However, that doesn't stop it from being a completely addictive -- if sometimes incredibly difficult -- addition to the Homeworld universe. The Hiigaran, descendants of the Kushan whose home you helped reclaim in the original Homeworld, now face a new test. It just may be the coming of the End Time, characterized by the appearance of the Sajuuk-Khar, a sort of second coming of a demigod Sajuuk.
A member of the warlike race of the Vaygr believes he is the Sajuuk-Khar. Now, using the hyperspace core from the original mothership, the Hiigaran build a new mothership to take on the Vaygr, to defend their home, to find out what really lies in the shaded past of its race.
The plot is advanced through the use of black and white video -- just as it was in the original Homeworld -- and the similarities don't end there. The Hiigaran mothership in Homeworld2 is identical to the Kushan mothership from Homeworld. The graphics, though filled with more detail, higher polygon models, and newfangled lighting effects, look almost identical to the untrained eye.
Ships still leave funky trails behind them as they zip through the galaxy. Space combat still consists of your and the enemy's ships making passes at each other unleashing torrents of lasers, missiles, photon beams, and other beams and projectiles at each other.
Homeworld2 employs the same resource management model as the original. There's only one resource to collect, imaginatively called resource units, or RUs, which are mined from asteroids by your resource collectors. Homeworld2 is, at its heart, an RTS, so you use those resources to build offensive, defensive, and utility units. The offensive units consist of a number of ships, from tiny scouts and fighters to massive destroyers and battlecruisers.
Defensive units are weapons platforms. Utility units are things like resource collectors, mobile refineries for processing resources, probes, sensors, and so on.
Though all of your ships are mobile, there's still some Command and Conquer style base building; you'll rarely move your mothership, so it, your carriers, your shipyard, and your defensive weapon platforms are, functionally, a base.
The mechanics of moving ships around, issuing attack orders, and other necessities is another carryover from the original. Space is three-dimensional, so you not only move your units forward, backward, left and right, but also up and down. This aspect of the original Homeworld offered a new dimension pun intended of strategy to the RTS genre: now you could flank not only from left or right, but from above and below.
It's easier than it sounds to navigate 3D space: simply hold the shift key when you're issuing a move order to jump off of the 2D plane and raise or lower the reticle. Not everything about Homeworld2 is identical to the original. Relic tackled one of the original's points of contention -- mind-numbing micromanagement -- with a multifold strategy that achieves mixed results. For one thing, when you order your mothership or carrier to build small ships, such as fighters and corvette class ships, they actually build squadrons, not individual ships.
You never directly control a single interceptor or bomber or other small vessel; you issue commands to a squadron of three or five. Secondly, Relic has meshed squadron behavior and formation management. You no longer assign squads of ships into a formation of your choosing; instead, you tell them how you want them to handle it when the enemy approaches, passive, aggressive, or defensive. Each tactics setting has its own formation. This is a disappointment; selecting an appropriate formation for the missions we had in mind was one of the micromanagement details we liked in the original.
Happily, Relic made it possible to combine groups of dissimilar ships into strike groups. This goes above and beyond the standard RTS grouping system in which you band-box a clump of units and hit control-plus-a-number to form groups that are quickly selectable. All of the ships in a strike group travel as fast as the slowest vessel so that they stay together -- this makes it easier to coordinate an attack with different ships that move different speeds.
Ultimately, it's difficult to see many veteran Homeworld fans being upset at the state of this epic sequel. It's lavish in detail, rich in gameplay and hugely atmospheric. And the space battles are among the most magnificent we've ever seen. If, as we suspect, Relic still has a few novel surprises up its sleeve, Homeworld 2 could meet every one of our lofty expectations. The Original Homeworld was a game of stunning playability and originality. As well as those cute little glowing trails behind the spacecraft, it took space strategy games to a whole new level by immersing the player in a 3D environment where you could move on both x and y axes.
It was a groundbreaking concept that won countless awards, including one for bravery for rescuing a six-year-old boy out of a well. Actually, we could be wrong about that last part.
The plot of Homeworld 2 continues pretty much where events left off in HW. After the Taiidan were defeated, the Hiigarans returned to their homeworld with the hyperspace core. There, they began to build a new mothership and, as luck would have it, it's a project they complete just as a new threat known as the Vaygr attacks.
It's at this point the action kicks in with you assuming control of the mothership and whisking it away to safety. From here on in it's off into the big black yonder to find out what the Vaygr want and to then utterly destroy them regardless.
