The story involves a group of people who, after hundreds of years of war, discover they are aliens to the place they call home. The desire to return home grows stronger as they begin to find artifacts that point their way home. The old enemies then band together to create the largest starship ever, to allow them to return to their true home. This is where the single player campaign picks up and unfolds throughout the title. The back-story is explained in ever further detail while reading the well-detailed and informative manual included with the title.

The in-game presentation of the evolving story is fantastic. Using full voice-overs, (which are very well done I might add) emotional impact, as well as the importance of the task at hand can be fully realized by the player. Between mission cinematics seem to be created using animation with a hint of industrial influence. In game events are all played out in real time, which are no less impressive.

When I first saw the screens of this title a while back, I simply couldn’t believe it would look as good as the screens promised. The developers of Homeworld, Relic, did a good job keeping this promise. Even in Software Mode, Homeworld can be a visual treat. All ships are colorful and painstakingly detailed. Little details like lights on the hull of the ships blinking on a steady rhythm, and the ambient glow from a capital ship’s engines as you slightly adjust course, are all part of what makes this title immersive. The backgrounds are nice to look at, but they don't seem to change often enough to keep the battlefield varied.

The weapon effects are really well done. There is nothing like watching your small fleet of Ion Frigates rip into an enemy destroyer. The result is usually a rather nice looking explosion. When watching the handiwork of a recently laid minefield, you can notice the large ships in the enemy’s fleet rock back and forth as the explosive force of your trap is unleashed around them. In fact, this effect seems to be used with all the ship models, which only goes to further demonstrate the nice physics model used in Homeworld.

Gameplay structure is the most important thing Homeworld expands upon. It is one of the first titles of its kind. Using a complete 3D enviroment, Homeworld emulates the depth of space perfectly. Players as well as the AI can engage the opposing side from multiple vectors. The AI actually utilizes this option effectively. On occasion, I have had an entire enemy fleet pass right over me and go unnoticed till I double-checked the sensor screen. The 3D environment just gives the game a lot more depth.

The game has been sped up a little bit since the last time I played it. This is a very welcome change as I found the overall fleet movement slow, and the AI a bit complacent, in the early version, but all this has seemed to have changed. Units build a little f aster and attacks seem to move along a bit quicker.

Real Time Strategy titles, in the past, have included formations as an option but were never fully utilized. Not only are the formations in Homeworld functional, you can actually notice a difference in attack pattern in all of these modes. The sphere formation for example, is probably my favorite. In this formation the selected crafts form a three dimensional sphere formation, in which they attack their enemy by having this sphere surround it. From that point, each craft in the formation opens fire from multiple vectors. This normally wouldn’t seem to matter so much, but the ships in Homeworld have areas of weakness that can and need to be exploited.

Although the Mothership moves slowly, it still has the ability to mount a huge offense or defense. Using the research ship (which can be upgraded 5 times to increase research speed) the Mothership can eventually create the largest ships to bring into service. The Mothership can also store many fighters and corve ttes in it's fighter bays. All of these little ships can be unleashed at a moments notice. The Mothership can also create a carrier, which can serve as a more mobile Mothership unit. The drawback of the carrier as a primary construction center, is the fact it can only build up to frigate class starships.

Hyperspacing is a neat little option as well. For a certain amount of credits, a player can surprise his enemy with a whole fleet, hyperspacing in behind them and firing. This feature can add a lot to gameplay strategies if used correctly.

As far as sound goes Homeworld performs well. The sound effects seem to have this strange hollow tinge that adds to the excellent emulation of the vastness of space. As mentioned earlier, the voice-overs are very well done and are actually able to stir up emotion during key points of the single player campaign. The eerie soundtrack also adds a little something to a title, it never seems to make itself a nuisance, or let us forget it’s there.

Control had to be my biggest worry initially. Since the player has full control of the camera, I was really afraid the this process would be far to complicated to carry on. It turns out a lot of the main camera control is harnessed by the two mouse buttons. The rest is controlled with 3 or 4 easy to locate keyboard commands. After a few minutes in the very well done tutorial, it becomes second nature in no time. Battle control is gained through easy to access drop down menus and windows.