> You don't like Karen S'jet As I read this, I turned to gaze out the window, at the fifteen foot statue of Khaldeesh II Riesstiu that stands in my front yard. It was then that I realised, yes, there are such things as stupid questions. Banter aside, the real problem with HW2, as I saw it, was that it traded the verisimilitude of historicity for standard sci-fi tropes and "CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME" escalationism. This sort of scoping up almost never works for stories; unless masterfully executed, there ends up being a certain blandness to "SAVING THE WORLD" (or galaxy, as the case may be). (Yes, yes, I know, "A cataclysm fan ranting about plot-escalation" - I'll address that in a moment. We begin at the beginning. And this is not the end. This, is the beginning.) The broad sweep of events in HW1 felt "realistic" in a way that HW2 simply didn't. History has given us many cases of large, stagnant empires falling apart, and HW1 gives us just such a time of upheaval. It's, ultimately, a story of territorial changes and the redrawing of a map - that is the "grand epic core" lying underneath Homeworld's story. Contrast that to HW2's story, which attempts to parallel the idealised fantasy of the second world war (at least, it must be that, because there are no other similarities to be found in history) - two sides, one the Universal Alliance Of All That Is Right And Good (feat. all the characters we like) and the Villainous League of Mean Bastards Who Do Evil And Bad Stuff (starring Hitler). Homeworld 2 is trying to imagine this perfect world in which the only meaningful difference between sentient creatures is whether they dress in calming pastel tones, or angry shades of secondary colours and black. This is demonstrated quite easily by looking at the cast of each game. In *Homeworld* we're introduced to - The Kushan, designated wearers of the protagonist cap and desert-dwelling engineering-geniuses. - The Taiidan, our villain for the day, but we also see, via the rebels, internal division within their society - The Bentusi, capitalistically inclined space carthaginians who favour diplomatic (and presumably mercantile) solutions to problems. - The Turanics, space pirates with a penchant for having excellent theme music and a knack for arming their carriers properly. - The Kadeshi, cousins of the Kushan, who lucked out by getting "ion cannon miniaturization" in their tech-tree. - The Guys Who Fly Around In A Giant Rock, who fly around in a giant rock and don't afraid of anything but Bentusi-led filibusters. The only "ancient relics" lying around are simple mass drivers protecting a scrapyard, and a tow-truck. There's exactly one "strange" thing - that being the ghost ship. All the players in this tale are effectively various nations, who fortunes rise or fall as a result of the conflict surrounding the decay and fragmenting of the Taiidan Empire. In *Homeworld 2*, we have - The Kushan, Protagonists, Chosen-Ones, Those The Prophecies Speak Of, etc. - The Vaguer, Remember the Taiidan Empire? It's like them, but BIGGER and BADDER and A MORE SERIOUS THREAT THAN EVER BEFORE! - The Bentusi, Whose agents were *thoroughly* fired ~~at with ion cannons~~ for getting them a part in this picture. Of these, the Bentusi are only around to Obi-Wan themselves out of the way so that Luke S'Jet... er, I mean Karan Skywalker can ~~bring balance to the force~~ go on to save ~~the federation~~ ~~the alliance~~ ~~the justice league~~ ~~the hanseatic league~~ the good guys. And relics? Man, big-ass space relics are all over the fucking place. Can't make so much as a single jump without colliding with about six of the things. And they're all ANCIENT and SUPER ADVANCED, packed to the brim with TECHNOLOGY WE CAN BARELY UNDERSTAND. Can't we just jump to the nearest Exchange and go buy Jack Bentusi's Complete Guide to Megaliths or something? Now, Cataclysm... I said I'd mention this, and so I will. Cata avoids a lot of the scoping issue, I feel, by *starting with a smaller scope*. I will explain this by analogy - there is a zombie outbreak. In Florida. Now, in a story about a London-based accountant, this is something to be overheard on a television in the background and form the kernel of a strange conversation or two, but in a story about Alligator Joe, the half-man, half-alligator, from Florida, well... And even then, Cataclysm's zombies can make banter with their enemies, and even scheme with and/or against others, c.f. Beast-Taiidani alliances and betrayals. The most significant event of Cataclysm is that *at least some* of the Bentusi are spooked enough to flee the galaxy. Outside of that, it's a side-story, some trademark "weird space shit" that goes down in the triple border between Kushan, Imperial Taiidan, and Taiidan Republic space. The Somtaaw are notable simply for being a bunch of nobodies caught up in the local crisis, and there's nothing about them inherently that makes them well-suited to fighting the threat. They just kept trying stuff until they figured it out. "The Beastslayers" could've just as easily been the Kiith Nabaal 15th Fleet, or some Taiidani Republic carrier group. None of this "preordained thousands of years ago in the time of my ancestors" bullshit. (The only thing I would change about Cataclysm is to make energy cannons not track targets. That always seemed a bit too "photon torpedo" for my tastes.) Both *Homeworld* and *Homeworld: Cataclysm* have their stories grounded in the setting in which they exist, and the events of their stories flow naturally from the preconditions set up by their worldbuilding. *Homeworld 2* however, is grounded in the idealised "good guys v. bad guys" fantasy, which while not in and itself a bad thing, is horribly incongruent with the rest of the series. Compare the natural progression shown in Cataclysm, with the Taiidan appearing as both struggling Imperialists and the nascent Republic. Contrast this to Homeworld 2, where (unstated *I think*, but it may have been in a design doc) every bad guy (Taiidani, Turanic, etc.) is all assumed to have joined Makaan, while all the good guys have joined up with the Kushan. And, just to put the icing on the cake, it motivates this in the most banally schlock-sci-fi (and not good schlock either. *bad shlock*. **real trash.** ***and not the good kind...***) way possible: with magical mystical precursor plot tokens the likes of which HAVE NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE... at least not since that last time we seent 'em. Only possession of the plot tokens matter, and the one guy who could probably kick the shit out of everyone just so happens to be a true believer in the ancient prophecy and hands theirs to the completely undeserving protagonist because IT IS YOUR DESTINY. > Deserts of Kharak DoK was a good game in and of itself, but I was sorely disappointed with it sticking to HW2's interpretation of magical precursor hyperspace baubles. Because I have my copy of the *Historical and Technical Briefing* at hand and it says quite clearly that the Kushani *built* their mothership's hyperspace core, using the Khar-Toba's as a blueprint. They didn't *find* no working cores in no deserts, Qwaar-damnit. That the devs didn't have the sack to admit their mistake and retcon that shit irked me greatly. I retaliated by becoming a Gaalsien main - also because, as the villains, they get cooler-looking stuff. And technically they were right. Everyone on Kharak died horribly because people couldn't not go to space. > "creative vision" See, that's the thing. I'm coming to realise that most creators simply don't have one. What they do have, is the occasional good idea. But because these things are only occasional, when they're allowed to come back and tinker with them more they've a far greater chance than not of fucking them up something horrible. It's just the way of the world, now. Of all the original concepts and designs for Homeworld 2, the *"Dust Wars"* concept was probably the most notable as a "worthy" successor to the first two games, but even then it had the problem of making the Kushan now the big dogs and somehow treating Hiigara as if it were the designated capital of the galaxy. Homeworld 2, which should have been called Homeworld 3, should have had the Taiidan Republic as the big power, and either made them the protagonists directly, or have the Kushan play a role much like that of the Somtaaw during Cataclysm. As it stands, the only good thing to come from HW2, in my opinion, was the design of the Great Harbourship of Bentus - because it's the ancient port of Carthage in space. And also, if they were really committed to having a one century timeskip between the games, then they would have to publish *at least* a 200-page manual to go with it.