[Introduction]
Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2 have taken their place in gaming history as truly unique real-time strategy games, and rightly so. They are regarded by many as two of the best games ever made. Many also lament that a third game was never made, particularly considering the improvements the second game made over the first.
In lieu of a Homeworld 3, we instead (eventually) got Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, a prequel set in a planetside environment, rather than its space-based predecessors. In spite of its comparatively limited dimensional scope, there is a case to be made that Deserts of Kharak lives up to its pedigree.
One may even argue that it surpasses what came before.
[First Impressions]
Where the other Homeworld games are presented in a borderline mythological manner, this one instead presents itself as a sort of faux-realistic expedition. Aside from this, the gameplay should be immediately familiar to anyone who has played a Homeworld game before, right down to the different unit classes. They're not necessarily known under the same names, but they fill very similar roles. The transition will be largely seamless, absent vertical battlefield notwithstanding.
Even newcomers to the series should have no trouble learning the ropes; Deserts of Kharak is a pretty decent teacher. The tutorial is comprehensive, and new elements are introduced fairly steadily, rather than suddenly in bulk.
[Development]
Homeworld was originally created by Relic Entertainment, and while Gearbox developed and published the Remasters in-house, the task of developing Deserts of Kharak fell to Blackbird Interactive. Now, if you haven't heard much about them, that's reasonable. They didn't exist until 2007, and didn't release a game until 2016. Incidentally, that game was Deserts of Kharak.
Fittingly, Blackbird was formed by ex-Relic employees, some of whom had been on the original Homeworld team, so the decision seems logical and certainly has merit to it. Development actually began as far back as 2010 under the title "Hardware: Shipbreakers" and was intended to be a spiritual successor to Homeworld. Blackbird didn't have access to the intellectual property rights back then, and while they attempted to acquire access following THQ's bankruptcy in 2013, the rights were instead acquired by Gearbox.
Fortunately, Gearbox subsequently granted access to Blackbird in exchange for a publishing role, which prompted a name change to Homeworld: Shipbreakers. This was changed to Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak at the official announcement of the game in 2015, although shipbreaking still plays a role. More on that later. Shipbreakers also survived as an unrelated title in the form of Hardspace: Shipbreakers, but I digress.
As it happens, Deserts of Kharak was also made in Unity.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing, just... it can be a special thing, sometimes.
Unity is a perfectly good engine, but it does come with a certain stigma in the eyes of some people, and certainly has its own challenges, as does any engine. Incidentally, here's a (somewhat silly) example:
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| Very occasionally, your vehicles may run over a bump a little too hard |
[Game Mechanics]
Deserts of Kharak is a Homeworld game in more than just name, and it shows.
Using your Carrier, analogous to later Motherships, you construct a fleet of vehicles rather than ships. These range from agile light attack vehicles and armored assault vehicles to battlecruisers and gunships. As mentioned before, an equivalent can be drawn between the vehicles of Deserts of Kharak and the older Homeworld games. For example, railguns fill much the same role as ion frigates once did. Similarly, light assault vehicles are essentially fighters, with similar durability and performance.
That's not to say this line can be drawn for all units. The air units (strike craft, bombers and gunships) are a good example. Only certain units are even able to target them, and only some of those are able to reliably take them out, making them a much more powerful tool (or far greater threat) than fighters and bombers in Homeworld.
This also means that fleet composition is arguably more important than ever, particularly factoring in that units have a wide range of useful abilities. AAVs provide smoke screens that eliminate lines of sight. LAVs can use speed boosts to close the distance or circumvent threats. Railguns firing in batteries complement eachother by sundering armor. Baserunners provide battlefield intel via sensors, provide stationary defenses in the form of turrets and can even perform area denial by deploying mines.
These units are, of course (and this being a Homeworld game, it really ought to be a matter of course) part of a fleet that you bring with you between campaign missions. I'm happy to say that this is encouraged not only by the game's narrative and the presence of the mechanic, but also by the proper balance of the difficulty scaling. Gone are the days of being swamped by half a dozen battlecruisers and a hundred corvettes because you had the gall to prepare.
Indeed, you're more encouraged to prepare than ever before. Between the artifacts one can discover and unit veterancy, there's all the reason in the world to not only build and maintain a fleet, but also to maintain individual units. The veterancy bonuses can be quite substantial. To name just one example, railguns can improve their range by as much as 100%. Needless to say, this is a rather substantial advantage.
Moving on, I did point out earlier that the battlefield is now missing its third dimension, that's not entirely true. Height absolutely plays a role, because the battlefield isn't flat. It has rolling sand dunes and cliffs cropping out of the desert. Sometimes, a dune can mean the difference between your fleet being perforated by railgun fire and approaching a hostile force unscathed.
In this way, combat is actually more dynamic, not less. The addition of obstructing elements and varied terrain to present either hindrance, boon or both could be said to provide more tactical and strategic opportunities and challenges. Granted, Homeworld was always intended to be about space combat, and space is predominantly empty, but it still warrants a mention.
