A review by special guest editor Robyn Robo

So it’s been a long time coming for the sequel to Homeworld & Homeworld 2, a solid 12 years and one bankruptcy in fact. When first published in 1999, Homeworld was a revolution in real time strategy, a fairly hot genre at the time being just over a year since the release of the original StarCraft., This game, although being created by much of the original team behind Homeworld, wasn’t originally going to be an official sequel, but rather a game titled ‘Hardware: Shipbreakers’. The game has been in development for five years though, and in the intervening time its developers, Blackbird Interactive (http://blackbirdinteractive.com), acquired the rights to the original IP, re-released Homeworld 1&2 (although sadly not the related, add-on Cataclysm) and retitled the game ‘Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Blackbird Interactive is a team based in Vancouver Canada and as a company are relative newcomers, but with some very experienced folks at the helm.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak follows the story of the retrieval of the many ancient artifacts leading into the story of Homeworld 1. As Rachel S’jet, presumably closely related to Karan S’jet from the first game, you are a scientist on a militaristic research retrieval mission of the find of the century. A power source rivalling your sun has been found in the barren desert of a Kushan tribe. Although not really explored in background story of the first game, not everyone is happy with the idea of a return to space travel and advanced technology, and the tribe in that southern desert opposes your coalition’s pursuit of the Jaraci object at every turn.Read More