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RETRO REVIEW: Homeworld 2

Developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. Released in 2003.

Real-time strategy is a great genre with something for everyone.

Long-term strategists can look at the big picture, hoarding resources and planning massive crippling tactical strikes. Those with more of a “think on your feet” frame-of-mind can throw caution to the wind and churn out small strike forces to harry the enemy, moving closer toward their goal with each random attack. Then there are those who mix the two.

While it’s not a Herculean task to find an RTS that appeals to strategists of all stripes, it is rare to play a game with a story so engaging that you have to play just one more level. Homeworld 2, the successful sequel to Homeworld, is one of those games great.

Homeworld (in a nutshell) was the story about a group of clans on a desert world that discover a massive spacecraft beneath the sands. They discover that they are actually not native to the planet, and are instead from far away. The game revolves around the quest to reach the home world (Hiigara), which is filled with difficulty and enemies.

In Homeworld 2, a new mothership is being built. Immediately falling under attacks from a renegade race from the opposite side of the galaxy (The Vagyr), the Hiigarans are forced into action. On top of it all, rumours are floating around that the Vagyr are actually a race employed by something or someone far more ancient and insidious. The course of the game takes you into the oldest parts of the galaxy to figure out what’s going on.

One of the things that make Homeworld 2 a great game is the true 3D environment. The levels are a visual treat, but what’s better is that you can move in any direction. Navigation and administration are done with a simple HUD interface and clever mouse interaction.

Even though this game is several years old, the graphics are not dated. Homeworld 2 has an elegantly simple design, and proudly places hundreds of moving objects on the screen at once. The sound, too, is good. The haunting score and positional sound effects mix well with the chatter of your fleet’s pilots over their ship-to-ship communications array.

Top it all off with an engrossing storyline, brilliant cutscenes, multiplayer support and skirmish mode, and you have yourself a winner.

You can pick up Homeworld 2 used if you look hard enough, or just grab it from eBay or the Amazon.com marketplace. Don’t be fooled by the low price. This game is worth far more in enjoyment than any dollar value can indicate.

Posted in PC, Retro Reviews, Reviews |