Homeworld Remastered Collection is a modern HD remake of two classic sci-fi real-time strategy games, Homeworld 1 and 2. Homeworld played like many other RTS games at the time: you'll command your star fleet, harvest resources, research technologies to build more ships, and attack other enemy fleets. However, in Homeworld, the game took place entirely in three-dimensional space, resulting in units not just moving horizontally, but also vertically, adding an extra tactical layer to the combat. Watching the combat between large groups of spaceships flying around each other was a sight to behold back then and now it looks even more amazing in the Remastered Collection. Gearbox has updated the visuals to modern standards and ships now have an incredible amount of detail. Even with the enhanced graphics, the game still manages to not be too demanding on hardware and it runs smoothly without any major stability issues. The user interface has also been updated for both games and it feels cleaner and more usable now. They even remastered the audio and the cutscenes with voice overs and music sounding much clearer and the animations looking more high-definition. The entire package isn't without its faults, however.

The remastered version of Homeworld 1 feels like it was ported over to the enhanced Homeworld 2 engine without properly adjusting and balancing the campaign for it. Ships won't stay in formation when attacking (might be just a bug for now), researching technologies costs resource units now, some prices for constructing ships have changed, ship AI behavior seems to glitch out at times, and other minor differences. Worst of all, the remastered campaign seems to have borrowed the auto-balancing difficulty from the Homeworld 2 campaign. This might result in frustratingly difficult situations in some missions if you did too well in the last mission. Still, none of this is game-breaking and some might still enjoy the game and only have a few problems with it (especially those who have never played the game in the first place). All of this is sure to annoy veteran Homeworld players and hopefully Gearbox can fix some of it soon. At least the package inculdes the original "Classic" version of Homeworld 1 which is still very playable and fun by today's standards, even with the dated visuals.

Homeworld 2 Remastered seems to be pretty well intact, but that's not really a surprise given the fact that it's running on an enhanced version of the same engine. You can play the "classic" version of Homeworld 2 if you want, but considering the remastered version is the exact same game with better graphics and presentation, there's not much of a reason to go back now (except for some Skirmish mode differences). It's pretty much there for preservation and it's still a nice thing to have in the package.

Which Brings me to the multiplayer mode. It's a good thing the multiplayer still has a "BETA" label attached to it because it does feel a bit unfinished. The multiplayer suite for the Remastered Collection is a mixture of the multiplayer modes from Homeworld 1 and 2. You can pit the two Homeworld 1 factions against the two Homeworld 2 factions now, but this results in some balance issues. The HW1 factions are underpowered compared to the HW2 factions right now and the game feels more like HW2 multiplayer with HW1 factions patched in rather than a true mix of the two games. For right now, just use HW2 factions until Gearbox decides to fix the balance issues.

Despite some blemishes in the Homeworld 1 Remastered campaign and the multiplayer mode, I'd still recommend the Remastered Collection simply because there's nothing quite like Homeworld on the market right now and it's the first time the series has been on a digital platform. The gameplay still holds up very well to this day and the storylines for both games are still just as good as they once were. I'd even say this package is worth it just for Homeworld 1 Classic and Homeworld 2 Remastered alone. If you've never experienced either game and you have an interest in story-driven RTS games or massive space battles in general, you owe it to yourself to play Homeworld.

Homeworld Remastered Collection is a modern HD remake of two classic sci-fi real-time strategy games, Homeworld 1 and 2. Homeworld played like many other RTS games at the time: you'll command your star fleet, harvest resources, research technologies to build more ships, and attack other enemy fleets. However, in Homeworld, the game took place entirely in three-dimensional space, resulting in units not just moving horizontally, but also vertically, adding an extra tactical layer to the combat. Watching the combat between large groups of spaceships flying around each other was a sight to behold back then and now it looks even more amazing in the Remastered Collection. Gearbox has updated the visuals to modern standards and ships now have an incredible amount of detail. Even with the enhanced graphics, the game still manages to not be too demanding on hardware and it runs smoothly without any major stability issues. The user interface has also been updated for both games and it feels cleaner and more usable now. They even remastered the audio and the cutscenes with voice overs and music sounding much clearer and the animations looking more high-definition. The entire package isn't without its faults, however. The remastered version of Homeworld 1 feels like it was ported over to the enhanced Homeworld 2 engine without properly adjusting and balancing the campaign for it. Ships won't stay in formation when attacking (might be just a bug for now), researching technologies costs resource units now, some prices for constructing ships have changed, ship AI behavior seems to glitch out at times, and other minor differences. Worst of all, the remastered campaign seems to have borrowed the auto-balancing difficulty from the Homeworld 2 campaign. This might result in frustratingly difficult situations in some missions if you did too well in the last mission. Still, none of this is game-breaking and some might still enjoy the game and only have a few problems with it (especially those who have never played the game in the first place). All of this is sure to annoy veteran Homeworld players and hopefully Gearbox can fix some of it soon. At least the package inculdes the original "Classic" version of Homeworld 1 which is still very playable and fun by today's standards, even with the dated visuals. Homeworld 2 Remastered seems to be pretty well intact, but that's not really a surprise given the fact that it's running on an enhanced version of the same engine. You can play the "classic" version of Homeworld 2 if you want, but considering the remastered version is the exact same game with better graphics and presentation, there's not much of a reason to go back now (except for some Skirmish mode differences). It's pretty much there for preservation and it's still a nice thing to have in the package. Which Brings me to the multiplayer mode. It's a good thing the multiplayer still has a "BETA" label attached to it because it does feel a bit unfinished. The multiplayer suite for the Remastered Collection is a mixture of the multiplayer modes from Homeworld 1 and 2. You can pit the two Homeworld 1 factions against the two Homeworld 2 factions now, but this results in some balance issues. The HW1 factions are underpowered compared to the HW2 factions right now and the game feels more like HW2 multiplayer with HW1 factions patched in rather than a true mix of the two games. For right now, just use HW2 factions until Gearbox decides to fix the balance issues. Despite some blemishes in the Homeworld 1 Remastered campaign and the multiplayer mode, I'd still recommend the Remastered Collection simply because there's nothing quite like Homeworld on the market right now and it's the first time the series has been on a digital platform. The gameplay still holds up very well to this day and the storylines for both games are still just as good as they once were. I'd even say this package is worth it just for Homeworld 1 Classic and Homeworld 2 Remastered alone. If you've never experienced either game and you have an interest in story-driven RTS games or massive space battles in general, you owe it to yourself to play Homeworld.