills to defeat my opponents. After a short while, the CPU had the balls to attacked me and too my horror as I received a Smack Down, the FPS Demon returned and again I got 5-10 FPS. Don't get me wrong, its not like I have anything against low frame rate, but just the shear fact that during massive battles where it is imperative that you are able to select your units clean and easily, FPS gets to the point where your trying click and drag your mouse to select units, and you completely miss the units you wanted. This simply drove me nuts, not to mention another very annoying feature added is the inability to even click on enemy units to find out any kind of info, not ship damage, or even what type of ship it is.

I had it. It was the final draw, splintered wood dug under my nails as I raked my desk in frustration. I was definitely pissed; even with the settings as low as possible I received the same product with little improvement. Playing the game at that point was like watching an Episode of "Moesha" or even worse "The Nanny", but still the memories where fresh in my head, of the glory days, when the fleets were small and the FPS high.

But all I have to say isn't bad. The battles I had played before where great, and as it would seem the strategy in Homeworld rivaled that of StarCraft. The ability to group your units, (ALA StarCraft) does do away with some confusion during bigger battles. Relic has changed an aspect that normally is prominent, Instead of paying huge amounts of resources to research new Technologies, Homeworld has a new simple easy plan, Build a Research ship double click that bad boy, and select your Technology, No more paying money to upgrade those Ion Cannons, but as the game moves on some technology have long research times, so you are allowed to build multiple ships to help aid the others.

I must give Relic my "Kick Ass award" for the ship design. Ships ranging from little scouts to massive Heavy Capital Ships with 4 dual Ion cannons. Even turrets, on the smallest of vessel move in full range to attack there targets while harvesters seem to shrink asteroids, till they widdle away into nothing. Upon heavy damage, the mothership begins to spout steam like a teapot, while hundreds of little particles are blasted from its hull

One feature blows the others out of the water, the ability zoom out of a tactical map than double click any unit and zoom directly in on the subject, somewhat like a camera coming in from a panoramic view into a close up. Another innovation, is the use of a Formation system (very cool, but at times useless). There are about 5 or 6 different formations, each with its own use. My personal favorite is the sphere, your ships form together each ship pointing in every direction protecting the object in the middle. Others are The Claw, Delta, Broad, X, and the wall.

Lastly, I need to express my discontent for Homeworld's videos. With games like Final Fantasy 8 on the market the standards for FMV have greatly raised. Players crave Hi-Res life-like video's Homeworld Does quite the opposite, in fact Relic doesn't even use a 3d rendering programming. Instead the FMV's are hand drawn and in Black and White resembling that of the worst 70's Anime, leaving me with a Bored empty feeling like I was just subjected to High School English 10 course all over again. Now you say "There nothing wrong with a good cartoon, Sidiouz........" there is only one problem these are single cell animation, for example the asteroids are just one drawing of a rock floating across the screen, like in a really cheap Saturday morning episode of "My Little Pony". Lets just say I would rather Watch "Barney's sing along hour" thing watch these videos on a regular basis. Nuff said.

Sound:
Now this is one area I do not have a problem with in fact, Homeworld's music soundtrack adds a truly gothic space feel. Homeworld doesn't let up, Your ships report to you when they are being ambush, when they think they have the upper hand, or if they need to dock for fuel. It goes farther, the spray of a Vulcan cannon, mixed with the splash of an ion cannon makes up for some of the lost Frame rate, during some battles. The Cast voices for the Narratives are perfect, the female voice almost reminds me of the Star Trek Enterprise, not like I watched that show :) while the male voice, gives the all-hope-is-lost feeling.

Bugs and Performance:
Well I can say I am not totally satisfied with the engine, although it is one of the best. In due time, relic will most likely release an optimizing patch, which will boost performance. As for bugs I only really encounter one major one, when I set my video settings to 3dfx the game froze and I was forced to restart my computer, I quickly check the read-me that accompanied the game, and found a quick solution.

Final Thoughts:
The RTS scene has been flooded with too many games; Homeworld unlike others has set a new standard by simply adding 3D space. I can live through slow frame rate, and bad videos because the good out weighs the bad in this case. Given the incredible sound, implemented 3D strategy, and beautiful model detail; Homeworld is a must have for RTS fans and gamers all together. I advise running (not walking) to the store and getting yourself a copy, just hope Relic puts out a patch soon to fix all the nuisances.

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Page Updated Mon Nov 22, 1999 8:30pm EST