Homeworld 2

"Once again, the exiles will face the coming darkness...."

Loomings
Oh if Melville only knew...

In the beginning... there was Homeworld. The Kushan, exiled on a desert planet, found the Second Great Hyperspace core... along with the Guidestone... a starmap with the location of their original homeworld--Hiigara. Under the guidance of Karan S'jet, the voice of Fleet Command and the central system of the great Mothership, the Kushan waged a long and bloody war that led them home... Now... the Third and Final Hyperspace Core has been found... this is the story of the End Time. A Vagyr warlord named Makaan has found it... and seeks to take the core from the Hiigarans... Once more will the exiles face the coming darkness.

So what's this button do again...?

Real-time Strategy. Build a base. Pirate resources. Blow things up. Wait. What base? This is the open stars... You want resources, harvest asteroids. You want to blow things up..? Well, that's easy. Control your ships in full 3-d... from the X, to the Y, to the Z axises. Up, down, and all around. Though the gameplay seems like standard RTS fare, every unit has a purpose and every unit also has a weakness. On top of that, the controls are easy to learn, and the interface, though onscreen at all times, isn't clunky at all. Menus pop up as needed, and there's always a handy bar at the bottom (Unless you want to turn it off and look at everything). The single player game has a tremendous learning curve, giving you the first mission or two to learn the ropes and then tosses you into ye almighty galactic conflict, which means one should play a few skirmishes first, or go through training mode to get everything down. You can pause whenever you like, to either regroup your forces and put together a strategy, or go get a sandwich. Or even zoom and pan around the battlefield to take nifty screenshots...

Tome of Eternal Darkness

The story summary is basically what I put into the introduction, as well as some history. The Vagyr want the second core, which is in the possession of our Hiigaran friends. So in the tradition of ''Gimme or die!'' ''No, mine!'' ''Then die!'' ''You first.'' storylines, that's the bare outline. Thankfully, it goes deeper than that, shifting and twisting into a prophecy as more and more is uncovered. The coming darkness indeed... all it needs is a dose of Mothership-Magic-Missile and some cheetos.

Ooh... shiny...

Graphics and sound, what people look for in a game these days. Is it pretty? Great! Everything is shiny. Well, not SHINY shiny, ships have to be worn and torn... and nobody wants to blind their wingman with a misplaced lensflare. The ship designs are well done, having unique ways of being put together and fit together quite well. Drive flares (for strike craft, at least) match the color of the main hull which you can decide for yourself. Extreme colors, like black, change though. (Black hull = red/orange trails.) Everything in the game is highly visible, from interceptor muzzle flashes to the swarms of missiles that a Vagyr Battlecruiser can launch. Ship hulls take damage decals from prolonged hits, and fighter craft explode into balls of flame when hit. All in all the game is cinematic and atmospheric in terms of graphics. Even further, not only can you select ship hull and ship stripe colors from a large palette, you can make your own custom logos that are displayed loud and clear on the hulls of your ships. Now, does the sound live up to the shine? Yes, it does. Every ship makes noise, from the distinct impacts of cannons, to the dull roar of engines as ships travel. Even the voices are done superbly, Fleet Command being calm and cool even in the face of combat. Pilot chatter is both informative and amusing, the voices of crewmembers (all strangely male for some reason) also being frighteningly calm... even when it's ''hull breach hull breach... cabin pressure critical...'' Regardless, it's all atmospheric and feels good.

Are you done yet...?

In terms of replayability, I'd assume one wouldn't want to go through the Campaign a second time, unless it's to try out new tactics and skills. The replayability comes with the Multiplayer and Skirmish options. On top of that, RDN (Relic Development Network) will be releasing mod tools, so when it comes down to it, replayability could be extended exponentially, from new maps to new mods. (Homeworld's Macross mod comes to mind...)

Last Words

Simply a blast. Any fan of Homeworld 2 already has this game, and if you never played the first, but thought it was a nifty idea, grab this and jump in. Curve aside, it's an RTS dream, and you'll have a good time. If not for the single player, get it for the multiplayer.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/20/03