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by Robert Coffey
02/25/00
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As much as Homeworld challenged gamers' notions of what a real-time strategy game could be, the official follow-up to the game, Homeworld: Cataclysm, is set to challenge gamers' notions of just what Homeworld itself could be. Sure, the game will feature all the things gamers expect from expansion packs - new ships, new campaign, and so forth - but what makes Cataclysm stand out from the legions of other expansion/bonus/gold/add-on packs is developer Barking Dog Studios' refreshing audacity in making the Homeworld universe all its own.
This preview contains excerpts from CGW's Homeworld: Cataclysm cover story, which appears in the April issue of CGW. |
The difference in Cataclysm begins with the story. Taking place some fifteen years after the events in Homeworld, Cataclysm focuses on the growing pains the Kushan undergo in settling Hiigara. Minor Kiith factions are marginalized and pushed to the outskirts of the fledgling society. One such lesser Kiith, the Somtaaw, have begun lives as deep space miners and traders. There, on the fringes of Hiigara space, your mining vessel is called away from its labor to help a Kushan fleet that is under attack by pirates. As you race to help defend the Kushan, you leave your former life - and the familiar inhabitants of the first game - far behind.
A sketch of infected Beast ships |
This transition from peaceful miner to reluctant warrior is most tangibly depicted in the gradual transformation of your primary mining vessel into a surrogate mothership. As the game progresses, you'll have to jettison enormous ore canisters in order to build research modules on your ship. This also illustrates one of Cataclysm's core design mandates: almost constant tactical decision-making. For instance, you'll have to decide which research module to build first, thus dictating the path your nascent fleet of warships will initially follow. Do you improve your weapons first, or do you beef up your shields in the hope they'll keep your ships in the fight long enough for their piddly guns to take out enemies?
A swarm of fighters converge on a Taaidan cruiser |
You will have to make these kinds of calls almost every step of the way through the twisting plot that is Cataclysm's single-player campaign. The definitive example of this comes in the shape of your worker vessels. These repurposed mining drones are tremendously versatile units that are capable of performing the functions of the harvesters, repair corvettes, and salvage corvettes from the original game. But this versatility forces you to adapt your overall strategy to their use: If you're the kind of player who likes to capture enemy vessels, you'll do so at the expense of resource collection since your workers can only do one thing at a time.
Cataclysm is also under a self-imposed mandate to focus more on tactical action and less on micromanagement. To that end, Barking Dog is making a number of subtle but significant changes. A new fog of war will force players to explore their surroundings instead of just make a beeline for the nearest resource mother lode. A variable time-acceleration feature will speed up those less-than-riveting early build-up portions of the game as well as free players from the ball and chain of the mind-numbingly tedious end-of-mission resource mop-up that hobbled Homeworld. Unique voices are being implemented for all the units, so when gamers hear "I'm taking fire" they'll know just by the voice exactly who is being assaulted. A full-featured waypoint system will let you set up complex exploration and patrol routes, and you'll also be able to issue orders from the sensor manager this time around.
Next: What else is new?
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