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Tasunkawitko's Homeworld (PC)
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| [February 8, 2008 01:15:48 AM]
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GAME LOG ENTRY 2
GAMEPLAY
Sadly, the second hour was not quite as exciting as the first was. The gameplay remained mostly the same; still slow-paced and at times tedious, although there was a greater selection of units to choose from. The levels seem to take far longer than they should; accomplishing a few simple goals can take incredible amounts of time. For instance, I spent no less than seven minutes destroying a single ship with a relatively large sized fleet of my own. The gameplay does not move along fast enough to keep up with the story.
The story remains interesting, though perhaps not quite as interesting as in the beginning. There were a few interesting developments and I am certain that there are far more to come. I feel that there is too much space between the narrative advancements. If the game were a little faster paced then its quality would improve dramatically. This story, more than many others really does draw the player in. The fictional universe created by this game feels whole and realistic (as realistic as science fiction can get anyways), it does not overreach as so many other games do.
DESIGN
Perhaps the most innovative thing about this game is the control the player has over the camera. Unlike most RTSs, Homeworld is not limited to a two-dimensional plane. The game is entirely three-dimensional, the camera rotates 360 degrees and can zoom in or out on whatever unit the player desires, and follow that unit as it moves. The units themselves also move in three dimensions. Sometimes there will be resources or enemy units at a different elevation than the player’s own units, so the player can choose to alter the elevation of his own units to reach them.
Graphically the game is relatively unimpressive, especially by modern standards (the game is eight years old after all). The units look blocky and unwieldy, they also have, in my opinion, odd color schemes that do not fit with the rest of the tone of the game. This is made up for however, by the detailed and immersive environment. The background art is really quite something with stars, nebulae, planets and other eye-candy; and the player can view all angles of it with the 3D camera. The other artistic aspect that helps set the ambience is the music. The soundtrack is beautiful, if a bit solemn, and perfectly fits with the purpose and feel of the game.
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| [February 7, 2008 11:40:56 PM]
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GAME LOG ENTRY 1
SUMMARY
Homeworld is a Real Time Strategy for the PC set in space. In Homeworld the player controls a race of people who have recently completed construction of a large self-sustaining vessel known as the mothership. With the mother ship and the various support ships that it constructs, the player must cross the vastness of space in search of the fabled homeworld.
GAMEPLAY
The storyline for this game draws the player in from the very beginning. It starts with the discovery of a mysterious an ancient alien ship, which allows for the creation of a mothership which will be used to seek out the enigmatic ancestral homeworld. This spurs the entire planet into a time of progress and unity never before known. The player begins by testing the mothership’s various systems so that the player can get situated with the controls but quickly gets swept away in a much deeper plotline. The frequent narrative interspersed between gameplay keep the player’s interest up while at the same time keeping the tone suspenseful. The player constantly wonders what is going to happen next.
While the story was very engrossing right from the beginning, the same thing could not be said of the gameplay. The game started with the typical “get to know your controls” tasks that one finds throughout the RTS genre. After those were completed the game still took awhile before entering into any real combat. The controls are initially tricky and counter-intuitive when it comes to combat situations. And the situations themselves are relatively slow paced and seem to take longer than many of the other RTS’s I’m familiar with. However, I have not yet been able to use a wide range of units, so it is possible that this is only the case with the initial units.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 7th, 2008 at 23:41:38.
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Tasunkawitko's Homeworld (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 7 February, 2008
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