How Does Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak Compare to Previous Homeworlds?
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- FRANCHISE SPOILERS. This is a video critique of the 2016 Homeworld Prequel from Blackbird Interactive. The idea is to place it in context with the spacefaring titles that came before and pin down if it fits in with their gameplay and aesthetic.
If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider supporting me on Patreon!
/ noahcaldwellgervais 
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Speaking of the emotional weight of the original Homeworld, the single most emotional moment for me is when Fleet Command is reporting the "all orbital facilities have been destroyed". He's calm and professional, but you can hear his voice falter at the end of the statement where almost loses control of his emotions.
I hated it. It's like, "seriously man, you're watching fucking genocide and you give no shits".
I've been replaying the series currently (annual tradition of mine xd), and noticed that the same tone is present in DoK. One of my favorite instances is during the first shipbreaking mission. When the Sakala reinforces your position you can hear relief cracking the stoic delivery of mission control. I love it!
Also present at the final mission of homeworld 2 when you can hear the fear of losing hiigara in his voice, it really hits hard. And when your capital ships are destroyed you can hear a faint sadness in the voice of karan.
Plus Barber in the background. One of the most emotive scenes I’ve encounter so far
Interesting note, Gearbox replaced the scene of the vehicle approaching the Khar-Toba in Homeworld Remastered with the one made for Deserts of Kharak to increase their continuity.
One key thing that DoK also had which reinforces the Gaalsien prophecies about being destroyed, the Gaalsien had been salvaging crashed spaceships for a long time which you encounter in some later missions in the DoK campaign. It's entirely possible they were able to power the computer system of some of them at some point in the ancient past and re-learned about the banishment by the Taiidan.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who realised this game was like playing the Homeworld "Historical manual" story. Despite the move to land, I was absolutely pleased to play this game.
These manuals were great. Why did everybody got rid of them?
Planet and space battles? Look out Empires at war. You may have a new contender.
I love the fact that we finally get a definitive hint at the real sizes of the Homeworld fleet ships. The landcarriers top out at above half a kilometer. The Taiidan Saarkin-Cho class carrier looks to be an immense 2.5-3 kilometers. This actually
That opening shot is amazing
I agree
Indeed
Could not agree me
10:00 Fun thing: Here in 2020, the same developers are gearing up to release "Hardspace: Shipbreaker," a first-person spacebound ship-salvaging game. I wonder if they had the idea in mind as a sequel back before they got the Homeworld IP, and what it means now that their hypothetical sequel is now the first in a series.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is definitely aesthetically related to Homeworld still, even if it's not explicitly in the same universe.
Honestly I loved this game, it hit emotional chords with me that haven't been hit in a very long time. That final reveal of Khar-Toba and the city surrounding it was incredible. The music, too, was absolutely stellar.
Mr.Science Agreed. To be honest, DoK is my favorite game in the series.
Dreamlands I love all the games, but DOK is pretty up there in my list of favourite games.
Mr.Science Yeah dont get me wrong, Homeworld is my favorite series ever pretty much. I just felt the narrative quality and mission design in DoK was near perfect.
I once pirated Homeworld but never played the campaign, only skirmish. I played this game's campaign first and looked on in horror as Kharak was glassed in the third mission of the remastered edition. What hurt most is that the bloody dunies were right.
I imagine the terrestrial fleets in this game struck a cord with you now that you're traveling yourself.
aka 'Dune'...
Star Map to Humanity Origin. This is a gift of knowledge. Share & spread the knowledge. Sharing is Caring.
mars-eden-project-starmap.blogspot.com/2017/07/original-star-system-of-modern-human.html
To be fair, the fact that the Sidiim captain was referring to people as "Gritidiim" should have been a pretty major red flag if you've read the original manual. For context, it's basically the N-word mixed with neo-Nazi connotations of ethnic cleansing. But I agree it's still a shock - as it should be.
It also serves to frame Rachel's decision to bring the guidestone direct to the kiith council to prevent it being exploited for any one Kiith's gain, including her own - a counterpoint to Cataclysm's political motivations for hoarding a new discovery, which leads to disaster.
"Connotations of ethnic cleaning" That is not correct. Possibly in a specific context but not as such.
The definition of "neo-nazi" also tend to generally be employed with a lack of care for accurate standards
@@Fridaey13txhOktober I don't see why it's an unreasonable shorthand to convey to people the connotations of "Gritidiim"
The Historical and Technical briefing mentions pogroms, attempts at subjugation based on race, and forced displacement away from water sources (which is a *big deal* on a desert planet, of course.)