Emulating the success of HW was never going to be easy. So, in taking the safe option. Relic has decided to keep the gameplay pretty much as it was. The linear, mission-driven plot puts the onus on massive battles against hundreds of whirling fighters and giant dreadnoughts. In some sense this qualifies HW2 for admission in the 'is this just a glorified expansion pack?
That said, the level of thought and detail that's gone into HW2 is imperious. And we're not just talking about the paint jobs on the fighters or a few rib-shaking explosions -it's the inner workings of the engine that moves the MW universe forward.
HW2 presents a tactical twist on the space combat genre by having spaceships comprisj of various destructible sections.
Essentially, the larger a spacecraft, the more destructible components it is made up from. Take the carriers, for example. Straight out of the factory, they consist of engines at the rear, with the main bulk of the craft up front.
But when upgraded, additional nodes like fighter and frigate manufacturing facilities, resource collection modules and more can be bolted on to the shell. The impressive thing about this is that ships do take on individual characteristics both visually and in their attack role. This lets you hone your fleet extensively. You can have twoc class ships - one ing in marine frigate deployment handy for taking control of enemy vessels and other for resource collection and repairs.
Such attention to detail does have its drawbacks though. Destroying larger craft like the carriers is a tough and complex assignment. Launching bombers and gunships at it until there are so many plasma trails around they merge into one big glowing ball of string is not always the best idea.
The most effective method is to target the most important areas first such as the engines and ship production facilities and then take the bloody thing to pieces bit by bit. For a seasoned pro this can be a highly rewarding experience, especially when it does finally - and spectacularly - disintegrate and explode in an orgy of pyrotechnical theatre. If you're not so keen on getting down and dirty with such combat intricacies, things can get confusing and frustrating - not too mention downright bloody irritating.
When you've just restarted the mission for the 10th time, and you're still not sure why that Vaygr carrier keeps mysteriously launching fighters at you despite the fact you've just blown away its fighter facility, it's not so easy to go all gooeyeyed over a few fireworks. HW2 is certainly not for novice strategists. OK, it does feature a tutorial covering all aspects of interface and control, but it never elaborates too much. The lack of a difficulty setting doesn't help either.
Like it or not, your choice is hard, hard or hard. The skirmish mode is slightly more generous. There are three settings from which to choose here, with around 10 maps to try out. And take it from us, the most effective tutorial you can give yourself is to stick around here for a few hours playing on the easy setting.
At least you get more time to work things out and see what goodies you can produce - oh, and it's good practice for multiplayer too.
Back in the campaign, free time is unheard of. The Al is cunning and rarely employs rush tactics. Instead, it wears defences down with wave after wave of measured assault. Defensive tactics are just as calculated; it will not hesitate to throw down half a dozen or so heavy gun platforms just to protect its resource collectors. An expedition had been sent by the Coalition of the Northern Kiithid, a group of Kushan clans from the northern polar region of Kharak, but had disappeared in the desert four years earlier; the in-game campaign centers around a second expedition, and its chief science officer, Rachel S'jet.
Rachel's expedition, centered around the Kiith S'jet land carrier Kapisi, departs from Epsilon Base in the Kharakian desert. Shortly after the expedition departs, however, Kiith Gaalsien a group of religious zealots exiled from mainstream Kharakian society attack and destroy a number of Coalition bases, including Epsilon, and lay siege to the city of Tiir, the planetary capital.
The Gaalsien then attack the Kapisi at a S'jet base known as the Boneyard, while the Kapisi is undergoing final outfitting for desert operations.
A masked Gaalsien commander named Khagaan declares that the Coalition's use of satellites and other space-based technology violates the law of the Great Maker, Sajuuk, and the Gaalsien declare war on the Coalition.
Escaping from the Boneyard under cover of a sandstorm, the Kapisi searches for their sister ship, the Kiith Siidim carrier Sakala, which also escaped its base after a Gaalsien attack. In a region called Hell's Gate, the expedition stumbles upon the wreck of a previously launched S'jet carrier, the Ifriit Naabal, the flagship of the first expedition four years earlier; Rachel's elder brother Jacob had been first officer of the carrier, which recovered an artifact from the wreckage of a space-going vessel called the Kalash.
The expedition moves in to salvage more artifacts from the Kalash, but come under attack from superior Gaalsien forces, led by Khagaan from the carrier Ashoka.
Just as the expedition is about to be overrun, the Sakala and its escorts arrive with reinforcements, driving the Gaalsien forces off. The Sakala draws off the Ashoka while the Kapisi attacks the Gaalsien resource operations, but the Gaalsien carrier changes course to attack the Kapisi and its escorts.
0コメント