Homeworld: Cataclysm
| Article Published: Tuesday, October 17,
2000 (Vol.6 No.201) |
| Game Review By Alex Dennis |
| E-mail: alex_bigballer@yahoo.com
|
| Publisher: Sierra Studios
|
| Developer: Barking
Dog Studios |
| Similar to: Starcraft |
| Category: Real-Time Strategy (RTS) |
| ESRB Rating: Everyone |
| System Requirements: PII 266 Mhz, 32MB RAM, Win 9x |
| |
It has begun! The Beast has come out of hiding
and is attacking your small group of Acolyte strike craft. You
quickly assemble a fighting force of Mimics, Sentinels and Leech
breeching pods. But within seconds the only spacecraft in the
vicinity are your mother ship and the ones controlled by the
Beast. As you deploy more and more craft from your mother ship,
the Beast infects them, putting them under its control. Your
army is getting smaller and its army is getting much larger.
With nowhere to run, can you survive? Attention Starcraft fans!
Let me introduce Homeworld: Cataclysm, or maybe more fitting
"Starcraft in 3D-Space." Just like Starcraft this game is built
around alien beings, the two main races being the Kushan and
Taiidan races. And as you may have already guessed, these two
are definitely not on friendly terms. In fact, these two have
been feuding for generations. This on-going war has caused much
damage to each race, especially the Kushaanites. After defeating
the Taiidan Empire in order to reclaim their ancient homeworld
of Hiigara, the Kushan found themselves almost powerless on
their new planet.
You play the role of the Somtaaw, an industrious
clan of Kushan colonists who are determined to forge a new future
in the stars. These will not accept defeat and have constructed
an advanced mining vessel called the Kuun-Lan to aid them in
their mission. Shortly after setting off on their quest, however,
the Somtaaw come across something quite horrifying, namely the
Beast. A mixture of organic material and advanced machinery,
this entity is seemingly unstoppable. It threatens to rid the
galaxy of all life! Using its infection weapon, it hast the
ability to take control of spacecraft as well as its crew. You
must stop the beast or ultimately lose Hiigara, the homeworld
many Kushan lives were sacrificed for. The Kuun-Lan is where
all your defense and attack mechanisms are to be found. It functions
very much like the Terran Command Center in Starcraft, one major
difference being that all additional structures are built as
add-on modules to the main ship. These modules enhance the ships
abilities and can change it into can advanced research facility
or a fighting powerhouse. There are varying class of personal
at your disposal. The most important, probably are the non-combat
ships, such as the worker and processor. These harvest raw materials
from asteroids, salvage used material from damaged ships, repair
your damaged craft and to a minimal degree may be used to attack
enemy vessels. The material acquired by these workers is used
in the production of other craft and the construction of add-on
modules. Another important class is the strike-craft. These
are simple, one pilot vessels that will form the basic structure
of your army. Each one has a specialized ability. Included in
this group are the Recons, Sentinels, Acolytes, Mimics, Leech
Breaching Pods, just to name a few. Next we have the larger
capital ships. These have each have a small crew assigned to
them. There are the frigates, such as the Multi-beam Frigate
and Hive Frigate. And also in this class are the Destroyer,
the Carrier and the massive Dreadnought. You use your command
ship (Kuun-Lan) to assemble these craft. All large ships, the
command ship and the capital ships, can travel at high speeds
using hyperspace. Since the small strike-craft and workers cannot
do so, the command ship is equipped with a hanger that may be
used to dock such vessels. The Carrier may also hold strike-craft;
it may construct them just like the command vessel. This wide
variety of personnel makes the number of probable strategies
quite extensive. In order to maintain a large army though; it
is vital to have enough support systems for everyone. To increase
your support capability you will frequently have to add support
modules to the command ship as your army grows. Another great
aspect of this game is the ability to research new technologies.
You may enhance the amour, weapons and functionalities of all
your personnel, but it will cost you the expenditure of some
resources (the materials harvested by the workers). Combining
these elements with tact and planning will lead to victory over
the Beast.
Ratings (on a scale of one to five)
Graphics (*****): Fantastic Graphics! The
details on each ship were easily distinguishable and they even
feature moving parts. You can see clearly the operation of the
weapons and flight mechanisms on each ship.
Interface (****): This game ran smoothly,
even with the heavy graphical detail. The menus weren't anything
fancy, but they were easy to use and understand. The layout
of the game screen made gameplay much easier. For instance when
researching or building craft a meter appeared in a prominent
place tracking progress. I really appreciated that feature.
It made reacting to enemy attack less frantic.
Gameplay (*****): I must commend the designers
of this game. It took little time to learn the controls for
the game, and once I had that mastered this game quickly became
a part of my life.
Multiplayer (*****): For those who don't
know, multiplayer is the aspect of a game that allows a gamer
to play other gamers across a network. When it comes to multiplayer,
strategy games always rate high and Cataclysm is no exception.
It supported a number of network platforms including TCP/IP,
LAN, and IPX. In this format the gamer has the option of playing
the Beast. The Beast cannot research, but may learn from the
technologies of the ships that it infects. To make things fair,
the Kuun-lan are able to produce a vaccine for the infection
virus, but this can only be done in the multiplayer setting.
Sound FX (****): Realistic! I'm not sure
what Mimics are really supposed to sound like when they execute
their kamikaze attack, but just like all the other sound effects
in this title I've got to say that it was far from plain old
fiction.
Musical Score (****): Tribal drums and
a nicely put together orchestra lend wonderfully to the spacey
atmosphere of Cataclysm. A number of games fall down in this
category because of frequently repeating tracks. If the tracks
repeat in Cataclysm I haven't yet noticed.
Intelligence & Difficulty (*****): The
AI (Artificial Intelligence) of this game is marvelous. Your
pilots actually increase in intelligence as they experience
more battles. Not to mention your enemies. I thought I figured
out how to keep my ships from being infected by the Beast. I
would make my Mimics disguise as Asteroids, come close to some
Beast ships and then destroy them all. The fourth time I tried
this strategy the Beast ships attacked without hesitation.
Overall (*****): I really love Starcraft,
so naturally I'd give Cataclysm five stars. Does it really deserve
five stars? Here is what others thought.
"Nuff Vibes!" - Sharone Dennis
"It's absolutely fantastic!" - Christina Robinson
"Way cool 3-dimentional images" - Shane Dennis
"It is a visceral and involving experience" -
Matt Plumb