If someone turned around and said "We told you we should have purged the untermensch while we had a chance!" it'd be roughly equivalent to the way the Sidiim captain uses the word Gritidiim - and you'd think "Oh god, what a fucking nutcase!" because it carries similar social baggage.
criminally underrated franchise with an amazing amount of detailed lore. love it!
It's been awhile since I actually played Deserts of Kharak but I think I may have known of the potential betrayal by Kiith Siidim, as the story about Kiith Paktu was always my favorite and most remembered story from the original backstory.
"I can smell the sea."
Fantastic video. Best analysis of the narrative and gameplay Ive seen. Well done man.
Apart from the (pretty severe) performance issues, I loved this game and wish it was longer. I find myself hoping someone survived the destruction of Kharak just so we would have to go back and rescue them in Homeworld 4.
For me it stutter pretty frequently which is annoying and very disappointing since that's the ONLY problem with this game for me and it totally broke my enjoyment
I always thought about a game story about the other survivors of the exile in the nebula and maybe a game about their survival
At a first impression, I have to say you do a wonderful job at presenting Deserts. Professional, knowledgeable, and fair are three words I would use to describe your review. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
OMG, Noah, you've done it again... now I really HAVE to play this game :/ Great job, as usual! I get so much from these vids that you share.
I know it's a trend, but drone footage of some of your adventures would be so sweet! I love the travel vlog!
Grats on getting hitched and your continued, indefinite adventure! Miss you, already. come back to Kirkland sometime ;)
-Cameron
I want a tv show out of this series, please anyone, Netflix please.
Me too man. Closest we have is Battlestar Gallactica. It was what the first game was meant to be, but they couldn't get the license.
Battlestar Galactica reimagined 😉❤️
Or Amazon Prime!
@KonicavaBR how dare you mention Disney!
right after they ruined Starwars 789
😒😒😒😒
I feel that Homeworld's story is best expressed through gameplay. Would it be awesome to see a show? Yes. Would it be better than the games? In my opinion, no.
The atmosphere in this game is better than any other game I swear it's so damn good. Makes me realize how lifeless most games are
Thoughtful and well written as always. I am always thrilled to see a new video from you, especially when it's based on a franchise that I love and grew up with, such is the case with Homeworld. I just consider myself so lucky to have actually gotten a new Homeworld. Few cult classic fandoms are so lucky.
Keep up the great content! You deserve all the support you get. Hope you and your family are enjoying the trip!
Solid writing, interesting and relevant without going into the farfetched. Thank you my friend ! I love homeworld and DoK turned out, unexpectedly, to be my favourite. I wish it had sold more.
This in-depth analysis is just amazing. The points you made while drawing parallels between the Kadeshi and the Gaalsien especially were top notch.
You bring an intellectualism to games that many reviewers lack, and you manage it without any journalistic snobbishness. Would you ever consider taking a 'thorough look' at the Witcher trilogy?
Dude, I was thinking the exact same thing. Most people that examine games with that amount of depth seem to feel like we wanted their needless exposition on what they believe the world is like. This guy's review was intellectually sound, yet completely down to earth. (And yes, I would love to hear his thoughts on the Witcher series- especially 2)
@@blackmonish Witcher gay
@@timyo6288 lmao, wrong but its okay kid. We learn by mistakes
@@halfestevan1 you gay
got em 😎
My biggest issue with the campaign was that there were no neutral enemies. I wish there had been a 3rd faction like the kadeshi or turanic raiders, or maybe some giant monsters that you had to deal with.
Maybe some giant worm or lizard monsters?
Supplement material actually mentions random group of scavengers existing on Kharak. On the one hand, it's a shame we haven't seen any. On the other hand, it makes sense, considering most of the campaign happens in Galsien territory, and they are known as masters of desert.
If you drive without rhythm, then you won’t, attract, the worm.
@@Toskin I mean, that's pretty much the Khaaneph faction DLC. I know, I know, they're not in campaign, but the lore is in deed that of raiders and scavengers, soooo
Jack Cambel's the Lost Fleet books remind me of homeworld in a sense. It's about a fleet lost deep in enemy territory and now must reach home. It was an enjoyable read, the way their behaviours were warped for the times they lived in, it was quite interesting.
It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!
Looks up at the orbiting mothership.
“You underestimate my power... I could beat you, I choose not to... excuse me.”
Runs.
