Homeworld 2 (PC)

First off, several of the niggling little interface issues that had bugged me during HW1 have been nicely solved. The on-screen display is well thought out, with lots of the information you need right there as you need it. Commanding squadrons rather than individuals is an excellent new idea.

Secondly, as someone who doesn't play online (I have had my fill of testosterone-poisoned adolescents with kewl illiterate spelling skillz) I value the single-player missions the most and here HW2 delivers well. Lots of variation in the approaches needed and several missions that took at least five attempts to do perfectly.

Finally, it's at least as beautiful as the original but on a larger scale; some of the battles are titanic in scale, with hundreds of ships.

The only thing that I'd change (apart from more missions) is the tendency of the game to take over when you've completed a mission. For example, at the end of Mission 14 I left the final target spaceship unkilled just so I had time to rebuild my fleet, mop up the last few Vaygr and generally have fun. On HW1 it was my choice when to end the mission, HW2 does it for you. But that's a pretty minor gripe.

Would I recommend it? If you liked HW1 and/or Cataclysm, yes, go and spend the money. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Published by Sierra, it was developed by relic who brought you Homeworld and Impossible Creatures. Both are well finished games and HW2 promises to continue this tradition judging from the 141 Mb demo. The developers are listening keenly to feedback from the demo and are likely to support it properly.

The player community is mostly civilised and friendly and can be found via sites such as relicnews.com (where you will find links to the demo) and connects for MP through Gamespy. CPU battles are available with a much better AI than Homeworld or Cataclysm.

A battle usually involves managing resource gathering to build a fleet of warships of your choice. The resource conditions are more configurable in HW2. You can change starting resources and the rate it is gathered. Finance injection is not in the demo and I dont know know if it is in the full game.

Homeworld 2 allows you to modify the larger ships by building extra modules on them (at a price) in a variety of combinations of your choosing to give them the capabilities suited to the strategies you decide to use. These include hyperspace ability, hyperspace inhibitors, stealth, sensors, research and ship production. HW2 also allows you to target the modules of enemy ships independantly and salvage useful scrap from cap-ships you destroy. HW2 promises a range of effective strategies, so MP strategy is expected to evolve over a long period of time. Ships range from fighters and fighter bombers through corvettes with distinct anti-fighter or anti-capship roles, frigates are specialised similarly and there are designs which will allow spacemarine assault and capture of enemy vessels, cloaking, defence etc in the tech tree. Carriers, battlecruisers and the new shipyards (which can build the largest vessels except the mothership) are in the full game. Try "Homeworld Shipyards" at well-of-souls.com for more ship info.

The single player story is an entertaining continuation of the Homeworld theme and is about a struggle for power between the indomitable Hiigarans and the deadly Vagyr invaders. It features beautifully formed ships with specialised roles which the player must use to their full effect. The graphics are a big improvement on Homeworld and require a 32Mb OpenGL capable card and a 833MHz CPU minimum and to be honest needs a card which can run with antialiasing enabled so check your specs to avoid frustration. The easiest way to be sure is to try the demo which allows you to play the first two SP missions and MP on two maps and CPU games with a limited selection of Higaran ships.