Homeworld 2

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Customer Reviews

Homeworld 2 is fun!

I owned and played Homeworld & Homeworld: Cataclysm before buying Homeworld 2. Heck, they were the reasons why I bought this game. To make the review short and sweet, the game was great when it came out in 2003 and it still is today. Graphics are good, the gameplay is satisfying (you can be more precise on what parts of ships you can hit), and the audio is fun to listen to. My only complaint is that there's no Pilot View Camera like in Cataclysm. Using the PVC on fighters turned the game into a Star Wars movie-like battle.

On a personal level, I still think the fleets of the Ki'ith Somtaaw faction from Cataclysm look better than the Exiles' ships.

This game proved a lot of things

I found that this game proved 3 things

1. "Sequal" does not nessicarily mean better game
2. Better graphics are often used as an excuse to cover up the exact same story
3. Never pay full price for a computer game

First and foremost I love both Homeworld and Homeworld 2. That being said I have to say that if I had paid full price for this game I would be incredably mad. Its the exact same basic story they just improved the graphics(with eye popping clairty I might add). I still love the game and the missions are quite challanging but if you are expecting something revolutionary you are not going get it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Excellent Game

I thought the first Homeworld was great, then i played the second one and was totally blown away. Improvements all across the board. I would not hesitate to recomend this game to anyone.

Disappointing

(...)P>As with its predecessors, H2 is a three dimensional real time space stragegy game. It is not of the Descent or Tie Fighter genre, where the question is how fast you can shoot: it also includes elements of a simulation (such as Sim City) and the battles involve stragety rather than how fast you can point and shoot. You get to be the General, rather than the pilot!

The game graphics in Homeworld 2 are similar to Holmeworld and Cataclysm, but substantially improved with much more detail and much less visible color gradation in the backgrounds. But, beyond the similarities in structure and format, Homeworld 2 is not nearly as addictive or enjoyable as Homeworld 1 or Cataclysm. The story is not very clear, the levels are not nearly as challenging as in Homeworld 1 or Cataclysm, and I was able to power my way through the entire game in a couple of part time evenings, rather than having to work at it for several weeks. Unlike the earlier Homeworld games, you don't have the ability to individually control the smaller "fighter class" ships -- you can control only squadrons. In addition, less strategy is involved, and, there is too much "artificial intelligence" operating everything. Only 3 or 4 of the 15 levels were really challenging.

I spent a year playing one-on-one against the computer with Cataclysm, and was never bored. I got through Homeworld 2 simply to get through, and I will now remove it from my 'puter -- I may play it from the beginningagain, but only just to try and understand the story better.

Good for amatures, great for hardcore and modders

Hey all you who play HW or HW2 its Hiigaran|SF.

First, a clarification: Homeworld 2 is NOT Homeworld with better graphics and another story line; it is a completely new game. It has many similar concepts and basic designs from Homeworld, and it integrates the same history, but it is 100 years in the future (reletive to Homeworld) so don't expect it to be the same.

I'll start with the firing-back-at-insults section. Many people claim HW2 sucks, so I'll run you over the truth of things:

Number one insult: "In Homeworld I can control my fighters, in Homeworld 2 I can't"
This is BS. In Homeworld 2 you have a squadron system, grouping your fighters into different size squadrons, depending on the type of fighter. These squads generally range from 9 to 3 fighters in size, the more powerful fighters and corvettes having lower group sizes (but all a similar cost, around 400-700 RU). These squads fight together in formation in battle, providing much more effective firepower and organization.
Now some facts: When will you need a single fighter, ever? What good is a single interceptor or bomber? organizing into units means that I never lose one of my fighters somewhere in a battle. This can all add up to tip the balance on a very small map, especially if all the fighters break up and scatter across the map. So, organizing into squadrons allows you to keep track of them. They do often scatter when opposing area-effect weaponry (like flak turrets) but then they regroup.

Number 2 insult: "Homeworld 2 has no strategy!"
If you say this you deserve to be SHOT. HW2 has many more features which involve strategy, including shipyards, subsystems, more dynamic maps, better and more complex environments... you get the idea. In Homeworld, you often have to worry "how can I move my ships around so they dont get picked off" in Homeworld 2 you worry about "Here are my options, how will they effect the future of the game, will it work? What are the pros and cons?" It's more strategy in Homeworld 2. You can use much more tactics. In Homeworld, you use several basic strategies which I can name right now: swarming, capital ship rush, or a mush of both. Battle tactics: not very sophisticated, just click on a ship and boom its dead.
Homeworld 2: you can surgically strike a ship in battle. Lets say you have barely enough resources to win. You get a few bombers, and go and take out the enemy carrier's resource drop-off point. Kill the collectors. Then get a Marine Frigate in there to capture the carrier. By the time you've captured it, the resource drop-off is repaired, and you probably have enough defense there to ward off attackers. Then you get your own collectors in there to collect using the enemies pocket; there you go. In Homeworld, you just choose which pocket is yours and collect there all game, no attacks on it, its pure fleet-to-fleet. In Homeworld 2, you can get it ALL. You also have an improved diplomacy system, like transferring ships

now modding: modding and mapping for Homeworld is INCREDIBLY easy. Mabye not on the same scale as other games, but its pretty damned easy to do. mapping is REALLY good with its LuaC capabilities, programming a map instead of telling it (in 3D coordinate system) where to place each little pebble.

id go on but i gotta sleep.

btw JOIN TEH SOBAN FORCE (SF) CLAN IT RULEZ
join at: http://soban-force.fragism.com/recruit.html