Noah, I tell you what, you did a really great job on this game review. This review was really well thought out and superbly explained without causing any unnecessary confusion, unlike other game reviews I've seen lately.
I can sense the great care and detail that goes into all your reviews! It's as if you fully immerse yourself into all the games intricacies into order to deliver a sophisticated review with such care and analysis in order to allow the viewer to feel a sense of what it felt like for you when you experienced the game yourself. Bravo as always Noah!
God I love your videos. It's so hard to find a channel that reviews the story, characters and themes of a game in such depth.
I've always thought that the reason this ground based game works (on a mechanical level) is because it uses the 3D terrain so effectively. This game honestly uses 3D combat as a much bigger part of the gameplay than the fully 3D games ever did.
Interesting write up Noah.
I really like how you take games i've never really had an interest in(or heard of in this case) and really make them sound interesting through your videos. It certainly makes a case for every one of them.
I just stumbled on this randomly but you did a really good job with this video! The opening shot is great, and your voiceover avoids the RUclips Lecture Intonation that usually drives me nuts. Thrilled to see my favorite series getting such a good treatment :)
Noah, mate, the way you talk about these games gets me so pumped to play them.
Awesome work as always!
Hello Noah. Great video analysis! Keep up the good work!
Greetings from Buenos Aires.
ill subscribe because your narration is quite good. Thank you for taking the time to do more than 1 take.
Good stuff, since your Homeworld video, i've devoured the original and Cataclysm
Amazing stuff!
***** I'm all over the place, you point me to a good gaming youtuber, I'm there!
Lucky you. Just this week I tried to get Cataclysm to work, but I can't. Nothing I tried on both Windows 10 and on WIndows XP in a Virtual Machine works. :(
Poki#3 Did you try Noah's guide?
Of course. First thing I tried. Windows NT compatibility doesn't do anything, the program just closes right after it starts no matter how many times I try. I also tried many command line parameters with no luck :(
Salokin Sekwah Hi I saw you on drunken peasants
This was a wonderful review man. I was interested above all in knowing whether or not this game captured the thematic and mechanical essence of the Homeworld series. You more than adequately answered that question, and I hope you continue to do more reviews. Keep up the good work and God bless!
I loved how well you explained a lot of things :) Good video man!
This is the most beautiful review I've ever watched, listened to! Fantastic!
"There's no part of deserts of kharak that isn't immediately and satisfyingly identifable as homeworld."
Well said. I really loved this game and not only am a LONGTIME homeworlder but met some of the DoK devs a few years ago and talk to multiple. They are incredibly passionate people and this is a superb analysis of their work, I'll be showing it to many who are ignorant of the homeworld franchise that I have opted to try and hook through THIS game rather than the remastered collection. Oh, and you've earned a subscription.
I'm now just an aspiring starting game developer. But the experience, especially in emotional sense, that a Homeworld game gives me is exactly what I want my perfect RTS want to be like. I'm sure I am one day going to make this game. I wonder if you would, somewhere in the far future, be interested in writing a story for a game like this?
again a beautiful essay! they are a pleasure to listen to! when i have a little more money i will support you! When you said spoilers ahead, i was like "I don't care, this essays probably enjoyable enough to be worth the spoil" and i was right. And besides that I will probably still love this game.
Amazing and thoughtful video as always Mr. Gervais. If you ever find yourself in Chicago I would love to buy you a beer or two as a thank you for all of your hard work. But make sure to come in the Summer. Winters here really suck. Fall is OK too.
your narrative was well done i thoroughly enjoyed your video
They've yet to make my dream 4x/RTS game, Combine the Space and ground combat from the Homeworld games, Anno's city building and the grand scale from Stellaris.
youbecame what is x4?
4x is a grand strategy.
*****
Oh. So like CIV and total war?
DT L yeah
Wistful HERBz Do you play Endless space 2? It's a simple but really good 4x space game although it's in early access and the devs are continuing update the game.
Finally got around to playing this after watching this earlier in the year, and I'm glad I did! Easily one of the best single-player real-time strategy campaigns I've played in years.
Glad i found this channel, one of best on youtube!!! Subbed
i actually played Desert of Kharak first because of Steam sale and got hooked into the Homeworld universe.
imagine my shock when the Taidan came to nuke Kharak and i realized that Gaalsien were right
just beautiful games and beautiful music
Really great video, keep up the good work!
excellent, glad i found this channel
especially with references to homeworld n ground control
Gotta love the new bell notifications, subscriptions are actually subscriptions again.
