Haegemonia

BUY this game, and enjoy as the universe is presented before you in full colour and sound.

Not bad, but doesn't try hard enough
Review date: 2003-08-14 Rating: 6 out of 10

As a fan of the Homeworld series I was eagerly awaiting a game which touted itself in a similar style. What I bought was a game which had the same amazing graphics but none of the gameplay.

Haegemonia tries hard. The graphics are fantastic, the tech tree is interesting, the storyline is compelling and the strategy (particularly as you defend 10s of planets with a very limited supply of ships) is challenging enough to keep most RTS fans happy. It even has a nice 'spy' alternative to all out battle which means the sneaky amongst you can have fun causing rebellions, blowing up work in progress (very civilization in style)and sabotaging rival ships.

Nonetheless I said it only tries and the reason that it doesn't score full marks for me is that it simply doesn't try hard enough. As a strategy game Haemogonia would work without any of the fantastic graphics because the sad truth of the matter is you don't need to see them. All that is important to see can be found on the 'world' (aka system) screen and the only reason you would ever want to dive into the action, other than to marvel at its beauty, is to check on the health of your ships. Imagine if you will Command and Conquer where you work from the overview map and send you tanks randomly at the base without positioning them on the map...exactly, it lacks punch.

So in summary 10/10 for graphics,
8/10 for strategy,
but a poor 2/10 for playability...

there's just not enough point and tactics to it.

Who are these people ?
Review date: 2003-08-13 Rating: 4 out of 10

I bought this game on the strength of the previous reviews and must state how disappointed I am, in my opinion the game is disjointed with very poor game play. I will try to send the game back.

For those of you who have Imperium Galactica 2 this game is very similar - if you were listening to the sounds alone you would think it was IG2. IG2 although older is far better.

Basically the game is a graphical 3D simulation of 2D strategy (No height movement of ships) within solar systems, this strategy ? tends to be based on a sequence of events - some of which are random and seem to be unstoppable (Like planets being wiped out by an asteroid).

Research, build and fight.

Research: Weird, set research points per scenario. Most of the planet research seems pointless. And odd descriptions of weapons which dont really make sense - ie Strength of missiles goes Chemical Missile then Nuclear Missile then Rocket then Torpedo. A nuclear missile would blow almost any ship to pieces, yet the context here is that its a bit better than chemical. There seems to be no reason to try an improve your planets - all you really want is a Max population, which you can jsut sit and wait for.

Build: Set units can ONLY be produced. No chance to mix and match weapons or design you own ships - IG2 you can create fleets of any mix and design your own ship layout. Mining ships land on asteroids and cannot move afterwards ? They have to be scrapped.

Fight: Point and click with the option to attack hull, engines or weapons. No actual control of the ships, formations, or where they attack - you just sit back an watch a simulation of the menu you selected. See it once and its not worth watching again. Only fight strategy is use as big a fleet as possible to win.

Strategy games should have great playability, variation of possibilities and a good story line, graphics is not so important. This game lacks a good background (Research doesnt make sense), variation (Just build powerful ships and lots of em), playability (poor GUI interface), poor overall control (You only need to get to the next scenario) and querky events (Aliens attacking for no reason and from no where). Lastly and leastly - poor use of English in some of the descriptions.

Graphics are awesome
Review date: 2003-03-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a really good game. The first thing that struck me was the quality of the graphics

- They could actually trick you into thinking that what you were seeing is a computer generated FMV sequence.

- The fire effects and explosions more generally actually look like explosions! Not just shoddy yellowey blobs. Whats more, the ships actually come apart sometimes in a very realistic manner. Not just rubbishy polygons loating about for a while. The reality engine really makes alot of the stuff look very real indeed - which is always cool. Everyone loves great graphics.

- The scenery of deep space is extremely real

- So are all the planets. The sometimes look like photo's on the higest settings

The gameplay is good although I do have one problem with this game and just about all others like it -

The acting. I just cant fathom why 95% of games have such awful voice overs. I mean, even the worst actors could do better than what they've got in this game (and others). I'm being completely serious when I say that i could do better myself - and so could you more than likely. I just dont see any excuse for it. Pay a couple of your mates from the local drama club a couple of hundred each and you would have a decent setup. As it stands, a lot of these games make me cringe with just how bad the acting is. I dont know how the person in charge of sound could ever show there face in public again. Having said that, the rest of the sounds are nothing to complain about.

I cant be bothered writing a conclusion. I suppose the bottom line is give it a try. You could do a lot worse until Homeworld 2 or freelancer comes out