Homeworld Deserts Of Kharak Test
The creators of Homeworld invite you to lead the expedition that started it all. Crafted by Blackbird Interactive, a studio founded by veterans of Homeworld and Company of Heroes, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak takes players to the deserts of Kharak where danger lurks over every dune.
Blackbird Interactive’s Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has gone through lots of name changes. It’s been Hardware: Shipbreakers, Homeworld: Shipbreakers and then, thanks to the tie-in with Gearbox who own the IP, it ended up as what it is today. The good news for fans of the Homeworld narrative is that this game has fully embraced the series lore, taking players back to a time before the space based saga.
Set on the desert planet of Kharak, you command an expeditionary force in the search for a all-powerful ancient artifact. An item so powerful it could save the dying planet and your race. There is, though, an obstacle in your way; the dastardly desert dwelling force called the Gaalsien who are trying to stop the expedition. I won’t go into the story too much further because the game relies on story telling as you play and that would spoil all the fun.
Right from the get go it’s obvious this is a Homeworld game. Everything from the style of the animated cutscenes to the overlay map is a continuation of that design. This is the classic Homeworld plonked into a land based campaign with different, but at the same time familiar, units. In fact even the first couple of missions play in a very similar way to the previous games, to the point where it’s a little predictable. Big mothership needs fixing up before setting out on a journey unprepared for what lies ahead.
It’s hard to overstate how many of the previous Homeworld games’ UI and input features are shared by Deserts of Kharak. The overlay map is identical (though this time there’s no need to worry about what’s above or below), the audio cues are the same throughout, and hotkeys and unit maneuvering works in practically the same way. Anyone who has played the first two games may as well skip the tutorial and just press on.
Despite the fact so much is similar, however, the game manages to play very differently. In Homeworld you had time to make battle decisions, but Deserts of Kharak plays at a much faster pace. Same controls, but a very different feel.
Soaking up the sun on the dunes.
Deserts of Kharak reminded me of games like Ground Control, where terrain can make or break a battle, and where taking the high ground gives troops a distinct advantage. The rolling sand dunes of Kharak (with the odd rocky outcrop) can be key to getting the upper hand, and, thankfully, line of sight is indicated by solid or broken red lines. To be honest though, the action can move so fast you may as well just pile everything in when you see an opportunity for a tactical advantage. There are no formations for grouped units, so piling in is sometimes the best option.
There’s a quite an array of units on offer, such as the fast moving LAV’s which act in a very similar way to the fighters in Homeworld; quick and maneuverable. Then there are the large cruiser vehicles, which are slower but pack a bigger punch. Not forgetting the aircraft, which are absolutely essential to winning missions. La noire pc mods. Without these strike fighters and bombers the sandy expedition would be a complete waste of time.
Resources need to be collected in the form of CUs and RUs, one for construction and one for research. This is where the “shipbreakers” part of the game (and former title) comes in to play. Dotted around the map are ancient ships which need to be first broken down with an explosion so that the resources from the debris can be harvested. These ships also provide ancient artifacts which are used to improve your main Carrier ship tech via upgrades. These can also be applied to the vehicles which are produced inside the Carrier.
The game’s main character, Rachel S’Jet, holds the power throughout the campaign and she must be kept alive at all costs by protecting her Base Runner. She plants the charges to break the ships down, can collect the artifacts, repair vehicles, hack enemy units and launch EMPs to disable turret defences or vehicles. Lose Rachel and it’s game over. Fortunately her vehicle is quite robust, and you’d be hard pushed to lose a mission by getting her killed.
There’s no doubt the early missions are not much of a challenge which you’d expect because most early missions in RTS games are tutorials. In Kharak this seems to go on for far too long and it only starts to get interesting towards the end of the campaign.
Using the EMP to disable turrets. Very handy.
As the campaign progressed I did find myself trying out different tactics. By about mission ten (of thirteen) I was just about all-in with everything I could muster. At this stage I was using the main Kapisi Carrier as a super heavy armoured attack platform – hunting down the enemy Carriers and doing away with some of the lighter vehicles – and concentrating on air power. It worked well, but did make me wonder why I was so concerned about protecting the Kapisi in some of the early missions. With some smart manipulation of the shields and weapons it’s quite handy in battle. As the game progresses more points can be assigned to the Kapisi power output, but you need to make sure the system don’t overheat.
