Just finished the game. Thoughts while fresh.

[Keeper Usiel]

I have been playing the Homeworld series since I got a burned, handwritten copy in the mail as part of the original Homeworld beta. Postmarked from Canada, no less!

I have played all of them more times than I can count. I bought the Collector's Edition of the Homeworld Remastered and the Collector's Edition of Homeworld 3. The statues are cool. Also, I wanted more Homeworld.

I have extremely mixed feelings on this entry.

Pros

The soundtrack is wonderful and nails the Homeworld vibe.

The game is gorgeous and showcases UE5 very well.

I actually like the ship designs, even if the carrier is funky looking.

The sense of scale for background structures is absolutely amazing but that also dovetails in to a con.

Cons

The mission areas feel claustrophobic and I think it has to do with the scale of the background derelicts. I never really feel that I get a good perspective for just how big my fleet is. However, I also feel like that my fleet is cramped in to too small an area. Compare that to the maps in HW1 and HW2. Sure, the background objects were much smaller but the actual playable area felt larger.

Why are there so few skirmish maps?

The story. I think the derision train has become long enough but it doesn't really work for me. HW1, HW2, and HW:C (or Homeworld: Resurgence if you want) was always about the fleet. The fleet must survive. It had a very Battlestar Galactica vibe to it in that regard. I did not hate or dislike Imogen or Isaac but I also did not care about them either. I was at best ambivalent. I did not see the need to take a story of the macrocosmic and try to shoehorn it in to the microcosmic. A small point I did like was that we got introduced to a little known kith, the Paktu. That was a nice little touch. Also, "Tia'maa"? Really? Why bother with the fig leaf and just call her Tiamat? The characters themselves bordered on the cartoonishly absurd. They were very nearly caricatures of stereotypes. Hesitant, callow youth who finds her footing and destiny, gruff, old veteran, the wise elder, and of course, the villain. Did someone forget to give Tia'maa a mustache so she could twirl it?

Which leads me to the animation of the characters themselves. Whomever BBI hired from Disney, please have them go work on a title that isn't Homeworld. The overly dramatic movements, facial expressions, and presentation better fits in to a visual storytelling method for children. I say that because children do not understand subtlety, nuance, and body language. Everything has to loud and overacted for them to get it. Which works for children but I am not a child. I never saw Tia'maa as a threat. In fact, I found myself chuckling at her antics on more than one occasion.

Then we get to the writing, which suffers the same problem as the animations. It was pitched at an audience that is clearly much younger than your standard Homeworld audience. Most of us that have been with Homeworld since the original are in our 40s, 50s, or 60s now. We have enough experience in the world to understand subtle complexities in speech, double meanings, and nuance through word or syllable stresses. Most of those in their 20s and 30s do as well. But none of that was delivered here. It was all over the top, simplistic, and, I hate to say it, almost rudimentary in its construction. In contrast, here is an example from the original Homeworld "The subject did not survive interrogation". Go back and listen to that line and how it was delivered. It tells you volumes of what happened in that one sentence. It tells you how the speaker feels, how they are deeply struggling to maintain their professionalism in the face of overwhelming anger and sorrow, and it gives you just enough of an auditory clue to picture just what happened to that Taiidanii prisoner. All of that in one sentence.

Too many cutscenes. Although this is subjective, it felt like I spent almost as much time watching cutscenes as I did playing the game. Go back and look at HW1 and HW2, the cutscenes are short and waste no time yet deliver the information needed as well as provide substance and texture. The phrase "Less is more" applies more aptly here than in any Homeworld game that precedes this one.

Opinion

I do not mind that I have repurchased these games multiple times over. I do not regret buying the Collector's Editions for both this game and Homeworld Remastered. I hope that there is enough interest that we will get to see more development on Homeworld 3 and get to see a Homeworld 4 in the future. I want there to be more Homeworld. It's a vast playground with enough lore to really build on. I just hope that, if there is a Homeworld 4 and BBI is the developer, they pitch the story up a few notches in the age bracket. I hope they go back and replay Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2 to get a better sense of what Homeworld is and, more importantly, is not.

[Utwig_Chenjesu]

Balanced,

[Metallic Force]

So funny you mentioned the cut scenes...

I yelled oh my god after the 4th cut scene to play in succession in the Kala Terminus mission.