[Introduction]
Unlike my MDK review, I'm actually following up with a sequel after having reviewed Homeworld 1! Like last time, this is going to be more of a review of the 2015 remaster than the original 2003 release. And, as I noted then, a good remaster has one job: make the game prettier and bring it up to modern specs. I'm happy to say that Homeworld 2 Remastered succeeds in this regard!
As with the first game, this is a 3D RTS. Not so much because it uses 3D models, but more specifically because it features a three-dimensional spherical battlefield.
[First Impressions]
THE MOTHERSHIP CAN MOVE.
Unlike its predecessor, where every mothership but your own was mobile, it is now possible to move the heart of your fleet, the Pride of Hiigara. While this may seem like a relatively small change, it certainly is a gamechanger. Its speed isn't particularly impressive, but it is nonetheless a new tactical and strategic tool, as well as a sign of things to come.
Homeworld is back, and it's better than before.
[Development]
There really isn't much to say, certainly not about the remaster project in and of itself. That was mostly covered in the Homeworld 1 review, but to give you a quick recap:
>THQ acquired Relic in 2004.
>THQ acquired Homeworld rights from Sierra in 2007
>Inaction for 6 years.
>2013, THQ declared bankruptcy. Homeworld rights acquired by Gearbox.
>Remaster gets released in 2015 with help from modders.
The original Homeworld 2's development is notable mostly due to the creation of SCAR (SCripting At Relic), building upon Lua (another scripting language). As far as I can tell, this is the first game to be created using this scripting language, although it certainly wasn't the only one.
Beyond this, it appears to have been largely uneventful, which is rather appropriate given the flat improvement from the first game across the board.
[Game Mechanics]
Homeworld 2 is a real-time strategy game which, like its predecessor, particularly focuses on the strategy part. I've heard it said that you aren't planning a battle when you play Homeworld to; you're planning a campaign. By and large, I'm inclined to agree, and this is certainly what the game is going for. The foundation of this notion is that your fleet doesn't just disappear between missions. Many RTS games will have you start from scratch, but Homeworld 2 lets you bring your fleet with you when the mothership jumps to hyperspace.
Spanning 15 missions, you start with nothing and progressively build up your forces as you once again fight your way through the galaxy. Previously I praised this feature, which is present in all Homeworld games so far, but condemned the simultaneous difficulty scaling issues in Homeworld 1 Remastered. I'm very happy to say that, for the most part, this is no longer a problem in the sequel. It does rear its ugly head once or twice, but fortunately it doesn't get so bad as it once did. No longer will missions become nearly (if not outright) impossible because the player had the gall to prepare. Still, it does get rather silly. For example:
 |
| Nearly 3 minutes in: 6 enemy battlecruisers. For comparison, the player can build 3. |
Sporadically wonky scaling aside, in general, the game plays much the same. Your mothership produces units, including carriers (which also produce units) and shipyards (which produce larger units). Your chief concern is gathering stuff to build ships with in the form of an all-encompassing resource called RUs, or Resource Units. What this means is that you're gonna be strip mining the hell out of any asteroid you see and turning whatever you dig out of assorted space rocks into a variety of warships.
Your fleet will be an assortment of ships in various classes: strike craft include scouts, interceptors and bombers, which scout, intercept hostile strike craft and bomb larger ships respectively; corvettes feature gunships, pulsar gunships and minelayers who each shoot down fighters, shoot down corvettes and lay mines; frigates are divided into flak frigates, torpedo frigates, ion frigates, marine frigates and defense field frigates. These are intended to shoot down strike craft, corvettes and capital ships, in that order, while the latter two capture enemy ships and reduce incoming damage; capital ships range from destroyers to carriers to battlecruisers, which blow up frigates, build smaller ships and blow up anything unfortunate enough to be in range.
Other assorted ships available to you are standard probes, proximity sensor probes, sensor distortion probes, as well as mobile refineries, resource collectors and a mobile shipyard. In addition, there are the campaign-unique units, namely movers (which move things), the Progenitor Dreadnought (which is basically a flying key that happens to be armed to the teeth) and a literal god-ship.
