X
- E10+
- Gearbox Publishing
- E10+
- Gearbox Publishing
- E10+
- Gearbox Publishing
- E10+
- Gearbox Publishing
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
Released On: Jan 20, 2016
79
7.9
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 Critic Reviews
79
75% Positive
41 Reviews
41 Reviews
20% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 Critic Reviews
79
75% Positive
41 Reviews
41 Reviews
20% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
While Blackbird’s HD update of the original Homeworld titles may have shipped with a few nagging bugs, this original and inventive prequel reinvents the series in way I hardly even hoped could be possible. It’s fresh but familiar. It’s Homeworld, but it’s something new. Like its story-chronological successors, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is amazing — there’s simply nothing else like it.
Although Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak doesn’t reinvent the wheel, there is no denying that it is a superb example of how modern Real Time Strategy games should look, feel and play. Accessible, intense and hauntingly beautiful at times, it manages to present a gripping tale of agony and desperation through one of the best single player campaigns the genre has ever witnessed.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 234 User Ratings
7.9
71% Positive
167 Ratings
167 Ratings
19% Mixed
44 Ratings
44 Ratings
10% Negative
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 234 User Ratings
7.9
71% Positive
167 Ratings
167 Ratings
19% Mixed
44 Ratings
44 Ratings
10% Negative
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
Fantastic game. Epic campaign. I don't MP so I won't speak to that but in terms of a tour de force single player campaign, this is it.
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PC
A mega surprise. At first i thought " meh...homeworld on ground ? weird" but as soon I launched it, I was stuck by the quality of the scenario and the artistic beauty of the cut scenes. The game it self lacks some depth in the gameplay, but overall it's quite addictive and fun. The sound is very good and the ambiance is perfect. Homeworld vets are going to really enjoy it. The game isnt built for mutiplayer (Sc2 is far better on this side), but the solo campaign is amazing (one of the best i played since.... Homeworld).. In fact, if the writing **** is perfect , you can accept some defaults..
I put 10 because of the surprise, because of the bravery to launch this kind of game, because it has been created with the hearth and with passion, and you can feel it directly after the first minutes. I also put 10 because of the 0 i saw or less than 5 ,with some crazy argumentations like"the cut scenes wich are not skippable".
"Unskippable Cutscenes put the max score to 4. After 4 minutes of my time, I still could not play. Since they locked me out of the game with this choice, I can only give it Zero." are you serious ? this is the worst comment i red for many times.
very good game, it reminds me the "Mad Max" game, wich was totally unexpected and revealed itself to be a great game
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PC
Despite a somewhat muddled ending, this single player campaign is one of the best in recent years.
Homeworld is not an easy name to tackle, and yet Blackbird Interactive did a great job, maintaining some of the brightest ideas seen in the series, and adapting its gameplay in order to support the new location. It is not as memorable as its predecessors, but it’s still a strong and narrative driven rts, that will be appreciated by fans of the genre.
People who brought us HD editions of original Homeworlds now offer a good RTS with an engaging but rather short (9 hours) story. [03/2016, p.40]
Ultimately, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a bit like a trip to the beach. Sure, the sun’s beaming and you’ll have a great day’s fun, but you still can’t escape that feeling you’ve got sand up your Kharak.
A curious relic, uncovered by a freak sandstorm, and soon to be reclaimed by the desert. [Issue#248, p.58]
Consider yourself lucky to have this game come out in this day and age. A spectacular game in the best and the qualities that made it great then is clearly visible right now. I would be happy if they added some new story points and plot twists to the old game, the terrain addition and slightly improved graphics is just extra.
Nothing else can take us far enough ;)
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PC
A very solid RTS game that will take you back into the beautiful Homeworld universe. The atmospherics are perfect and the narrative is engrossing. The simple act of detonating demolition charges on a wrecked hull to prep it for resource extraction is surprisingly satisfying, and it makes resourcing seem more gritty compared with past entries where you just siphon space dust off of things.
Even so, there are a few moments later in the campaign that feel quite rushed, and the player is not able to experience any real consequences from the major events of the game. Kharak also does not really flex its tactical muscles. There are only a handful of units, and swarm tactics with railguns will usually get the job done. The unit abilities are hit-or-miss, with some being very useful and others being far too situational. There's one mission in the campaign where they just throw so many research upgrades at you, it feels like they were planning for a longer campaign and had to stuff everything in at the end. Kharak is a great venture back into Homeworld, but it also feels like a very conservative entry. They test the waters with a few mechanics: energy/heat management for your mothership and enemy fortifications, but they don't really develop into much of anything. For a game focused exclusively on vehicles it's sad that there's no cover system to speak off, there's no weak points in enemy armor on the flank or rear, and as far as I could tell there wasn't even a way to set formations. Your army of tanks just rolls around the desert in a great big blob, which took some of the oomph out of the large-scale battles. Instead of lining my tank-killers on a ridge and deploying smoke screens so flankers could advance and target the enemy rear, it's more expedient just to steam-roll the enemy with superior force.
TLDR: it's a great story, but a shallow game
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PC
They took out the tactical pause. This means that you play the whole game from the ugly radar view, and it devolves into franticlicking and overuse of strategic control grouping, with almost no tactical action. This is a fail.
Lots of people will hack at the gamers, like me, who want tactical pause for the main reason that it it makes the game look beautiful. My favorite part of homeworld was pausing huge battles or vistas to take in the graphics and let the imagination run wild. The lack of a tactical pause removes this key element.
To be clear- I try to avoid tactical pause, because it makes the game much easier. I am not willing to give it up though, as it ruins the game for me to have to stay in the overhead view, and not be able to be the Director of my own space opera. The original games were challenging with tac pause. Why? Why remove it?
The removal of tactical pause holds this game back from a much higher score, and it was a stupid decision to remove the option entirely. Sorry, I played the game for a few missions, but I will not be completing it because of this horrible decision to remove a fundamental gameplay element from Homeworld.
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PC
Summary A ground-based RTS prequel to the classic Homeworld games. Assemble your fleet and lead them to victory on the shifting sands of Kharak in this strategy game for PC from Blackbird Interactive.
Rated E +10
for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Jan 20, 2016
Developer:
- Blackbird Interactive
Publisher: Gearbox Publishing
Genres:
