I don't know why I'm compelled to review this game so late. I guess for the same reason I'm compelled to play it.
And yeah, Homeworld 2 is both things. Back when it came out it was a love it or hate it kind of game. I hated it. As I suspect, many hardcore fans of the original Homeworld did. Homeworld 1 was the 2001 of RTSs. Homeworld 2 felt like the Michael Bay version of the same thing. It lacked the solid quality of the first, the x factor that made it so compelling from the beginning. Homeworld 2 just wasn't as special. You can blame many things. You can blame the story, for instance. The original sported a Moses-like story of a woman becoming a cyborg mothership the size of a small planet and leading the remainder of her people towards their promised land (by flying right through a huge army). I mean, Homeworld's first mission started with genocide and worldwide destruction. You can't really beat that, can you? By the way, if you get the chance, read the manual of the original HW. The writing of the backstory is top notch.
Then there's the faster pace, which makes the second game feel more like other "rush" RTSs. It's still slow, deliberate and it forces you to plan ahead and execute your plan... just not as much as HW. Ships feel faster, so making a mistake when moving your larger fleets no longer results in having your fleet turned into scrap metal before you can correct their course. Or rather, it still happens just not so much.
But here's the thing. Those gameplay elements from the first game that are missing? Those were the FLAWS of Homeworld 1. Yeah, things move faster and you no longer get to spend fifteen minutes after every battle harvesting resources on an empty map and rebuilding your army... but, honestly, unless you were so engrossed on everything else in a game that just looking at it without playing felt worthwhile, why would you want to? Homeworld 2 just gives you all the resources you'd have gathered yourself in HW and moves you to the next level without asking. When I bought the game I actually felt outraged with the change. But then something happened. I'd been stressed and looking for a relaxing game to play. The great soundtrack of Homeworld felt like a good choice, and I looked for the game. I must have left it in my parent's house, because I couldn't find it right away. Besides, I'd finished that one, but not HW2, so that's what I installed.
And, of course, I loved it.
The first thing that crossed my mind was "damn, this game did what SupCom does four years ago". Everybody remembers HW for moving strategy to 3D, but the most interesting addition was the strategic map that is available just by zooming out the game (actually, you have to tap space, but the closest zoom of one view seamlessly starts where the furthest one of the other ends). HW2, unlike the first, allows you to set waypoints that actually work and has amazing AI that can do the job unsupervised (again, some fans complained about this) but still gets better if you micromanage it.
Also, story aside, everything else just feels better now. Just like HW, HW2 seems to have been a game before its age. Sure, it's faster and there are more resources, no fuel and cheaper units. That's all good. The focus is on moving the ships you can get. I found myself playing with a maxed out armada all the time, and still having to plan ahead or get squashed by lesser enemy forces. I've finished missions without gathering a single resource unit. The first time I played that seemed so wrong, like I hadn't earned my win. This time, though, after Dawn of War and a whole bunch of more tactical RTSs, it feels great to just start with what I need and fight my way to victory with that. And you know what? This game is still pretty. And still sounds great (no Yes song, though). So there you go, no reason to not replay this one, or looking for it on eBay or your local used games bin. If you didn't like it the first time, your perspective might have changed, too. If you didn't know it existed, you should really play it. If you've finished SupCom and are still convinced that its seamless tactic/strategic integration is 100% new, you need to look at this one again. The ranking below is relative to 2007 releases and, you know what? It beats what I'd have given it in 2003.
A final word about HW: Cataclysm. I don't like it. Never will. It became too complex, with all the small ships that combined into bigger ones and weird technology (the original HW manual remarked that there were no energy shields or crap like that in the HW universe: shots punch holes in spaceships, period. HWC sported clichéd tech of that kind). Plus, the time compression killed the pace.