Great video. Everything was well thought out and well said.
Impressive narration, well done!!
This was awesome dude! I would love to see you do a breakdown of the plot for the other games.
He did
What a fantastic overview. You're a great narrator.
I had to say that your reviews are like hearing poetry. It was a sublime pleasure viewing your review. What a superb tribute to the Homeworld series, and this game in particular.
Delightful essay and well spoken. Thank you!
HOMEWORLD 3!!!! Can't wait to see if they get it right and follow the original masterpiece, or goof it up!
Love both of your homeworld videos, great synopsys of the games!
You got me into homeworld, and now I got another game to play. Thanks! :D
The game does desert surfaces extremely well, the graphics of the desert looks almost like the real thing.
Hi & hello ! In defend of Homeworld 2 I can say that Complex mod helps me beliwe that Homeworld 3 or Some kind of Master of Orion in this universe is a huge wish ...
Does anyone remember Ground Control? From early 2000's? I absolutely loved that game as a young 'un. Is this in any way similar?
Really good game with amazing lore. Unfortunately the studio under Ubisoft doesn’t exist anymore
What a review. Insightful and well written.
Liked just for the intro. Well played :)
Amazing. Truly amazing work.
This is perhaps the best deserts of karake video I've ever seen , thank you I now feel the need to play the game again 😀
I really did enjoy the game. I came into it in a weird place. Hadn't yet played homeworld 2, (and still haven't) but finished Homeworld and Homeworld Cataclysm. The concept of "We're going to build a land carrier" is always interesting.
A good game that IMO suffered in terms of depth because of the mid process theme swap ate into the development time. That said the theme was well used.
Also the skirmish mode vs AI was horribly easy at launch. 1 vs 5 and outside of the first rush you can roll over hard enemies.
I'm so happy for you. You are traveling through your big country with your wife and dog and make money by exploring a good prequel to an old videogame serie. Wow. Now I don't know how you define success, but I'd say you have quite a bit of it at the moment. ^^
Thank you for the video.
Watching this video made me replay again and again DoK! What a great game, what a great comeback to the Homeworld series. Loved the remaster versions as well.
I would love to see a Homeworld 3...
I love the introduction !
Memeber reading Homeworld and the best part was where the generals debates what tactics is the right for space fighting.
Your Kith Matron!
For some reason, that insult stuck with me.
I remember one thing that annoyed me in this game is that everyone refers to Rachel using her first name, while everyone else is Intelligence etc. I think Science Officer, Dr S'jet or whatever during missions, and maybe Rachel during cutscenes, would've worked out better. How it is right now, it feels too much like constant reminder to the player that she's the main hero and ancestor of Karan S'jet (who noone mentioned by first name outside of cutscenes AFAIK). It kinda undermines her experience and role in the fleet.
Also, horrible rubber balancing in this game really angered me. Enemy carriers spawn infinite ammount of enemies without the need to harvest resources. I had to redo a mission because I lost too many units when fighting inifinite waves of enemies instead of target-firing on enemy carrier immediately (the mission where you defend Sakala). It was very frustrating.
Other than that, I found the story quite good, but as you said, the Sakala arc was kinda "video-gamey". It felt like they had to find and excuse to fight different unit types.
Also, I feel that terrain advantage thing could be exploited more in the gameplay. As it is right now, it feels more like a gimmick than actual important decision. I never had a feeling of "I can't engage them uphill/downhill/etc", because the advantage was miniscule.
Michał Kostrzewa I agree that the limitless enemy spawning was rather irritating. It is a crutch devs use when the AI is not capable of providing a force that can compete with a player controlled army.
On the one hand the desert faction can be expected to have overwhelming force in its own territories but in gameplay it meant that unless I fielded less of the fragile scouts and more artillery and battle tanks I was wasting a lot of resources for little to no gain. It forced me into grinding through the predictable waves by weight of unbreakable arms and armour rather than play the mission out using a force built on the fly.
I basically became a force of nature in a game that was trying to convince me that I was a lone carrier desperate to survive against overwhelming odds. Only time I was pressured was on escort/defence missions because the friendly AI could not defend itself so you have to split your already restricted forces.
Nice video! Sums up the greatness of the homeworld franchise in a good way. I do have to disagree about the betrayal being a low point moment for the game. I did not see it coming, and it made me feel really betrayed by the supposed "allies", which made it a very emotional moment. Of course the description of the clan in the dlc extra booklet really hints to it, since they aren't really that different from the Gaalsien.
we love you, Noah!
