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It's not Homeworld 2

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 24 / 26
Date: January 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It may not be Homeworld 2 but it's a great way for 3D space RTS fans to get their regular 'fix'. The game may lack polish, but makes up for it in sheer fun.

The pace is slower than Homeworld, and the combat system is much better than O.R.B. But it's different enough from both to stand on its own. Some of the other reviewers here do not seem to have have read the help/manual or they'd have found the very functional starmap built in.

The graphics are better than functional. Ship detail may not be as good as Homeworld, but the space field effects are spectacular. The voice acting is very weak, and the plot seems makeshift. The research tree is as detailed as you would want it to be.

Strategic placement of units, use of spies and the combat system is where this game shines. The mobile bases are devastating in their power. The unit population limits are set fairly low for each mission, but each ship comes with enough firepower to make that irrelevant.

Definitely recommended for sci-fi RTS fans. Users new to this genre should start with Homeworld.

This is what I have been waiting for!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: December 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I don't agree with the negative remarks about the game.

It works fine on a P3-550, GF3-64mb, 256mb ram -and- works fine
on a Duron-1.2, GF3-64mb, 128mb ram.

Here's what you have in the game: You can build BIG ships with great looking movie-like texture graphics. That's right: "movie-like". The detail/effects during contruction and actual use of the ships is the best I have seen to date. It is -not- the same as the "colorful" lego-like ships of Homeworld. You can research technologies, and build on the planets you colonize. Reminds me of the old days of "Masters of Orion". The graphics on the planets, asteroids, gas clouds are all very nice. The universe here is vast enough.

Gameplay isn't bad at all. The interface took me about 15 min to figure out.

If you like space games like Homeworld, then check it out for yourself.

Barely worth the time it takes to install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 34 / 51
Date: November 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Well, where to begin? I had great hopes for this game when I heard about it. I have always liked strategy games, and space-based games were always fun. I thought Hegemonia would be the next evolutionary step for the space strategy game genre. I should have just stuck with Homeworld.

Basically, this game is worthless on virtually all fronts. I'll start off with the good parts, then the bad parts.

The Good:
1. Cool introduction movies.
2. The box is pretty.

The Bad:
Everything else.

Specifically, this piece of detriol doesn't have any of the following that you would expect from a space-based strategy game released in 2002.
a) Not true 3D. Everything more or less revolves around the plane of orbits in the various star systems.
b) No option for ship customization. You just get hull type, and weapon type. And there does not seem to be much difference what weapon type you pick.
c) Squads are set, you cannot modify them in any way. You cannot add or remove ships from them. If say 2 of your ships get destroyed and you want 2 replacements, the other two have to sit around the planet making them and can't do anything until the replacements are done.
d) There are no tactics involved in the game. You build ships, and you move them around. The only options you have is whether to be aggressive or normal, whether to target hull or weapons. But squad control is so difficult and the combat is so quick, you cannot change tactics in any remotely sizable battle. And you want squad formations? Hahahahaha... well, yes, you can have any formation you want, as long as it is square or diamond [depending on what angle you're looking at the squads].
e) The story is ridiculous, and completely linear. And the voice acting makes the home movies my cousins and I did as adolescents look like Spielberg caliber material.
f) The interface is atrocious. You have to press all kinds of mouse and keyboard commands to get anything right. And if you think the manual can help you out, you're in for a surprise.

All in all, I can't recommend this game if someone paid you to play it (well, I suppose it depends on how much they paid you). I know a lot of people involved in the game spent a good portion of their lives to make this game, and I do not want to detract from their talents. But honestly, please let us put good talent to better use in the future.

I would give this game a negative rating if possible, but Amazon forces you to pick at least one star.

A Tremendous Disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You'll read a lot of reviews noting how nice this game's graphics look. That's true, up to a point, though anyone with a bit of astronomical sense begins to reel once you see immobile planets all trailed by orbital lines and incorrect scale.

Unfortunately, the graphics are the only thing going for this game. The gameplay is very lame, the victory conditions in each mission can be vague and inconsistent, some of the conventions (such as each colonization ship carrying 30 million people) are counter-intuitive or just plain silly, and the storyline script is written by adolescents.

When it comes down to it, "Hegemonia" is not worth spelling, let alone playing or purchasing. Do yourself a favor -- avoid this game like the plague and buy "Homeworld 2" instead.

Get Patch 1.07 or Later for XP and Nvidia

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Bought the game March 15, 2003. Out of the box it was patch level 1.05. Appeared at first to run fine on Windows XP Home Edition on high end machine with nVidia graphics card. But I could not move the ships nor do much of anything else, at least not very often and not very consistently. It appeared to be an expensive screen saver.

