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Yuck!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 34
Date: July 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Having just played Homeworld and not really enjoying it, I tried this one, the second game in the series (I bought all 3 at the same time. Shouldn't have done that.)

And so far, I can't even get the game to play. I installed and uninstalled twice. I have downloaded updated drivers for NVIDIA GEFORCE FX 5200 128meg video card. I have changed all of the settings over and over again. And still can't play. I see the beginning story in the aftermath that follows the end of Homeworld, of them rebuilding. But as soon as I see the ship fly in on the first cutscene, I get kicked back to Windows.

My recommedation is if you have XP, don't get this game. So far, it's more trouble than it's worth. So now I guess I will try Homeworld 2.

Fun?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 39
Date: December 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just have one thing to say: this game is as fun as you can throw it underwater with your wrists chained to some wall. Also, the interface and mere gameplay feels like an act of congress (looking up how to do things in the manual!) To be frank, don't by this game even if they would give you money in return!

No! Please! Don't buy this!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 15
Date: January 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The title should say it all. The requisite for the number of stars you give a game is "How much fun is this game?"

Amazon.com doesn't recognize negative numbers.

Cataclysm is not all bad; very few things in life are. The graphics are pretty darned good, and the control interface has, yes, been improved. Not enough to justify the release of this monstrosity in either case.

I bought the original Homeworld the very day it was released. It has now been on my hard drive continuously since that point. It is without any SEMBLANCE of a doubt the best strategy game I've ever played. The game had class; it had flair. The graphics were just _astounding_. The voices were, as computer games go, done very well. The ships were amazing. I spent hours drawing them and designing new additions to them and the like. But that's just me. Anyway, the missions were perfectly scripted and added to the already spectacular game. I remember, I put off the last mission for 4 and a half months because I didn't want the game to end it was that...good! I cried when I had finished the last mission and the thought crashed into my head: "This is it. There isn't any more."

So then, obviously, I was near tears again when Cataclysm was announced and I saw in it my psychological salvation. What actually happened when I installed and ran the game was near sacriledge.

They took a great game and utterly destroyed it. They removed every last shred of je ne sais croire that Homeworld had (tons of it, by the way) and replaced it with utter, run of the mill garbage.

The original game had just the right FEEL, just the right everything. Its creators knew what they had to do and went above and beyond it. Sierra has always been able to tell a story (some of the time, granted, that story is the best part of the game...:P) flawlessly. Homeworld had such a great storyline it could've been (well, "Battlestar Galactica" was, I guess) the basis for a [5 star] movie. Cataclysm's story has promise, and was written very well-just read the manual and you'll see what I mean. But it can't be a part of the Homeworld series. In order for it to work, it needs to be a whole separate game to avoid soiling what the original was.

Cataclysm just isn't good. The points I make and more are in the other reviews. Those who give it 4 or 5 stars don't know what they're talking about. Or I'm overly sentimental. Oh well.

Please don't buy this game. Please. The only thing its good for it using as a skeet and knowing, as little fragments fall to Earth, that you have destroyed a great evil to the gaming universe.

-Baikal

do NOT get this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: May 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Compared to the original, this game is a bust. You basically have to destroy the "Beast", a creature that takes control over machines and humans. you have to battle your way to their mothership, while facing numerous attacks from rebels, and destroy it.

PROS: Great graphics, all new ships, 17 long missions, new abilities; interesting new objectives, and it is a sequal to homeworld, so it has to be a little fun

CONS: incredibly easy, even on the hardest skill level; levels get boaring after a while; the only way you can lose is to send your command ship headfirst into the enemy base completely unprotected; the "new" ships are basically re-named, re-done, versions of the old ones, it is so easy to replace ships that you can basically build millions of fighters, kamikazee them, and build them again, and since you never run out of resources the enemy can't stop you,capital ships are too strong(i think i only lost 1 destroyer the entire game), the new ships give you an unfair advantage, for example, in some levels you can use a ship called a leach to completely destoy the enemy carrier without even having to fight it, your command ship is too impervious to attacks and you barely have to leave an escort with it, you can't get the best ship in the game to use in multiplayer, and it is kind of anticlimax. there is no final video or anythign like that.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: March 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I loved the origanal so I had high exspectations. The graphics are phenominal, but the gameplay sucked. I finished it in a week. Unlike the original that took me the whole summer. If you want the a good game buy the original.

