First of all, let's start by reminding young people of what Homeworld is. Released in 1999 and developed by Relic Entertainment, which later offered us Warhammer 40: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, this real-time strategy game stood out thanks to its space theme, its sublime graphics, its soundtrack high-flying and, above all, its 000D gameplay. Understand by this that unlike classic RTS which take place on flat maps, Homeworld, as well as its aptly named sequel Homeworld 3, offer fights taking place in space. Suddenly, it is possible to approach enemy units from all sides, including the top or bottom. This specificity still remains an exception today, which fully justifies the existence of Homeworld Remastered Collection, both for nostalgic and new players. The rest of the gameplay is more classic, since it relies unsurprisingly on the harvesting of resources and the construction of more or less expensive units with different strengths and weaknesses. It should be noted all the same that it is important to play with the formations of the squadrons to optimize its chances of victory, and that the campaigns of the two games can be qualified as slightly dynamic, since the units which come out unscathed from a mission are kept for the next one. This results in a fairly high level of difficulty, especially when passing one of the levels of the campaign narrowly and therefore having to approach the following ones with reduced numbers. This little "hardcore gamer" side goes hand in hand with a fairly slow pace, especially during the resource harvesting phases, and an interface that is not always easy to understand since it must transcribe on a 2D surface (the player's screen) the possibility to navigate to any point of a gigantic 2D cube (the level map). Finally, note that the two scenarios are not lacking in interest and are even relatively addictive, especially that of the first episode. The journey of the Kushan people, who cross the galaxy aboard a gigantic ship in order to find their home planet, is perfectly told.
HOME SWEET HOME
So that's it for a quick summary of the great qualities and small initial flaws of the two Homeworlds. But this edition is far from being a simple compilation. First of all, the first episode was worn on the engine of the second, released in 2003 and more likely to flatter our retinas. Then this engine itself has been improved to work best on modern PCs. The user interface has also been redesigned for greater clarity, while small but multiple gameplay adjustments have been made (especially for the first episode, which also automatically benefits from the new features that appeared in the second). The soundtrack was remastered, while the actors of the time were brought in to re-record the vocals. Finally, all of the game's textures, ships and nebulae, have been reworked to provide a level of detail worthy of modern times. Result of the races: we are entitled to a real new version of the two games and not a simple port. Suddenly, our wonder is intact. Zooming in on the units allows you to observe the many new details, the ballets of the hunters are performed against starry backgrounds that are more attractive than ever, and our ears are treated with the greatest care. The multiplayer aspect has been enriched thanks to the reunification in the same menu of the multiplayer modes of the two episodes. This means that fans of online games will now be able to pit the factions of the first game against those of the second. The icing on the cake, Homeworld Remastered Collection offers us as a bonus the original versions of Homeworld and Homeworld 2, for those who would like to rediscover the pure sensations of yesteryear, limitations in terms of graphic resolutions included. In the symphony of praise that could be addressed to this reissue, only one real false note is heard. It is unfortunately significant since it is the total absence of the Homeworld Cataclysm component released in 2000. We can at a pinch accept the absence of a remastered version, since the developers claim that the original source code does not could not be found. But that did not prevent us from providing an original version of this stand-alone, which is far from lacking in interest!
