Homeworld Remastered Collection

Image by Rob Cunningham and Jon Aaron Kambeitz

Homeworld is one of those games that has been ingrained in my memory forever. As a kid I loved how it portrayed the space combat in all its glory and of course its touching story. I still have my copy backed up (and the original CD too!) and I try to replay it each year. The graphics may have gotten older and uglier, but the advanced gameplay mechanics, challenging gameplay and tactical combat is still beyond anything comparable today. Above all, the story is written and told in such a way that I never get tired of hearing it. The soundtrack is still unlike anything I've heard today. The collection of harsh, cold and mystic melodies is still the best "space soundtrack" I've heard. It's like that classic book/film that you just have to pick up and read/watch every time you come across it. Homeworld was a labor of love and it showed this in every way.

Homeworld 2 is an equally remarkable masterpiece. It was what MGS2 was to MGS. The story was essentially another variation of the first one but the Vaygr still proved themselves to be as powerful, vile and arrogant as the Taiidan. It improved upon the mechanics of the first game and made the ship combat a bit more complicated but enjoyable. The general story was a bit weaker than the first one but the execution was still good. Its graphics were amazing for its day and the general art direction was a bit more stylized than the hard and cold lines of the Homeworld. It still looks great today.

Unfortunately, after Sierra went down, the rights to this franchise was handed to THQ along with the developer Relic Entertainment. THQ didn't want to do anything with the franchise at all, despite numerous rumors about its revival. With no digital sales anywhere, this piece of art was left to be forgotten for more than a decade. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for them) THQ declared bankruptcy and it was quickly dismantled after various auctions. The Homeworld IP was snatched by Gearbox, a company of "hit and misses" in my eyes. I was naturally concerned with the possible milking of the franchise but to my surprise Gearbox showed great respect for it and vowed to remaster the first two games to preserve them forever. It's also worth noting that to this date, there's no legal way of obtaining Homeworld other than looking for second hand copies or paying 200+$ for originals kept my collectors. The remaster also is also important in reviving this franchise financially.

Gearbox didn't bang their drums and sound the trumpets as they were remastering it, but kept relatively quiet and showed most of their advances in various events and conferences instead. I absolutely fell in love with the stuff they showed. The graphics looked amazing, the new higher quality sound effects and cutscenes looked stellar. I couldn't wait for it and the development seemed to take forever . . . until yesterday.

Yesterday Gearbox has announced that the remastered collection is up for preorder on Steam. They also released numerous trailers and screenshots to go along with it and oh my god, it's just amazing. I really can't wait for the release. Just watch the trailer and gameplay below and you'll understand my excitement!

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About Rak

I'm an engineer who likes to write extremely long articles about games that border simulation and mainstream.