#HOMEWORLD DESERTS OF KHARAK SERIES#

#HOMEWORLD DESERTS OF KHARAK SERIES#

By staying largely faithful to the aesthetic of the originals, by recreating the harsh lived-in realism of that universe and the do-or-die exodus and the vast scale of the classics, Deserts of Kharak manages to feel like a proper part of Homeworld canon-even though itвЂ™s set on the surface of a planet.The Homeworld series was set in space, but Deserts of Kharak take place on a planet's surface. IвЂ™m sure weвЂ™ll see no end to balance tweaks for a while.Д«ut as far as IвЂ™m concerned, Deserts of Kharak achieves its goal: ItвЂ™s made me tentatively excited for a forthcoming Homeworld 3. Diehards will dissect the units in Deserts of Kharak and argue incessantly over the gameвЂ™s minutiae. Some people will complain the story takes a loose approach to bits of the preexisting lore. And units donвЂ™t seem very durable, so the game feels on-the-whole a bit faster/deadlier than the originals. Missions often rely on choke points, for instance-a foreign concept for Homeworld, given that in 3D space choke points donвЂ™t exist. Terrifying because doing so meant making a successor to-seriously-one of the best strategy games ever made, and doing so after twelve years of rose-colored glasses.Дeserts of Kharak isnвЂ™t a perfect translation. Triumphant because the project involved a lot of the original team members and they got to resurrect their mothballed series. I imagine the day Gearbox gave Blackbird Interactive permission to use the Homeworld name was triumphant, but also terrifying. Deserts of Kharak kept that вЂњfeatureвЂќ too. ItвЂ™s not a perfect one-to-one substitution but does make for an interesting system, although I found it sometimes hard to position my troops where I wanted them- HomeworldвЂ™s always been better at control on a macro level. Taking the high ground bolsters your sight lines and allows you to do more damage. Which is no small feat.Дeserts of Kharak even pays homage to six-direction movement, factoring terrain into combat. It moves like Homeworld, it sounds like Homeworld, and-even when you swap stars for sand-it looks like Homeworld. Or the unfettered scale of Kharak, your army rendered in miniscule amidst dunes that stretch to the horizon, broken only by the small plumes of dust that kick up from your wheels.

The web of green and red lines that stretch out from your units after a move order. ItвЂ™s in the small touches: The way your little dune buggies whirl around enemy troops, a deadly cloud of interweaving ships looking for an angle. Making what you need, when you need it-hopefully. Sure, you can jump back to the main menu and start any mission with the Default Fleet if youвЂ™ve dug yourself into a hole, but playing the вЂњright wayвЂќ means youвЂ™re alone, a bastion of science and order crawling through canyons and skirting sand dunes. Protect your units, because youвЂ™ll start each mission with whatever survived. It preserved the idea of a ship alone in space, no magical supply lines to replenish you after a Pyrrhic victory.Дeserts of Kharak retains this concept. A unique mechanic, yes, but it was also thematically appropriate. Whatever survived a mission, thatвЂ™s how youвЂ™d start the next. Part of HomeworldвЂ™s appeal was that your units stayed with you throughout the game. The journey is an order of magnitude smaller, but the result is the same: Persistent fleets. Here, you lead your people into the desert in search of an ancient relic, the Jaraci Object or Primary Anomaly.

In Homeworld, you set off across the galaxy in search of a new home. Right away, you set up an obvious parallel to the original series.

It helps that Deserts of Kharak deals in exodus.

Homeworld deserts of kharak