RSS
Home
Like story? Go for Homeworld 2!
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
It's a cute screenshot, but in reality your corvettes are boned. It's a Carrier. Really, just give up now.
Too often we find real-time strategy games that are shiny, wonderfully explosive, and have lots and lots of fun units - and that's it. Some people like to spend piles of money on games that are multiplayer-only, like MMO's. I'm not one of them. If I'm going to have some kind of lasting interest in a game, I want single-player. More than that, I want something that's immersive and exciting, something that'll keep me interested in not just the mechanics or the competition but the universe presented to me.
Homeworld 2 has that in spades. Just like its predecessor, Homeworld, the story is incredibly well done. I can't pretend it's entirely original, but it's still well done. They use the "search for technology X to stop tyrant Y" plot device as the basis, but then they take it to different depths. Mythology (yes, the game has its own mythology, isn't it grand?) blends with reality, and you find yourself chasing what some cultures believe to be "gods" in order to stop a brutal dictator intent on wiping your home planet from existence. There's a sense of urgency, of real suspense to the game that many other games (like Supreme Commander) lack.
I could spend a year on the gameplay interface, mechanics, unit choices, etc., but that gets old. Suffice to say the interface is intuitive, unit control is easy, there are tech trees that can be rewarding for beginners as well as experienced players, and even in this day and age the graphics are pretty shiny. Lots of ion frigates cutting apart a battleship is still kind of awe-inspiring to me, it's one of my favorite sights in the game.
Why can't game developers include better single-player these days? Of all the RTS games I've played this year, only Company of Heroes came remotely close, and that too was an older game. Their update, Tales of Valor (more on that one next week) included some nice single-player stuff, but it seemed a bit stunted.
