HOMEWORLD FLEET COMMAND

We’re going home, and this time it’s to an RTS from 1999 as Modiphius tackle the sheer intergalactic scale of Homeworld

Words by Christopher John Eggett

Back in the ancient times (by which I mean 1999) there was such thing in the world of video games as a thing called an ‘RTS’. That’s a real time strategy game for those of you who are blessed to have been born this side of the millennium. There was a time when this was the major form of video games, at least on personal computers. Controlling large swathes of troops, ships, orcs, and so on, in the hope of destroying the enemy base was the name of the game. It was intrinsically competitive – and games like StarCraft, Command & Conquer and Age of Empires maintained a strong tournament scene (and in some cases still do). It possible, if you aren’t ancient, that you don’t know that World of Warcraft was just, at one time, a premiere fantasy strategy RTS – and it had nothing to do with getting a ‘sick mount’ at level 65.

But for connoisseurs of the genre, there’s really only one game of scope and scale that’s worth investing huge amounts of time in. And that’s 1999’s Homeworld. Whereas the likes of Starcraft and Conmmand & Conquer had a schlocky, slightly silly form of storytelling, Homeworld as one of the best set-ups for… wandering around space fighting everything. And that is that the player’s take the role of a race of people called the Kushan, who have had their world destroyed by the

Taliidan Empire. They’re simply nomads, in a mothership that can create their fighter craft, attempting to create and deploy enough force into the universe so they can reclaim their ancestral home. The PC game’s major selling point was it was ‘true’ 3D space combat. Not only did players get to command their space forces in the majesty of space, but it really was navigable from above and below. An attack suddenly has much more meaning when it can really come from any direction. The game is one of serene and majestic scenes of space combat, with small fighter ships sweepings and curving through the stars. The soundtrack is the kind of thing that shimmers away in the background.