Units and resources also carry over form each mission like the original Homeworld games. Leave a mission with no resource collectors and you could be in trouble, as I found out to my cost on the ninth mission. The mission itself was completed fine, but as I moved into mission ten I literally had nothing left with which to repair the turrets and collect resources to create a defensive force. Extremely stupid.
If this situation happens players can restart the mission and select a standard loadout, which provides a load of resource and construction unit currency as well as a selection of vehicles. Doing this feels a bit like cheating. Still, the option’s there if you can’t be bothered to redo the previous mission.
Blackbird has added a lot of detail to the units and in a way it feels a little wasted. When things got tricky I ended up playing the game from the map view, mostly due to the pace at which things were happening on the battlefield. When I did go back into the main view during later missions, it was chaos; and hard to get a grasp of what was going on. When multiple small skirmishes are going on all around the Carrier it requires precision control, and that’s just not easy in the game’s main viewing screen. Using the map to move units around and issue orders proved to be much easier, and generally gave better results.
The in-game cut-scenes are very tasty.
Multiplayer is naturally included, with both a collect-the-artifact gameplay mode and the standard blow-up-the-enemy mode. If you need some practice then there’s also a skirmish mode with the AI. Deserts of Kharak launches with five skirmish maps, and this mode also gives players the opportunity to play as the Gaalsien.
This has been a really hard game to review. I adore the music from Paul Ruskay, the game’s audio brings back fond memories of Homeworld, the system map works brilliantly, the units are superbly designed, and Blackbird has made what is a sparse desert landscape feel reasonably interesting. On the surface it seems to do just about everything right. The problem is that Homeworld’s distinct style doesn’t work quite as well when you plonk it on a flat surface.
Deserts of Kharak is a worthy addition to the Homeworld series, but as a unit-focused RTS it can feel a little flat and predictable until about three quarters of the way through the thirteen missions. It’s really not until late in the game that the missions become more challenging and interesting. Those Homeworld fans who revel in the series’ visual and audio design will love it, and I’m sure that’s what Blackbird was aiming for, but as an RTS it’s solid rather than particularly outstanding.
Read our tips and watch our complete walkthrough videos (spoilers).
key review info
- Game: Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
- Platform: PC
- Gamepad support: No
- Reviewed on:
- Show system requirements
Windows 7 or Windows 8 or Windows 10
Intel Core i3 2100 or AMD A10 5800k or better
3 GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT 440 or Radeon HD 4890 (=with 1024 MB of RAM
8 GB of free hard drive space
Recommended system requirements
Windows 7 or Windows 8 or Windows 10
Intel Core i7 950 or AMD FX-4300
8 GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7770
12 GB of free hard drive space
Strike fighters are roaring overhead as my assault vehicles are moving towards the top of a dune, knowing full well that a powerful enemy group is situated in the valley beyond it, protecting a resource harvester that's trying to resupply a powerful enemy carrier group.
As the two groups exchange fire, I switch to my tactical map to see the two air defense groups that my Gaalsien opponents are moving out of position, and quietly thank my baserunners for the solid scanning network they have established.
The land battle is important, but it's mostly designed as a feint, drawing enemy forces away from their defensive lines as two tactical bombers and the rest of my aircraft head to the enemy command vessel and deliver an almost fatal blow, with my ground troops then moving in to finish the job.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is not the sequel that fans of the space strategy title launched in 1999 were expecting, but the game offers its own brand of interesting mechanics and some cool story moments, a solid foundation for the future of the franchise.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is developed by Blackbird Interactive, with publishing duties handled by Gearbox Software, offered only on the PC.
Story
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak features a narrative that is clearly meant to reflect that of the original installment in the series, with a massive carrier, the sand dune based version of the mothership, launching on a perilous mission in unknown space just as the race that built it comes under attack from historic rivals.
Rachel S'Jet is the closest that the title has to a main character, ancestor to one of the most interesting figures in the original title and a scientist on a quest to find out what that signal buried under the desert represents, and how it can influence the future of her people.
The role of the mothership is played by the Kapisi, a carrier that moves across the impressive dunes of Kharak with a complement of other smaller vehicles and aircraft, fighting off enemies while investigating anomalies.
The story created by Blackbird Interactive has plenty of interesting moments, although the characters tend to remain a little flat, and it's strong enough to keep the player engaged as they move through the missions.
I especially appreciate the small audio diaries in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, narrated from a variety of perspectives, which play after a mission is over, clearly designed to connect the player with the crew of the Kapisi and show how the pressure of both their future and their past shapes their actions.
Both the video and the images in this review contain minor spoilers for the campaign.
