Homeworld

""Our home is our world, our life..." A Yes song... :)"

Homeworld... What's it all about then hey? How does this sound... Command and conquer, in Space, but 3D. For fans of strategy games, it's a haven of delight. For fans of, well, Mario (?) it's a bag of... well, let's carry on...

Graphics: 10

Sheer brilliance. Make any corridor shoot-em up on the PC fall to its knees. They really are that good. the explosions in the game are unbelievable, and when you pause the game you can do a Matrix style fly around a still object thingy-me-jigg. The ships are brilliantly detailed, but that's where the main problem comes in... Bar the ships and rock scattered all over the levels, there's nothing else there. When people say ''In space, no-one can hear you scream'' this game emphasises that fact to the greatest extent.
When battles commence, and all the bullets are flying around like it's a western, try pausing the game and then zooming around the battle, because you won't believe just how detailed these battles are.
The backgrounds in the game are brilliant too as well as the use of lighting. So yeah, graphics = 1st class.

Gameplay: 8

Very easy to get into because of the excellent tutorial it gives you. But after that, any new ships you get that you didn't use in the tutorial, you can get very confused with how you use them.
The way you play the game is very, very like C&C, where you harvest resources, then use them to expand your army, and then finally seek out the enemy and destroy them. But this can get pretty dull after a while because the missions become very repetitive. You seem to do the same thing mission after mission.

Sound: 10

Again, excellent throughout. Each ship has its individual sounds, which soon become recognisable, but the real beauty is when a battle takes place. There's all sorts of ships weaving in and out of eachothers paths, yet you still know who's shooting who because of the lazer sounds. Even when there's 60 ships, they still all have their own seperate noises when they shoot.
The music is class, and the title song by Yes is brilliant, it really links with the game perfectly. the song is also called 'Homeworld' and if you have napster or something you should definitely download it, it's great.

Lifespan: 6 or 10

I have put two scores for a very good reason; the game is very hard. The 6 is because if you get to a mission which is hard and yet no matter what you do, you still can't get through it, you'll give up and never play it again.
So, that means the 10 is for those of you, no matter how big the challenge of a mission, will still want to get through it to see the next graphical exhibiton.
Overall, I can only say it's a very hard game no matter how you play it.

Multiplayer : 8

I didn't play this online, but i did try the skirmish and the options in that is unbelievable. there is just so much you can change in every different time you play. I would only recommend playing the skirmish when you have a lot of experience with the single-player though because the CPU player is very good at this!

Overall

A great game, but maybe too hard. It's graphics were a landmark for strategy games, as was the style of strategy game you were playing. If there is ever a sequel to this game, they need to make the game a lot more varied in its missions, keep the graphics, sound, and maybe, just maybe make the game a tad easier in terms of the CPU level.

PS: I'm listening to the Homeworld song now! :)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/00, Updated 07/12/00