[PC] Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

[christian]

http://www.desertsofkharak.com

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Announce trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7beE0NgnmU

[christian]

Primary Anomaly trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ior9JoUE0

[christian]

The Transmission trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXYmmsARe8

[christian]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... stcount=19

Incidental thing...strike fighter getting tagged by enemy AA. Fuselage detonates and fragments after missile hit, fighter breaks apart, but the inertia carries the flaming shards for kilometres before clipping the top of dunes, throwing up plumes of dust and fire.

Wonderful attention to detail.

[christian]

What a wonderfully stylish game. I love the music, sound design, the glorious desert, and the intriguing scenario. Such a rich atmosphere. It reminds me of XCOM, playing the commander charged with the fate of humanity, barely scraping by with limited resources and a modest army. The opening cutscene, in particular, with the desert mothership finally setting off on its expedition really melted my heart. It's great sci-fi, and a beautiful setup for a game.

[christian]

Launch trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZNc6Cr5O-E

[christian]

I was expecting to have failed a mission by now. I was never any good at the original, and I'm playing this on classic difficulty. But I've already completed up to the fourth mission. Not like the fourth mission was a cake walk, mind you. That's really when the game starts getting serious. You have to install sensors at three different wreckage points on the map, defend them long enough to complete a scan, and survive the final enemy onslaught. You spend a lot of time switching in and out of the sensors managers, because you have to keep three (four if you count your main base) sites active at once, and depending on what happened the last few missions, your army may not stretch that thin. It was quite a thrilling mission that I'm only too surprised ended in victory, considering I had completely lost control of one of my wreckage points at the beginning, and had my veteran LAV squad completely wiped out. Even the mothership Kapisi was down below half health toward the end, because as soon as the scan was complete, the enemy came pouring into my undefended base. Woops.

I hope someone makes a mod that allows you to zoom out into the sensors manager.

[christian]

PC Gamer review - http://www.pcgamer.com/homeworld-desert ... ak-review/

The missions themselves leave a bit to be desired in terms of pacing. I was always left alone while my salvagers picked the map clean of resources, which made of a lot of dull waiting around, but the persistent units and resources in the campaign encourages exactly this kind of cautious, risk averse play. After a game like Legacy of the Void, where there's always some new crisis to deal with, the missions in Deserts of Kharak seemed a bit too passive, waiting for me to trigger the next event rather than creating a sense of urgency.

Just like in some of the original Homeworld missions!

Anyway, the third mission definitely has this problem. But for a good reason. It's set in the middle of nowhere during a sandstorm that's interfering with your sensors. It makes sense (sort of) that the enemy can't really scout you out and attack in those conditions, leaving you free to salvage at a leisurely pace. The next mission, however, is an altogether different story.

Also, check out this screenshot from his review.

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This is from the second mission, and when I saw it, I was blown away. Zacny's final verdict is that it's "a great tactical RTS with all the gorgeous aesthetics and atmosphere of the original series." Actually, I think the aesthetics and atmosphere far exceed the original. But is it a better game than the original? I'm inclined to say so!

[christian]

RPS review - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/0 ... rak-review

The stand-out element, however, is the sound design. Over long years, we’ve miserably adjusted to the idea that all you can do with unit chatter is have each guy say something funny or militaryesque when you click on them, but Kharak casually rewrites the rules. Either by selecting units or by just hanging around and listening, you’ll hear the units talk amongst themselves. Select a unit and while sometimes they’ll just give an ‘acknowledged’, other times a more involved, context-sensitive reaction to whatever you’ve ordered them to do. An endangered unit might thank you for sending in air support. A ship which has spotted incoming enemies will tell you what type of craft they are. Idle units will chatter amongst themselves at length about faults and tactics.

As well as successfully giving you a general sense of what’s going via audio alone, it sounds natural and responsive, rather than mechanical and repetitive – all adding to that sense that this is a large and well-oiled military machine, not just some cute little guys who popped out of a magic factory. Kharak might not otherwise be a landmark moment for the genre, but its unit audio does set new standards. It’s going to be so disappointing to play a strategy game filled with tinned quips after this.

[christian]

Grounded Gameplay Design - http://blackbirdinteractive.com/2016/01/22/1260