Gameplay
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a real-time strategy title that closely resembles the core concepts of the two previous installments in the series, abandoning the emptiness of space for the dunes of the desert.
There's no mothership, but the Kapisi acts like a similar base of operations, able to manufacture a variety of hardware while also using its core systems to battle enemies, repair allies or simply boost their abilities.
As the campaign progresses, a range of hardware is introduced, from fast and mobile attack vehicles to powerful tactical bombers and capable support cruisers, all with unique special powers and upgrades that improve attack and survivability.
By moving from space to the surface of Kharak, the game loses a little tactical depth, and there are no options to use formations or attack stances to add complexity to tactical plans.
The new Homeworld wants players to mix and match units to emphasize their strengths, and terrain plays a major role, with dunes offering a height advantage to land units while also creating natural chokepoints to exploit and ways to cover advances on enemy positions.
A combined arms approach that features a strong vehicle force backed by solid air strike capabilities is the best way to deal with enemy forces, and the Artificial Intelligence does a good job of counterattacking weak groups, causing casualties and slow assaults.
The Kapisi itself grows in power as the campaign progresses, and more alien tech is integrated. Thus, players will need to decide whether they want to use the carrier as a powerful if slow offensive unit or only as a base to heal friendly units and make sure that their veteran levels, which offer some solid bonuses, are preserved.
“Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak offers plenty of variety when it comes to the missions, ranging from artifact digging while under fire to base attacks and escort sequences, with the environment sometimes becoming an important part of the battle.”
The freedom of movement in 3D space that the series pioneered cannot be matched, but there are plenty of strategic choices to make in the new game, and some of the battles are very difficult even for an experienced real-time strategy fan.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak also features a classic skirmish mode that allows gamers to battle the Artificial Intelligence on five maps that accommodate a few modes and a wide variety of tactical approaches.
Graphics and audio
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak delivers some impressive sights, ranging from the red sunrises that dominate the cutscenes to the explosion-filled battles that rage across the empty and majestic dunes.
The aesthetics of the new game stays very close to that of the first two installments, with the blue glow of the launch bays and the design of the various units serving as a powerful dose of both nostalgia and foreshadowing.
I spent most of my time on the overhead tactical view, which is packed with information about the battlefield, directing unit movement and planning long-term strategies, but Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is smart enough to give players plenty of quiet moments when they can zoom in to see the battles and destruction.
There are moments when both the cutscenes, with their subtle cell shading, and the real-time action show the limits of the engine powering the game, but Blackbird Interactive does a good job of using spectacle to mask them.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak also sounds good, with plenty of atmospheric tracks that underline the monumental undertaking the player task force is facing. At the same time, the game features voice acting that manages to mix melancholy, awe, and determination in equal measure, especially when Rachel S'Jet is involved.
Multiplayer
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak offers a full-fledged multiplayer mode, with both ranked and unranked matches, which allows gamers to test their skills against other human opponents using the same units seen in the single player.
The asymmetry between the two featured sides means that there are some interesting strategies to learn for both the Coalition and the Gaalsien, and there's plenty of tension featured when the two sides are aiming to secure artifacts rather than simply destroy each other.
The Good
The Bad
- 2D is not as interesting as 3D in terms of strategy
- Stays too close to the Homeworld formula
Conclusion
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a good mainstream real-time strategy title that offers a solid prequel story and shows that the core ideas of the series can easily be adapted for planet-based warfare.The sand-dominated environments offer a perfect place for big and spectacular battles, and the game does not disappoint when it comes to the delivery of complex missions that involve careful planning and execution.
The zoomed-out tactical view is very useful, especially when two- or three-pronged attacks are required to take out an enemy fortified position, but I urge gamers to zoom into the action from time to time and to press Ctrl-H to strip out the user interface and just look at the combat and its explosive results.
Blackbird Interactive does not break any new narrative ground, but the character-driven audio diaries are interesting and offer a great look at the struggles that take place on Kharak and foreshadow the conflict that will take place among the stars in the other two titles.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak pre-orders come with a copy of the collection that includes remastered versions of the first two titles in the franchise, which makes it a great deal for those who have never experienced it before.
Homeworld Desserts Of Kharak Test 2017
For long-term fans, the title delivers a solid set of strategy mechanics and shows how the ideas first introduced in 1999 can be adapted for modern audiences in an entertaining way.
gameplay 9
concept 9
graphics 8
audio 9
multiplayer 7
final rating8.5
