Homeworld (PC Game)

Homeworld (PC Game)



Reviewed by Brian Schell

This is one of the most unique games I've seen in ages. It's a complete starship fleet simulator in actual 3D.

This is one game where the storyline actually relates to the game itself. A few years ago scientists discovered an artifact that described the location to a mysterious "Homeworld". Putting years of research and resources into the largest construction project of all time, the Mother ship was built and launched on a test mission. During this test mission, your own planet, Kharak, was invaded and destroyed, leaving the mother ship as the only hope of humanity. Your only hope is to travel to the Homeworld that the alien artifact described. Your job is to travel a path to the Homeworld while defending the mother ship from raiders, invaders and other mysterious aliens.

The basic concept of game play is similar to other real-time strategy games. You start out with a resource collector that must mine ore from asteroids and return the ore to the mother ship, where the ore is processed.   More advanced ships can be built as new technologies are researched. New technology can be discovered along the way or it can be purchased from mysterious alien traders, the Bengazi. New technology allows you to build new ships for offense or defense depending on each scenario's mission.

The feature that makes this game really stand out is the 3D control system. It's the best implementation of 3 dimensions in a game yet. Not 3D like Quake where you stay on the ground most of the time, or even 3D like in a flight simulator, but ACTUAL 3D as in zero gravity outer space flight and maneuvering.  The main tactical map is a circle with your ship in center, and you can move to fairly standard X/Y coordinates on the map with your mouse. By holding down the SHIFT key and  moving the mouse, you can also move along the Z axis and move ships or the entire fleet up or down above the plane of the map. It sounds complex, and actually does take a little practice, but once you master it, it makes this game extremely realistic.

I did find some very major variations in the appearance of the game under difference graphics cards. I initially tried the game on a machine with a very common ATI card and an original (version 1) Monster 3D card. This system usually renders 3D games very well, but not this time. The game did run, but was quite ugly, and I never did get the 3DFX settings completely worked out. I then attempted it on a different system with a RAGE LT PRO chipset, and it immediately become the most realistic looking space game I have seen yet. The ships are amazing, the cloud-like nebulae and asteroid fields look like something right out of Star Trek.

There are 16 Missions in the single-player campaign, and it also allows for multiplayer combat. The major gripe I have with the game is the scarcity of the solo-player missions. Of the 16 Missions, more than half are essentially "learning" missions where you need to learn some part of the interface, research a new ship or some other busy-work. By the time you have gotten past all the learning stuff, the campaign is nearly over.  The game was most apparently intended more for multiplayer sessions, but I usually prefer to play alone, and the game was over far too quickly. I literally beat the entire solo campaign in a weekend.

Requires: Pentium 233 w/32Mb Ram, 4MB PCI video
Recommended: Pentium 350/64MB Ram and 3D Accelerated graphics
For More Info: http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/homeworld/