Do you ever plan on releasing more bus only videos. I demand to see more of this adventure!
Thank you blessed Noah
This was incredible! Love that i found your videos!
Hopefully in the future you will be able to buy a better microphone.
Hot Dang this was a good breakdown. Being a long-time fan of the series (Played Homeworld in 2001 BRUH), I'll have to give this a shot.
Good review, thought it was fair even when point out small short falls, I love the Homeworld series... although haven't been able to get the Deserts of Kharak as of yet and your review answer several question and surprised me with thought of a fourth in the series, adding is that rumor or fact that you have found out? but all and all good review.
The first Homeworld was itself closely intertwined with the cultural associations we hold with the Middle East - it's interesting how Deserts of Kharak brings those influences even closer by bringing the story down to Earth.
You should do audiobooks, I really enjoy your voice
one of the things i loved best from homeworld was encountering a wide variety of threats on the journey. the kadesh, the turanics, taidan, the junkyard dog thing, the ghost ship, meteors and solar flares, space was teeming with strange hazards.
in comparison, it seems like they had difficulty thinking up diverse threats for the deserts, thus the betrayal to help bring some diversity to the levels and give some length to the campaign.
a third faction that used units that could burrow in the sand or swim under it would have been great
"There is less space than in space" was my favourite bit. Great review! I agree that DoK feels complete if comparatively brief, although the one disappointing exception I found was in the last two missions. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll just say that it feels like the 'surprise' that occurs late in the game seems to only affect the next mission and then immediately falls into irrelevance. I feel at least another mission could have been extracted from this narrative direction. Also the game seems to end very quickly after this point. Like you I hoped for more but maybe it's better this way, keep me wanted a sequel. Please let there be a sequel!
I guess you let slip the spoiler at 14:38 onwards lol.
I loved the fact the the Blackbird Story writer already had the Prequel story writen out in the hopes that the'd get permisison form the eventiual homeworld IP owner.
This only further wants me to see you do World in Conflict in a future video.
Superb video!
Deserts of Kharak also has better multiplayer than the Homeworld games. The two factions are much more distinct, allowing for more unique play styles. Having terrain adds a lot more tactical options. The tech tree is more flexible, allowing for more builds. The smaller maps makes the game faster paced and more fun to watch. And the artifact retrieval objective adds an interesting element that most RTS games don't have.
Even though the multiplayer community isn't very big, there are some really good players and a lot of good matches in the Artifact Cups.
KingOfMadCows 100% this.
This. I would encourage everyone to search up The Dreamlands or Magpie's casts of competitive Deserts of Kharak games. This is a really fun game to watch,.
I would disagree. I believe in the current state of things, Homeworld Remastered Collection has more dynamic multiplayer in comparison to Deserts of Kharak, especially with the availability of mods such as Complex, FX:Galaxy, among a few others. I miss playing Deserts of Kharak competitively, as I was a part of the first few Artifact Cups within the top 16 (|TM| KillroyIsHere). We still host one of the largest and most active Homeworld Multiplayer groups on Discord (DoK and Remastered), add me on Steam for a game anytime: |TM| KillroyIsHere
As if HWC factions aren't distinct.
I just wished we had the choice to have bigger maps, asymmetrical teams, more than 2 teams, 8 players etc.
It's better in a competitive point of view, but it completely removed the ability to create fictional cooperative scenarios which is why i played HW1&2 in multiplayer for.
Bravo! I almost felt like I was back in English Lit taking a book apart.
BTW, I love that e-brake! Is that the pull and twist model? VW make another in that era that's just a long standing lever, still no thumb release though... maybe the next gen? You went old-school!
OK you get a second comment. This is very well put together. Cheers Noah!
All very well said! Great video
Man deserts of kharak is awesome
Well damn that was a nice video to watch.
that betrayal sceen deserves an award for visual design
Awesome video, I'd forgotten about the prologue, but I'll definitely try it now. Also, "Maas" is pronounced "Moss".
This is a really good review.
i still goto play the other homeworld games.
Deserts of Kharak was my introduction and i love it!
Great Video!
I agreee with almost all of it. :)
I could see the betrayel of the friendly carrier coming from miles away.... but that was mostly a gut feeling... and of how plots usually go, but it was still nice.
A spoilerwarning for people that still haven't played the game would've propably not hurt. (Maybe put it in the titel since you can't change the video?)
I finally played this game, and can now watch this video