Homeworld (Windows)

Discuss Review + Want + Have Contribute

Description

A discovery is about to turn the culture of Kharak upside down. The people, Kushan, are not native to Kharak at all. The discovery of the Guidestone is the ultimate proof that Kushan had came from another solar system, far away. And it's time to go home. The Mothership project united the world. Part base, part construction yard, the Mothership is capable of everything, as you never know what you will find in the void...

Homeworld is a 3D strategy game where you control a mothership and a fleet as you harvest resources, conduct research, and build up your fleet that can vary from small, fast, and nimble scouts to lumbering heavy cruisers. Move your camera in full 3D (up/down/around) and issue full 3D movement orders. Specify 3D formations for your ships, employ cloaked vessels to ambush enemy or employ salvage vessels to capture enemy ships, or defend against them with prox sensors and mines. There is a 17-mission single player campaign, or you can play online in true internet multi-player.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "家园" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "Spaghetti Ball" -- Working title

Part of the Following Groups

• BestSeller Series (Cendant / Havas / Vivendi Universal) releases
• Games with officially released source code
• Homeworld series

User Reviews

Inspired by George Lucas	Sam Hardy (82)	unrated
Revolutionary!	Joseph Bell (33)
Great game, but be ready to spend a lot of time at the screen	Ken Bodiford (2)
An experience, not just a game.	Victor Joseph (9)	unrated
What is wrong with you people?	kvn8907 (179)
A fresh, new perspective on the otherwise stale RTS world.	Dave Schenet (138)	unrated
Great game, Great story	MA17 (260)
3-D Gaming that breaks new ground	MadCat (61)
Command and what?	Derrick 'Knight' Steele (2419)
Space RTS at last !!!	Henry Aloni (64)

Critic Reviews

incite PC Gaming	Dec, 1999	5 out of 5	100
CD-Action	Nov, 1999	10 out of 10	100
NUKE Computer Gaming	2000	9.4 out of 10	94
Game Revolution	Nov, 1999	A-	91
Jeuxvideo.com	Sep 27, 1999	18 out of 20	90
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Jan, 2000		90
Power Unlimited	Nov, 1999	8.8 out of 10	88
Gameplay (Benelux)	Sep 30, 1999	88 out of 100	88
PC Player (Germany)	Nov, 1999	85 out of 100	85
Gamesmania.de	1999	85 out of 100	85

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Not a 4X game	3	Abi79 (361) Feb 04, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Homeworld appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cut content

When asked, The development team at relic said the game will feature 5 different races: Taiidan, Kushan,Turanic Raiders, Kadeshi, and T-mat. In the final version the T-mat was absent. Although the modders community have found a reference to some of their ships in the source, Relic never released more info about them. The T-mat are lost in the Relic development lounge.

Music

The British rock band YES approached Alex Garden to have their coming song put into an idea for the game. They both came into an agreement liking the idea of how Homeworld is pretty down to reality ('we're all finding a way home') and for this specially this game, YES produced the song Homeworld / The Ladder which was the newest single of 1999 and the opening song for their album The Ladder. On the album was a Homeworld trailer.

References

The game contains a reference to the movie Blade Runner. After playing past mission 7, look at your autosaves. Some of them will have a prefix of "Tenhauser Gate," which is part of the dying words of replicant Roy Batty.

Server shutdown

The official Sierra game servers were shut down on 1st November 2008.

Source code

On September 26 2003, the Homeworld source code and accompanying documentation was released by Relic on their Relic Developer Network. It has been stripped of code not owned by Relic Entertainment (including but not limited to the Bink SDK). On February 21, 2004, the code was released to the public

Awards

• CNET GameCenter
  • 1999 - Strategy Game of the Year
• Computer Gaming World
  • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Strategy Game of the Year
  • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Best Manual of the Year
• Gamepower
  • 1999 - Top 5 Strategy Games
• Gamespot
  • 1999 - Best Music of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 1999 - Strategy Game of the Year
  • 1999 - Outstanding Music Award (together with Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Nocturne)
  • 1999 - Outstanding Sound Award (together with Hidden & Dangerous)
  • 2012 – #9 Top PC Gaming Intro
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 12/1999 - #98 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
• Gonegold
  • 1999 - '99 Must Have
• I.D. Magazine
  • 2000 - Silver Award (Interactive Media Design)
• PC Gamer
  • 1999 - Game of the Year
  • April 2005 - #46 on the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
• PC Player (Germany)
  • Issue 01/2000 - Most Original Game in 1999
• PC Zone
  • 1999 - Game of the Year
• Power Play
  • Issue 02/2000 – Most Innovative Game in 1999

Information also contributed by Carlos Aquino, DarkDante; Henry Aloni, Indra was here, Maw; PCGamer77, Sciere and Scott Monster

Related Web Sites

• Homeworld (Relic's website for reference of the game. Includes screenshots, concept art, ships descriptions...)
• Homeworld @ GamingHaven.com (Game reviews, links, screenshots and more.)
• Pilotview How-To (View the battles from a pilot's point of view! Right click your Homeworld shortcut and add the switch /pilotView to homeworld.exe. In game, focus on any unit and press "Q". This even works for enemy units!
  
  The pilotView functionality requires Homeworld version 1.4 or greater.)