Homeworld download free

It's actually bordering on hardcore wargame territory, but since it looks so nice we'll let that pass. The only downside to MissionMan is that it looks so hideously complex to use and comes with such a spartan manual that you tend to approach it with extreme caution. The musical side of Homeworldior once deserves as much attention as the graphics, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

The story of lead designer Alex Garden's 'flash of inspiration' on hearing Samuel Barter's Adagio For Strings one morning has been well documented and it's a testament to his integrity that the stirring classical piece has remained in the game, not to be replaced by some thumping techno drum-hop trance beats for the 'now' generation. Ironically, this dogged persistence might be the reason the music doesn't quite gel in the final game.

It's not Mr Barber's fault. Adagio remains as stirring and hauntingly beautiful as ever, even more so when combined with the epic nature of the game's cinematic opening scenes. What jars is actually the rest of the music. Because we open with such a classical piece of audio perfection, the rest of the custom-made music can't help but fall behind. What's worse Is that the style changes.

Instead of remaining with the classical flavour, we are instead assaulted with a sort of sub-Jean Michel Jarre repertoire, circa his 'industrial Arabic' period. In short, it gets old, quick. But an even more bizarre musical tale revolves around - wait for it - Seventies lightshow pioneers Yes. It seems the boys from Relic and the ageing beardos came together and Homeworltfs themes and style so inspired lead vocalist Jon Anderson that he wrote a song based on it.

To quote the man himself: "The game is very similar to thoughts that are common to human beings. We're all trying to find our way home. The song is to be included on their new album The Ladder -out now, pop-pickers. Personally, we've not rated Yes since the seminal and cruelly misunderstood Arriving UFO came out in You know, sometimes you miss the level-headed sensibilities of Rick Wakeman.

And I never thought I'd see myself typing those words. Commanding a space fleet isn't the easiest of tasks. Specially if it's in full 'oh it makes my brain hurt' 3D. Now all you have to do is read our area by area guide.

And take a couple of paracetamol. The first thing to do is to start harvesting resources before you even think of sending out probes. Build your fleet up and prepare for battle, making sure to set the formations.

When the enemy arrives, it will start attacking your resource collectors, so get them out of the way. Attack the fighters with corvettes and use fighters to do battle with the frigates. Have your salvage corvettes ready to get hold of fallen enemy vessels, especially the lone frigates before the second wave begins.

As soon as it arrives, hide the SVs in the dust clouds or they'll get blown to smithereens. While you're there, grab the enemy's collectors. Take as many asteroids out as you can with the smaller attack ships frigates are more likely to crash into them.

Put the repair ships behind the Mothership and set them to repair it as it sustains damage. You'll receive reports of the lack of resources in the area, but set your harvesters to collect anyway. How you use the camera is very important here, you need to be able to see the asteroids as they come rushing shrubbery, flower beds and insects here.

It is bloody space, you know. Get ready for the enemy's oncoming fleet which arrives as soon as you get your resource collecting in motion. Take the fuel pods so the small enemy fighters can't refuel. When they run out they'll be left stranded and you can wipe towards your ships. The best ships to build at this time are corvettes and strike craft, so don't go wasting on destroyers. Despite its name, there is very little in the way of shrubbery, flower beds and insects here.

When they run out they'll be left stranded and you can wipe them all out with corvettes. Use your own fighters on the larger vessels. Don't use the hyperdrive as soon as it becomes available, there's plenty of resource gathering to be done here. While your harvesters are out collecting, keep building up your fleet in preparation for the next scenario.

Send defenders, corvettes and interceptors to investigate the ghost ship. If you use capital ships they'll be sent against you, while attack bombers won't stand a chance against the missile destroyers. Concentrate on the main ghost ship and milk the surroundings for resources. Although, considering this is a sea, maybe you should fish for resources. Oh, forget it. Get your resources from two regions in the veins of the space dust that are safe, otherwise the radiation in this level will destroy your collectors.

Find your way to the enemy ships through the space dust veins and keep some capital ships up front to absorb damage from the mines. If you have a carrier, fill it with repair corvettes. You can undock them every time you need to fix damaged ships. Interceptors and scouts will be destroyed by the radiation, so leave them behind. For once, Fleet Command doesn't have its head up its own arse and gives you valuable information.

Go along the path they give you to the station and you won't alert the enemy fleet. Nothing will happen until you bring your ships within range of the station, when you'll have to stop an enemy carrier from leaving. Use a probe to induce the carrier's attempt at escape instead of your own ships, that way you'll avoid getting caught in the radiation.

