Playing Homeworld today, I'm struck by how much it reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica remake, which was still six years away when the original game came out. It does its share to add to the package as a whole, extending the story and building on the overall universe but ten years on, the differences between the original and the sequel are pretty much moot outside of their campaigns. Outside of their individual stories, they are barely distinguishable from one another, especially with Homeworld now sharing Homeworld 2's engine and balance changes. They are structured much the same, both featuring a mothership on the run from implacable foes seeking their destruction, and both including persistent campaigns in which units and resources carry over from mission to mission. Homeworld 2Īt first blush, Homeworld and its sequel are pretty similar. But its sheer novelty won it many avid fans. True, navigating a 3D plane could be a tad disorienting, especially since 3D cameras weren't exactly widespread at that point. Conceived during the golden age of real-time strategy, when StarCraft and Command & Conquer were in full bloom, Homeworld turned heads with its 3D starship combat.

Homeworld Remastered Collection's graphics build on the legacy of the original, which itself was quite a looker when it came out back in 1999. If you haven't seen it in action yet, I urge you to find a video. The battles are gorgeous - a pyrotechnic display that can be viewed from any angle, and can be zoomed all the way up to individual fighters. Gearbox's remake dramatically updates the visuals of the original games, bringing with it 4K support and vastly more detailed models. For that reason, Homeworld Remastered Collection still feels fresh and unique even today, especially now that it has received a fresh coat of paint. Precious few developers have had the chops or the ambition to create another real-time space strategy game of Homeworld's scale, and fewer still have been willing to use the all-important z-axis, which sits at the core of the original's gameplay. Some fifteen years after its original release, there are still very few games like Homeworld.

Homeworld remastered collection