Crime against original - in space noone can hear you cry

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 25
Date: January 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well, somehow they managed to make a follow-up that is not as good as the first.

Please note that the people who made this sequal are NOT the people who made the original, even though Sierra handles the production.

Pay attention to the negative reviews this game has received, many fans of the original feel a bit betrayed by this one.

Yes, there are some tweaks that are good: waypoints for movement, you can make vessels fly around in circles, some different ships.

However this game does NOT have the magnificent ambience of the original, the voice overs are sickeningly American-accented, it simply does not have anywhere near the class and atmosphere of the first.

Don't get me wrong, it is a good game and if you are starving for more Homeworld then go for it, but don't expect the beauty of the original.

If you do not have Homeworld, GET HOMEWORLD. It's better to enjoy the original first. You won't lose anything by playing that one first. Then play a demo of this one, and if you can stomach it, go for it.

Sierra, get your act together and make some cheap original Homeworld mission packs, thanks, that would be well appreciated.

Way dissapointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The original Homeworld blew me away. From that amazing opening sequence with the Addagio for Strings music throughout the rest of the game. Everything about the game was revolutionary. Game play and intense storyline. Which is why I was greatly disappointed with Cataclysm. Cataclysm didn't invoke any sentiment and failed to completely draw me into the story as did the original. The Catacysm story is a complete waterdown compared to the original. The possibilities in ship building and technologies becomes limited compared to Homeworld. The game is a complete step in about every aspect from the original, except for some nice surrounding graphics. I was very very very very very very disappointed with this. A definitive second rate sequel. I wish I had never heard of this sequel, worse yet played it. I recommend sticking to the original Homeworld. This one will only mar the memory of the original.

Get it together!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: April 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game has great graphics, but that's about it. The storyline definately needed improving along with the horribly robotic sounding voices. The additions to this game (like support modules and science modules) were the worst. A word to the wise get the original, it is one of the best games I've played. Sierra, I know you guys can come out with more levels and stuff for the original come on!!

Way dissapointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: December 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The original Homeworld blew me away. From that amazing opening sequence with the Addagio for Strings music throughout the rest of the game. Everything about the game was revolutionary. Game play and intense storyline. Which is why I was greatly disappointed with Cataclysm. Cataclysm didn't invoke any sentiment and failed to completely draw me into the story as did the original. The Catacysm story is a complete waterdown compared to the original. The possibilities in ship building and technologies becomes limited compared to Homeworld. The game is a complete step in about every aspect from the original, except for some nice surrounding graphics. I was very very very very very very disappointed with this. A definitive second rate sequel. I wish I had never heard of this sequel, worse yet played it. I recommend sticking to the original Homeworld. This one will only mar the memory of the original.

Fails to carry on the Legacy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 26
Date: November 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Cataclysm is simply not the mind-blowing experience that Homeworld was a year ago (or even today :). The core gameplay has been tampered with too much. Granted, Cataclysm manages to improve many aspects of the first game, but the sum of the parts do not add up to a complete whole.

Changes are made to the very basic way you can play the game, and at first they seem exciting, but after a few battles they quickly become tedious. For example, the technology tree now adds "upgrades", which means you must take time out of the fight to search the map for outdated ships and stop what they are doing to upgrade (downright annoying). Also, there are many new technologies which must be micro-managed for them to work, such unlink ships to fire missles, then linking them again to attack once the missles run out. Overall, all this forces you to micro-manage every battle you have, instead of concentrating on the big picture. A fight in two seperate places usually means that you'll lose in the place you can't watch over.

The graphics engine has been improved for the better. The game can now handle more ships on-screen at the same time before slowing to a crawl. Progress bars tell you the status of research or building without having to go into those respective screens. The almost useless "fog of war" has a single redeeming factor - it adds a sense of depth the sensors screen, and you can more easily tell the relationship of different positions in 3 dimensions. Too bad you can't use the old ships in Homeworld with the Cataclysm engine.

Finally, the worst offense - the story in Cataclysm is nowhere near as good as Homeworld. The feeling of mystery and strangeness present in the first game is just not there in the second. The voice work is over-acted, and even the music is a step down. Given that the single-player campaign was much harder and more frustrating, the story barely motivated me to finish it.

If you loved Homeworld and want some change to a comfortable game, give Cataclysm a try. Just don't except lightning to strike a second time.

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