I imagine the day Gearbox gave Blackbird Interactive permission to use the Homeworld name was triumphant, but also terrifying. Deserts of Kharak kept that “feature” too. It’s not a perfect one-to-one substitution but does make for an interesting system, although I found it sometimes hard to position my troops where I wanted them- Homeworld’s always been better at control on a macro level. Taking the high ground bolsters your sight lines and allows you to do more damage. Which is no small feat.ĭeserts of Kharak even pays homage to six-direction movement, factoring terrain into combat. It moves like Homeworld, it sounds like Homeworld, and-even when you swap stars for sand-it looks like Homeworld. Or the unfettered scale of Kharak, your army rendered in miniscule amidst dunes that stretch to the horizon, broken only by the small plumes of dust that kick up from your wheels. The web of green and red lines that stretch out from your units after a move order. It’s in the small touches: The way your little dune buggies whirl around enemy troops, a deadly cloud of interweaving ships looking for an angle. It preserved the idea of a ship alone in space, no magical supply lines to replenish you after a Pyrrhic victory. A unique mechanic, yes, but it was also thematically appropriate. Whatever survived a mission, that’s how you’d start the next. Part of Homeworld’s appeal was that your units stayed with you throughout the game. The journey is an order of magnitude smaller, but the result is the same: Persistent fleets. Here, you lead your people into the desert in search of an ancient relic, the Jaraci Object or Primary Anomaly. In Homeworld, you set off across the galaxy in search of a new home. Right away, you set up an obvious parallel to the original series. It helps that Deserts of Kharak deals in exodus. For a game that started life as a mere spiritual successor (originally titled Hardware: Shipbreakers), Deserts of Kharak does a remarkable job recapturing the essence of Homeworld. I’m not going to say every fan will be satisfied with Deserts of Kharak, but I think most will.
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