Similarly, it also warrants mentioning that formations are a thing of the past and this aspect of fleet management is no longer available to the player. It just sort of defaults to something akin to the "fighter screen" formation from Homeworld, with the smallest, fastest, weakest units up front and the biggest, slowest, strongest units in the back.
The pace is also much increased from what it once was, although not so much that there's no room to think. This is, after all, still an RTS. Fans of the originals may find it jarring, however, particularly when combined with comparatively limited movement. There's no denying that the combined presence of obstacles and increase in pace may cause some to stress over time constraints in certain situations.
It must also be said that the campaign missions at no point attempt to present "puzzle" challenges like those found in Homeworld 1 and 2. The objectives are usually rather straight-forward, and while strategic and tactical thinking are rewarded, there's never any obstacles in the same vein as the ghost ship from Homeworld 1 or using unmanned movers to safely pass through radiation fields in Homeworld 2.
[Graphics]
Like the rest of the series, Deserts of Kharak is a beautiful game, not least because the developers fully expected players to take close looks on units and battles. It's not quite the level where one could feasibly imagine a first-person game with the same models, but we're as close as most RTS games get to that kind of detail.
Lighting is dynamic, units kick up clouds of dust when they move across the desert sands, vehicles have designs largely grounded in realism and look appropriate for operating in desert environments, that sort of stuff. It's good.
Beyond that, improvements have also been made to the user interface, making it generally easier to use, faster to navigate and nicer looking. A particular element on this note is the sensor screen, which is significantly easier to read than before.
[Story]
A century prior to the events of Homeworld 1, a miracle happens on Kharak that sets in motion every event that would subsequently occur.
The planet is, at this stage, actively becoming more hostile to its inhabitants. While it was never very hospitable to begin with, being a scorching hot ball of sand on the fringes of the galaxy with about as much moisture as the Sahara, the deserts have been encroaching more and more on cities and assorted settlements. Needless to say, this is bad.
However, a coalition of kiithid (Kushan tribal families) imaginatively called the Coalition of Northern Kiithid discovered an object, named the Jaraci Object, in the deep desert using one of their satellites. This discovery prompts speculation that the object in question may be of sufficient scientific significance to provide a solution to the rather pressing concern of being swallowed by the dunes, so an expedition is formed.
Incidentally, one of the kiithid, the Gaalsien, hold that going to space is not only a grave sin, but will bring down the wrath of Sajuuk upon Kharak. Consequently, they declare war on the Coalition, who in turn accelerate the expedition to retrieve the Jaraci Object.
This all happens less than 10 minutes into the game. Clearly we're in for a ride.
The campaign allows the player to experience the events unfolding surrounding this expedition, and while it's not quite the "age of myth" style of story we saw in the previous Homeworld games, it nonetheless remains a compelling tale of daring do on a dangerous journey to find salvation.
The story is conveyed part through cutscenes, although those are few in number, and part through in-mission dialogue from expedition members and their opposition. This is supplemented by progress logs narrated by characters during post-mission summaries and, albeit to a less significant extent, by comms chatter from units during missions. The comms chatter is nothing extraordinarily impactful, but it serves to add an atmosphere of a fleet operating together. Individual units are even named upon achieving their first rank-up in the veterancy system.
[SPOILERS]
If you've played the preceding Homeworld games, then you'll know that the Gaalsien were right all along. In a sense, at least. While not necessarily the wrath of Sajuuk, it does seem that they retained information regarding the exile and its rules in the form of oral tradition and wall inscriptions.
In fact, once inevitably defeated, their leader doesn't berate us, but laments that he was unable to stop us and prays that we don't bring about the apocalypse. Which... we kind of do, what with the genocidal campaign of the Taiidan empire in response to the opening acts of Homeworld 1.
That said, I think the most surprising twist over the course of the expedition is the betrayal by your erstwhile Siidim allies. I sure as hell didn't see it coming. Hell, I was pumped every time Mashad and I put the hurt on the Gaalsien aggressors. Sure, he was a bit abrasive sometimes, but he's our expedition buddy!
Some may see it coming. I didn't. From where I sat, it was an unforgivable betrayal, and while I was certainly eager to serve Mashad a healthy portion of justice, it sure didn't feel like a victory.
Yeah, we win the battle, but we lose our expedition buddy. If only the real Khar-Toba had been the friends we made along the way.
[Pros]
- Scaling mechanic no longer an issue
- Enjoyable campaign with compelling narrative
- Flat improvement in game mechanics across the board
- ARGUABLY(!) the best Homeworld game
[Cons]
- Changes in setting may not appeal to Homeworld "purists" (for want of a better term)
- Significantly less complex mission objectives
- Formations are gone
[Conclusion]
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is, in my humble (and very subjective) opinion not only worthy of its franchise name, but actually the most Homeworld game in the Homeworld franchise.
Where Homeworld 2 improved upon the ground work laid out by Homeworld 1, Deserts of Kharak, for the most part, improves upon the ground work laid out by Homeworld 2. Take this with a grain of salt, however. Homeworld 3 is on the horizon, and this very definitely is not it. Deserts of Kharak, despite my praise, is different from its predecessors, but very definitely shares their spirit.
May there be peace on Kharak once again. Moral compass optional.
/DUX
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