Thought the problem was me. But after six hours of pure frustration I finally realized the game simply was not working properly and decided to look for help. Discovered there is a patch 1.07 that seems to have cured my problems. This is a large patch, 17.9 MB download. The descriptor for this patch at the Hegemonia web site says that installation of patch 1.07 will allow both mouse buttons to work, and my experience with the game out of the box was that the right mouse button was simply not doing anything at all most of the time. If running the game on Windows XP, the Hegemonia web site support info says that an alternative fix might be to try running it in an emulation mode for Windows 98 or ME. I note that DreamCatcher does not list Hegemonia in its list of XP compatible games. Caveat emptor.

Five stars for graphics alone. One reviewer said it did not have a starmap, but it does! Just hit the spacebar to toggle it on and off. This is a complex game and you will discover the manual is not in there just to make the box weigh more. You will need to know what the keyboard commands do to make it work. While on the Hegemonia web site pick up a copy of the campaign walkthru, a .pdf file that has printing locked out, so you will have to download the walkthru .pdf file for offline consultation, which you will feel the need of sooner rather than later.

This game has gotten excellent reviews from the professional reviewers at the major gaming web sites.

Rating on it's own merits....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have read reviews from users here and at other sites, and I am amazed how many people are trashing this game because it's not HomeWorld. Forget Homeworld and judge it on its own merits. I have downloaded the demo and I think it's a great game. I've never played Homeworld, so I am not colored in my opinion. I agree the interface and the controls take a little getting used to, but that's part of the learning experience. I'm going to get the full game as soon as I get a chance.

A Feast for the Eyes

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. It's a wonderful real-time strategy game, which is what it claims to be. Hegemonia is not an empire-builder, and it never claims to be.

The interface is not very intuitive. That is to say, it does not work like other games in the same genre, or 3d games in general. If you look at the manual, though, where they explain moving the camera, it suddenly makes sense. I can move my fleets or my camera wherever I would like, effortlessly.

Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. Watching the battles are like watching Babylon 5, in real-time, on your PC. Wonderful particle effects, location-specific damage, and the most beautiful explosions you've seen on your PC to date make it really difficult to decide whether to watch a battle up-close and personal or back up to see the whole panoramic view. Each is equally impressive.

The camera is always smooth, zooming and panning to your destination. The only time there is a hard cut is when you switch solar systems.

Their system of multiple solar systems divided by static jump points is a great way of providing different fronts for your battles, and being able to decide what planets to colonize and what static and mobile defenses to build.

What I think is best of all is that this game is simple. There isn't a huge involvement in learning to play the game, and it's not so simple that, once you know how to move your ships around, you can just jump in a start playing. Everything fits together to make the game not only a fun real-time strat, but a full multimedia experience. I've had a remarkable time playing the game in the first two weeks I've owned it, and I look forward to a long time replaying it at higher skill levels.

its fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I picked up Hegemonia (...), after looking at the box and admiring the graphics.

Being an animator, graphics are the first thing I look at when I look at a game, followed by how much thought it requires.

Based on those two catagories, I give the game four stars. The graphics are nothing short of amazing, and far superior to Homeworld's.

There is a huge amount of strategy involved, at least when going against the computers in the skirmish maps, specifically "friends." Apparantly the map was intended for 8 players, not 2... In the larger maps the limit on battleships- because thats what it comes down to typically, a war between battleships- is somewhat bothersome. You are limited to either 6,7, or 10 squadrons of ships. As near as I can tell, the game randomly selects one of those numbers as your squadron max.
You can only have 1 battleship per squadron, and when you and your enemy's empires span four star systems, 7 battleships simply aren't enough. However, the limit on ships forces you to rely on tactics more so than in strategy games like Generals or Heroes IV, where you can recruit unlimited numbers of troops.

All in all, 4 stars. Strategy is good, graphics are excellent. And there's a way to change the ship limit by editing some of the game files.

Homeworld Lovers Beware....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: November 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Hegemonia is a great game for some, but in my humble opinion it's "okay", I found the controls to be too awkward for my taste. Of course, being a bit biased, I kept comparing it to Homeworld and HW Cataclysm.

So don't expect Hegemonia to play like Homeworld. Instead expect the game interface to be quite different. Maybe only then you can appreciate the difference. The majority of my friends, Homeworld players, simply hated the game...so you are warned.

If you can't wait for Homeworld 2 to come out and got the itch go grab yourself a copy of the other 3D space game called O.R.B.

A Solid Masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I want to compliment this game in many ways. The main point of the game that will hit one first are the graphics(produced by the Walker Engine) high polygon counts, exceptional lighting effects, marvelous attention to detail, and no glitches are all welcomed effects. The gameplay is solid and very attractive, I find the control scheme smooth but others have said it is tricky to use; The only problem (in the entire game)is the camera movement and this is easy to deal with it it just takes a little time. The story is very engrossing and well thought out the cutscenes are simply breathtaking; though at some points in time even the game had me thinking I was in a movie....I highly recommend this game over O.R.B., Homeworld (highly outdated), and Star Trek 3...this game IS in full 3D.

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