Homeworld
Review
Every so often a game comes to market that is so distinctly unique it deserves
a deeper looking into than the other games released at the same time. Sierra
Studios has released some of the most immersing games to come to market for
some time and it looks like they have another hit on their hands. Half-Life
helped redefine the first person shooter with its story line and inventive
use of the Quake2 engine. Then Sierra came to market about a month ago with
Homeworld. For those not familiar with this game they may find this to be
an interesting review.
Homeworld is billed
as a 3D real-time strategy. While 3D strategy games have existed for some
time Homeworld breaks impressive new ground with it’s stunning visuals and
incredible game play. I personally have not been a fan of this game genre
in the past. Games like Age of Empires quickly grew tiresome for me. I have
found that most of the games that were released in the 3D-strategy genre previously
featured a very weak 3D environment and that their story lines were often
their weakest point. Enter Homeworld and it’s 3D environment. In truth most
games that claimed a 3D engine were merely using a flat playing area with
primitive 3D graphics imposed on it. Homeworld utilizes a true 3D playing
area. It is quite easy enough to move up and down as well as forward, back,
left, and right. Imagine a chess game where pieces can approach from below
and above and you begin to grasp what this means to this game.
The Story
In Homeworld you will
be introduced to the planet Kharak. Kharaki scientists have found that their
DNA is so dissimilar from the DNA of living things on Kharak that it is now
believed that they are in fact foreign to their world. While this discovery
has attacked all previous theories of origin on Kharak a near simultaneous
discovery has changed Kharaki destiny forever. A space telescope, which should
have pointed to the heavens, has malfunctioned and instead begun scanning
the surface of Kharak. What easily could have been a failure for the space
program instead has brought to light a fantastic new discovery. Deep in the
desert band that is the center of this bleak planet a large metal object has
been discovered. On further exam by field units it is found to be an enormous
spaceship.
With research from
archeologists and scientists it is deciphered that this is in fact how the
inhabitants of Kharak reached this planet. Deep inside the ship a technology
that enables a starship to enter hyperspace, and thus travel incredible distances,
is discovered. Most importantly an artifact that is known as the guidestone
is deciphered. It shows a simple map of the universe with a line drawn from
the position that is known to be Kharak to a star deep in the center of the
galaxy. An inscription is found next to this central star: home. You will
enter the game shortly after the completion of the mothership. The mothership
was built to house 600,000 settlers who are in a cryogenic freeze as this
civilization begins its’ search for their homeworld.
The Game Interface
While most games are
satisfied with the simple 3D interface I mentioned before the designers of
Homeworld built an excellent interface that is actually quite easy to learn.
Most functions are controlled from the mouse. All the better if your mouse
is equipped with a scroll wheel as that will make zooming in and out much
easier. The other functions are controlled from a few keyboard shortcuts.
The game environment requires you to resource (harvest resources for the construction
of vessels) as well as research new technologies. This will lead you from
building better fighter craft and support vessels to large frigates and then
eventually to carriers and destroyers.
The game can be played
in a single player mode where a player goes through 16 pre-designed missions
that will follow the Homeworld storyline. If you play in multiplayer mode
you can use the CPU to create your opponents or you can play on the WON network
against other players. Although I found other players to be unpredictable
and more challenging it is hard to keep a good game going since a lot of people
quit before the game is over. That actually brings up one of my only two gripes
with this game. The game can take several hours to complete depending on the
quality of opponents. If you are playing the single player missions it can
become boring waiting a couple of hours to play through one of the missions.
If you rush through a mission you may complete the objectives but you’ll find
yourself unable to complete the next mission successfully since you lack the
ships and resources (that you should have collected in the previous mission)
to complete the new mission objectives. I would have liked to see an option
where resources can be collected quickly (fast forward) once the military
objectives of a mission were reached.
Video and Sound
Homeworld actually
looks good at 640 x 480. That’s a lot more than can be said for a lot of other
games. Obviously rendering a starfield in the background meant that the designers
could concentrate heavily on ship design and details such as vapor trails
for the engines but I didn’t expect 640 x 480 to look as good as it did. Once
I went up to 800 x 600 I noticed how much better the ship detail appeared.
I did notice better graphics at 1280 x 1024 but then the frame rates nose-dived
in combat situations. I find that 800 x 600 is a quite acceptable compromise
of performance and appearance in most games so I was happy how well Homeworld
performed at 800 x 600. I never noticed video stutters or mistakes while playing
this game.
The sound of Homeworld
is very enjoyable but there are some minor annoyances. I really thought the
music was wonderful. When you enter different missions you’ll find the music
will clue you into the kind of scenario to expect. If an enemy attacks midway
through a resourcing mission you’ll know when the music suddenly changes.
I enjoyed the music so much I found myself adjusting the settings for the
music higher and higher. My annoyance came from the fact that the game relies
very heavily on updated reports that are verbally transmitted to the player.
In a large battle you can become overwhelmed with reports and identifying
the ships that need assistance may not be easily accomplished. These verbal
clues are important to the game as they inform the player when ships are completed
or research projects are done (thus allowing research in other technologies).
I would have liked to have seen a setting where damaged ships or ships low
on fuel would automatically disengage and seek help rather than finding strike
craft floating without fuel or larger vessels being destroyed when I still
had plenty of firepower in the area to complete the mission. That’s actually
a very minor criticism since I eventually took this as one of the challenges
that is presented to a leader in this game.
Conclusion
Anyone who is looking
for a game that is more challenging and immersing that the first person shooter
games available will love Homeworld. It’s uniqueness and varied challenges
will keep you involved for extended periods. The graphics in this game are
stunning and beg for the player to zoom in and study all the detail. Add to
that the wonderful sound and you’ll see why I liked this game so much. There
is a tremendous amount of strategy that a player learns while playing this
game. My main criticism centered on how time consuming playing this game could
be. While you can save a single player game or skirmish vs. CPU game midway
through I found many players dropping out of games prematurely when I deathmatched
(skirmished in Homeworld speak) against them on the WON network. For that
reason I think this game is best played alone either in the predesigned single
player missions or skirmishing vs. the CPU. That way a player can break up
one game over several sessions at the computer. The documentation that came
with the game was amazingly complete. Sierra was thoughtful enough to include
Adobe Acrobat .pdf sheets with the keyboard shortcuts used in the game as
a reference. Installation was a snap and included the GL Setup program for
use with OpenGL accelerated video cards. Also included was a utility to create
your own missions. My second and only other criticism of this game is that
it will take very up to date hardware to truly enjoy it. Sierra lists a 233
MHz Pentium II with 32 MB Ram as the minimum configuration but on my 233 system
I experienced very slow performance even at 640 x 480 with all the extra visual
candy turned off. Sierra recommends a Pentium II 350 and 64 MB ram. If your
system is a Pentium II 450 or higher and you have 64 MB of ram then you should
have no problems enjoying this game in my opinion. That’s a pretty high entry
level to ask for if you ask me. On my 550 MHz main system I experienced no
delays whatsoever but I couldn’t enjoy the game with my older system as much.
That’s a sad comment on how there really isn’t such a thing as an entry-level
gaming machine today. Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone looking
for a challenge along with his or her entertainment. If you only buy 5 or
10 games a year make
sure you add Homeworld to that list.
