![]() ![]() This is a journey, rather than a series of conquests. The carry-over ships probably won’t last too long, but when a new level begins and you see them come out of the (gorgeous, cuboid) lightspeed warp along with your mothership, they feel like old friends. Each one connects directly to the last, feels like the next stopping point on this dramatic journey into the unknown, while whatever units and resources you’ve made (and kept intact) carry over between levels. There’s much that Homeworld does which subsequent and contemporary strategy games do not, and it remains an expert lesson in how to make an RTS feel so much bigger than its individual levels. A 1999 face is much trickier to scrub up than 1999 metal is.įar from the only reason, though. That it lets its spaceships take centre stage is a huge part of why it’s stood the test of time. That’s needed, because while Homeworld’s a game about saving people, it usually avoids showing people. They’re colourful too, borrowing respectfully from Chris Foss rather than Star Wars, and this with their unusual shapes (broadly avoiding any jet or shuttle inspiration) take on true character. Resolution and anti-aliasing (plus assorted less obvious shader tricks) mean these looming industrial shapes, these man-made visitors to a vast and empty space, look that much more 3D and tangible, that much less like simple game models. The new textures help, though even then some still look blown up and blocky when you get in close, but it’s the crispness that the Remastering most benefits from. I know it can be ugly to bust out hyperbole in a game review, but I’m extremely tempted to say that Homeworld was and is a masterpiece of visual design. It’s a universe away from the squat, constrained worlds of almost any other real-time strategy game. Small fighters are insects, the mothership is this enormous obelisk, the stellar backdrop is palpably infinite-feeling, and the camera zooms all the way in and out to show how all these things compare to each other.Ĭombine this with a celestial score (plus, of course, the rightfully iconic, still-powerful usage of Adagio for Strings at the start of Homeworld 1) )and starkly industrial sound effects and you’ve got space. Light, shadow, texture and high resolutions are part of it, of course, but they wouldn’t mean much without scale. But in terms of strategy games which really, truly benefit from remastering – well, this is a chart-topper. In terms of strategy games which ‘need’ remastering, Homeworld was probably somewhere at the bottom of the list. Hard angles, painted metal, no faces – these were things even aged graphics cards could handle well. Homeworld was always pretty, to the point that (with some help from mods and tweaks) it’s staved off the ravages of technological age far more naturally than many other games of that era have. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. ![]()
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