All in all, this means you'll most likely end up with a quite diverse fleet, and rightly so. Despite the apparent redundancy of some ships (for example, why get interceptors if there are flak frigates), a combination of target priorities, target size, unit caps, capability and raw economic impact ensure that no ship completely invalidates another. Additionally, certain missions have objectives more readily achieved by some ships than others. The circumstances of goals and battlefield obstructions certainly play a role as well.
Finally, a note of appreciation: resources are now collected in their entirety upon completing a mission. You no longer have to spend an inordinate amount of time vacuuming up every last RU in a given area. The game does it for you. This, in addition to a general increase in pacing, has made the game feel much less sluggish than its predecessor, although I would still like to have a speed-up button or some similar option to make things go a little faster sometimes.
[Graphics]
Homeworld 2, at launch, was a gorgeous game. This should really come as no surprise, because the whole thing plays like a movie. Although you really ought to be paying attention to what's going on, there's a good reason you can find videos of battles playing out rather cinematically.
The remaster didn't improve overmuch, because there wasn't much to improve, but what's there is good.
[Story]
The first game had you carve a bloody path through the Taiidan Empire to reach Hiigara. Really, it was as much about revenge for the genocide of Kharak as it was about going back home.
This second game has you carve a bloody path through the Vaygr Reaches to fulfil a prophecy about the End Time. Really, it's as much about revenge for the near genocide of Hiigara as it is about saving your home.
If you're noticing a pattern, that's because one is emerging. Befitting its mythological feel, the story has a number of recurring elements, such as an overarching threat to your home, a dangerous journey through the unknown to reach a place of legend, defeating an individual who seeks to infringe upon your prophesized success and in some way safeguarding your home from whatever peril was befalling it.
While I find the story to be very appealing, mostly because it feels like we're experiencing unfolding events that will eventually become myths and legends, I will say that certain elements of the finale fall short of expectations. Not necessarily because the story is bad, but because something that was hyped up turned out to be fairly underwhelming by comparison.
That something is Progenitor technology.
You see, the Progenitors have been set up to have been this awesome, borderline unknowable group whose technology so far surpassed anything conceivable that it may as well be magical. There are entire levels that take place inside megastructures they have built in space. Battles of cataclysmic proportions have taken place inside these things. How they even built them is unknown, much less what their purpose was. Some of their ships were so large that they built ships dwarfing even Hiigaran and Vaygr battlecruisers. A vessel designed to function as a key was more heavily armed than the most powerful contemporary warships by the time Homeworld 2 takes place.
And the god-ship we find at the end... it really is not as impressive as it was made out to be.
[SPOILERS]
It's Sajuuk.
The god-ship is Sajuuk, and was likely created by the actual Sajuuk, who turns out to have been one of the Progenitors and the creator of a great many of the wonders encountered in the Homeworld games. The hyperspace cores, the galaxy-spanning hyperspace network, the titanic foundry-ships the size of a moon, those were all made by the creator-god who, curiously, appears to be prevalent in the mythology of every single culture in the galaxy.
The ship bearing his name is used in conjunction with the three hyper space cores by Karan S'jet to unlock the aforementioned galaxy-spanning network of hyperspace gates, allowing everyone to far jump everywhere, albeit under the watchful eye of Kiith S'jet and the reformed Hiigaran empire.
[Pros]
- Substantial improvements over 1
- Satisfying space naval combat
- Full 3D spherical battlefield
- Unique features, such as ships carrying over between missions
- Oddly mythological story
[Cons]
- Significant frustration toward the end of the game
- Scaling mechanic has some issues, although no where near as bad as 1
- Slow pace (and in dire need of a speed-up button)
[Conclusion]
Originally, my frustration surrounding the finale was actually going to be represented more strongly, but upon reflection, perhaps it's better this way. This is, after all, a story about a people who barely reclaimed their homeworld and held on to it by the skin of their teeth, with a hair's breadth between triumph and disaster. In retrospect, while certainly frustrating, I actually think it's really rather fitting.
This is the story of the End Time. Moral compass optional.
Homeworld 2 Remaster: 8/10
/DUX
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