Move to the safe area and destroy the rest of the enemy fleet from there. Then mine the level for resources before moving on. The Bentusi need your help, but that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice yourself. The enemy fleet is made up almost entirely of capital ships, so use strike craft and try to capture a couple with salvage corvettes. As usual, plunder the area for resources.

It's a good idea to keep your fleet inside the carriers and Mothership in preparation for the next level and you should also build some proximity sensors. Get after those gravity wells straight away and be careful to defend your frigates and capital ships from them. Once you've got rid of them and the first wave of attackers, launch your strikers and position some proximity sensors next to your capital ships. The sensors will allow you to detect and attack enemy cloaked units, a trick they are increasingly likely to pull.

You can leave the rebel destroyer Kapella to its own devices until it reaches your Mothership. Once there kill off all its pursuers. Send your strike craft below the main section of dust and space and position them directly under the rebel ship.

By hitting the autoguns surrounding this ship you can finish the level off pretty quickly. There is another way of completing the level, which nets you a large quantity of RUs but takes an age. This consists of taking your ships through the space veins to clear out the autoguns. On the plus side, you can collect lots of resources.

On the minus, junkyard salvagers will keep stealing your ships and you'll spend a long time getting them back. The choice is yours. Just make sure you have enough RUs to build cloaked fighters, cloak generators and salvage corvettes for the next level. Nicking is the business, and business is good. Your main priority on this level is to capture as many enemy ships as possible. To this end, use a cloaked fighter to lure away some of the ships surrounding the station and cloaked salvage corvettes to capture the elite frigates.

Get as many as you can using this tactic and get ready for an assault on the space station. This time, cloak your capital ships and frigates, which will allow you to get into the very centre of the station where you can cause some serious damage. Once the station has been destroyed, get out of this region before more waves come your way.

You need to destroy the oncoming asteroid before it hits the Mothership. Use frigates and capital ships as they're the most powerful. Keep them moving around the asteroid as you blast it repeatedly. Download Now. This is a very large MB file and may take several hours to download via dial-up modem. Editors' Review Download. In the original Homeworld, descendants of Hiigara fought their way to their ancestral home. In this sequel, a renegade clan called the Vaygrs threatens the Hiigarans' existence.

Gamers must collect resources, construct space fleets, and battle the Vaygrs to survive. Despite some slowness in cut scenes and between missions, Homeworld 2 combines intense action, an immersive story, and detailed 3D graphics to create an enjoyable space-strategy game. Full Specifications. What's new in version 1. Release November 8, Date Added September 5, Version 1. Operating Systems. Total Downloads , Downloads Last Week 5. Most Popular. New Releases. Desktop Enhancements.

Networking Software. Trending from CNET. Homeworld 2 Free to try. Continue the epic real-time strategy saga with this space-combat sequel. Homeworld 2 patch Free. Update Homeworld 2 with a variety of enhancements and balance tweaks. Homeworld 2 EX v2. Check out this comprehensive mod for Homeworld 2. Setting the camera focus is as easy as selecting a unit and pressing a hot-key or two. The rest of the game is played through a simple point-and-click interface. Menus only pop-up when you need them, freeing up plenty of view space while keeping everything immediately accessible.

The only other important aspect of the single-player game is the AI, which may not deserve any special commendation, but does provide its share of good challenges. Multiplayer play in Homeworld is just like the rest of the game: immensely enjoyable. In fact, the replay value that comes out of the multiplayer modes almost makes up for the lack of multiple campaigns in the single-player game.

Multiplayer options are easily customizable. You can set the available resources, the types of ships that can be built, and many other important elements.

Multiplayer games are also well balanced, as ship production is limited by class. For example, instead of being able to build 30 Scouts, 30 Interceptors and 20 Bombers these numbers are strictly hypothetical , you can choose your own mix, since these ships are all in the Fighter Class.

You could build 40 Scouts and 40 Interceptors, or a massive fleet of 80 bombers. This method of unit limitation not only brings balance and allows variety, but it makes you really think about what kinds of fleets you need to have.

Like the single-player combat, multiplayer space battles are truly epic, as massive Capital ships and Frigates collide, blasting each other into debris. Very little can match the feeling of pure glee instilled when one uses the hyper-space ability to almost instantly transport an entire fleet right in front of the opponent's Mothership.

The only possible complaint about the multiplayer version of Homeworld is that the battles can become so huge and complex that it's hard to control the numerous ships and fleets, as they simultaneously engage in different battles and other activities. Fortunately, this quibble may be easily overlooked. Most gamers will have to start keeping towels on hand as they drool over the glorious deep space warfare taking before their eyes.

Homeworld does not allow for many truly defensive strategies, and this may require adjustment for some RTS players.