It looks practical and tiny against the landscape, which helps sell the harsh environment of the setting and engrosses the player.Įven the game interface is justified as the control scheme for the carrier in-world.

Everyone wears environment suits to keep out the heat. The vaguely European-ish Coalition has angular, mechanical cars that often resemble mining and construction equipment as much as military hardware or, for the fundamentalist Gaalsiens, jet-black plastic hovercraft appropriate to their advanced technology. The designs for both factions are industrial punk aesthetic at its best. The individuals are secondary to the overall history of the expedition. But the broader plot, the one where a giant landship is the main character, is compelling. The personal stories – with only one major character worth a name, the scientist hero Rachel S’jet – comes across as a halfhearted melodrama.

They’re looking for a big, MacGuffin-like anomaly, deep in the equatorial region, against a vast clan of technologically advanced religious zealots dead-set against space travel. Players control a huge land-carrier and an attendant army of dune buggies, rovers and tanks on an expedition across the alien planet’s deserts and derelict spaceships. It’s a distant prequel to the decade-old “Homeworld” and “Homeworld 2,” and transplants the series from space to the vast expanse of the desert. “Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak” might just be the sandiest game ever. Sand clogs up everything it’s gritty and coarse.

Homeworld video game