I was a massive fan of the original games, the games were massive in depth and the dlcs had plenty to offer in new ships, mechanics and features, while i was majorly hyped for this game for such a long time and was excited when it was announced. im not really satisfied with it at all, im deeply disappointed.
First, i was expecting major improvements and advancements, the developers are not new by any means to developing a variety of games and have over a decade of experience ONTOP of having employed many of the series biggest modding teams such as the team behind Sins of the Prophets Halo mod. Obviously there is no excuse for any downgrade interms of model design, game mechanics, features or quality, the models are really well textured, the factions have very indepth and intune aesthetics with their respective empires that makes them really pop and immerse the world very much like the ships from Homeworld. weapons and turrets r both animated nicely and most of the particle effects and textures are well done, planets look really nice and the background of space too. i enjoyed much of the new mechanics and features such as population management and planetary modules, really allows the players to build their planets to be science asteroids, industrial forge worlds or even frontier fortress worlds inspired by Cadia from 40k.
Now, beyond that i have plenty of issues. WAY too much laziness and overuse of AI generated content on even basic things like image cards, much of the game is just remade using AI to such an eyesore degree it looks massively lazy and unnecessary as they couldve just reused old art from the original games as a placeholder if they needed to and it wouldve worked no problem since they are well made. the main menu is really suffocating in its layout and design, an entire screen of UI but only a small tiny spot in the top like im trying to find a needle in a hay stack, settings for basic things like resolution, texture quality and so forth were main stay in the original but were not an option here.
Many of the ships from the prior game carry over with significant changes, some very much so and others not as much, they look great but this game is set after several decades after the war has progressed, i wouldve expected the designs to develop and centralize. For those unaware, the Human factions {TEC} had no military vessels as they were an economic empire in peace and each world was unified in trade to prosper, when the war brokeout, they converted many civilian vessels into makeshift warships with only a few actual Warships being made such as the KOL Battlecruiser in the few years after the war started. This was an amazing design philosophy as you can see on most of their ships where the Trade and Civil sections end and where the Militaristic sections begin and where they the TEC just slapped weapons where they could fit it.
In this game those designs are mostly unchanged other then armament {which ill get into later below} now with some of the military vessels like the KOL i understand they wouldnt need much changes in structure since they were already dedicated Warships by design, however the majority of their naval compliment originally were Cargo haulers and Mining vessels retrofit for war. In this game if anything those vessels were mostly copy and pasted and even downgraded interms of armament, abilites or changed in purpose in contrast to their roles initially in the prior game. all the factions in this game have this complication, i wouldve expected the designs of the TEC to become predominately Warships with the initial prior game designs being further upgraded for that purpose after 30 or so years of nonstop war for example.
Armament, its garbage and changed needlessly in this game, if its not broken dont fix it. The TEC, Advent and Vasari have very specific and unique compliments of weaponry they each use, TEC uses a mix of missiles, auto cannons and laser cannons with some special weapons like the KOL's beam and Gauss cannons on their orbital defenses, Advent uses mainly plasma cannons and beam weapons and the Vasari specialize on their tech advantage of pulse and wave energy weapons and phase missiles which bypass shields. in this game it is like all 3 have regressed in technology, the TEC no longer use laser weaponry at all and have diminished use of missiles and fighter craft, focusing on more gauss and auto cannons, the other 2 factions also have technology and armament just gone, with many ship designs being ruined and pointless in their new forms. the Marza dreadnaught for the TEC is a siege cruiser, lots of missile launchers with auto and laser cannons, it was one of the best before, now its garbage, a literal glass cannon.
I tried to enjoy this game i really did, but it isnt fun to play any of the factions, the ships looking great just is not enough to continue playing it, the dlc have added plenty of new ships and designs but that isnt going to cover up the sore thumbs in the room, how they could ruin already perfect ships is beyond me, theres no strategy to be had in the game since all the ships r glass cannons and are fodder to throw away even if ships r specialized for certain roles they dont perform in them well.
i could go on plenty but id be here forever, game needs much much changed and improved so until then im giving it a 3/10
