Well, here it is folks, my first contribution to the gaming news! Within is a complete review of the long awaited sequel to Homeworld. Homeworld 2 had some pretty good hype leading up to its release and I will tell you if it lived up to it, or not.
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| Looks good on the outside. |
First impression of the game (This is done by looking at the box on the way home): Any game that has a HOT chick with some sort of cybernetic implants in her head while epic space warfare is happening in background can’t be half bad. Beyond that, the box held no special information to make me drool.
While the game was loading I zipped through the book to see if it had any full body shots of the girl on the front. I was disappointed to find it was only directions and ship specs.
Ok down to the nitty-gritty. There are 5 typical modes of play: Tutorial, single player scenarios, single player vs. computer, multi-player via LAN, or Internet multi-play via Gamespy Arcade. Straight off I played the tutorial (this is always better that reading directions.) The tutorial was very informative and quickly showed me the ropes. The graphics were awesome. They were comparable to the cinematic scenes played during the storyline. This got me all hyped up to play the real scenarios.
Playing the scenarios has to be the most painful RTS experience I have ever had. Imagine if you will, having multiple factories floating in the vast expanse of space, searching for materials to build your new fleet then all of a sudden your radio crackles to tell you an enemy probe has entered your space. So, the 3D camera then flies from your fleet, out to this probe…. Ok not a big deal. You pull your camera back across space to your fleet to grab some fighter group to quickly dispatch the enemy, BUT yet another probe has entered your space! The camera then zips back across space to show you another probe. Ok now this is starting to bug, but I will live.
You destroy the probes but the bad guys saw you because you have to fight off a bunch of new bad guys. This is no problem because of your superior fleet and unbeatable tactics. You set your secret plan into action and just as you’re about to strike the death blow, a new probe has entered your space. The camera zooms away from the battle to show you the probe. To make a long story short, the AI of your army was no match for the AI of your opponents’ army because your ships have been mostly destroyed upon your return. This camera shift happens often and unless you have played the scenario before, you have no idea where or when the camera is going to fly off.
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