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Homeworld Remastered: Still Beautiful After All These Years

By Wes Ellis3 min read
A Homeworld warship firing blue engines through a space battle full of laser tracers.
Rating
Platform
Steam · 24 hrs
THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • 4 out of 5. Twenty-four hours on record across both games.
  • Fully 3D fleet combat still feels like nothing else in real-time strategy.
  • The HD overhaul and remastered soundtrack look and sound fantastic.
  • Crashes, odd harvester AI and some UI changes hold it back, but the original versions are included as a fallback.

My Steam review was called "Where It All Began: Still Beautiful After All These Years," and "beautiful" is the right word. Homeworld Remastered Collection brings two genre-defining space strategy games up to date, and while the remaster isn't perfect, the heart of them is as captivating as ever.

What it is

You command a fleet through fully three-dimensional space. You gather resources, build ships, keep them in formation and fight battles where "up" and "down" matter as much as left and right. Your fleet also carries over between missions, so every ship you lose actually hurts.

A cluster of Homeworld ships firing orange beams at a larger vessel above a glowing planet.

The collection includes Homeworld and Homeworld 2, both remastered, plus the original "classic" versions of each. There's also combined multiplayer and Steam Workshop support.

What worked

The 3D combat. It still feels revolutionary. Positioning and awareness matter, formations and specialized units add real layers of strategy, and a well-planned engagement is a gorgeous thing to watch.

The look. The HD redesign supports resolutions up to 4K, and the extra detail makes the emptiness of space feel even bigger. This is a game you pause just to rotate the camera around your fleet.

The sound. The remastered audio is excellent, and the soundtrack is still a masterpiece. It's haunting in exactly the right way.

The extras. Two full campaigns, 30-plus missions, over a hundred ships, and an active modding scene.

Tip

If something in the remaster feels off, whether a crash, an interface change or a mechanic that doesn't behave the way you remember, the classic versions are right there in the same install. Use them.

A huge carrier ship leaving a glowing space station in Homeworld 2 Remastered.

What didn't

Bugs. Occasional crashes and some UI problems. Performance can be inconsistent even on hardware that should handle it easily.

AI quirks. Harvester behavior and pathfinding can undo careful planning. There's nothing like watching your resource collectors wander off on their own.

Changes from the original. Some interface elements are less intuitive than they used to be, and a few gameplay mechanics were changed. Purists will notice.

Who it's for

Strategy fans who like methodical games and don't mind a learning curve. Newcomers may struggle with the 3D controls and the mission difficulty at first, but getting good at fleet command is worth the effort. Veterans get their classics back with modern conveniences.

Worth it?

Yes. Despite the rough edges, it's the definitive way to play these games, and the depth, the atmosphere and the story all hold up. For the price, you're getting two pieces of gaming history.

If you like your space combat with a bit more Star Trek in it, I have complicated feelings about Star Trek Online, but its ship battles scratch a similar itch.

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