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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.

Takes too long

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Too slow to develop, you can only play two pre-structured campaigns with no options in the single player mode to start a new campaign. Graphics could make you car sick, it did me. To move from one campaign level to the next you have to complete selected goals. In the 4th level I could not get out, just kept flying around with everything destroyed. Game will not let you out. Manual is minimal, you need to keep going to the system help screen to get information to play the game.

This totally [stinks]!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: March 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really tried to like this game, but after playing it for a couple days I just gave up. It really doesn't deserve the one star I'm forced to give it.

The controls are quiet frustrating. Not only are there too few options for piloting your fleet, but half the time your ships won't do what you tell them. For example in Episode 1 Earth4, One squad kept flying off towards Mars, eventually causing me to have to start the mission over.

My second major gripe is the story. I swear Ed Wood could have come up with something better. The voice acting sounds like the people were given a script to read, and they did exaclty that without feeling the need to make it sound convincing.

Also you'd think anyone that bought this or similar games would at least have some degree of interest in space exploration and the science surounding it. However, your character seems quiet uneducated and outright stupid at times. Early on he scoffs at being told of the need to research new tech. I'd hope by the 2nd century people would abandon anti-science attitudes, and realize that wormholes and ion drives aren't exactly flint axes or fire.

The sound and graphics are pretty nice though. Maybe they justify the one star, but still I'd recomend anyone looking for an interesting, story driven game, stay away from the garbage that is Hegemonia.

Broken Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: February 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is broken, so don't waste your money on it. It's obvious that Dreamcatcher didn't do a propper QA on it. Trying to load saved missions will result in crashes. I did find that if you play the campaign missions from start to finish and just use the auto start save or the the in mission auto save to reload missions then crashes can be avoided. Just don't bother making your own save line. Also in one of the later missions you have to explore an unknown entity station from a lost race. The station has unbeatable defences. The mission says not to do any research until told too. During the mission you get some incomplete research from a different race and when you do all the research in that line you get a device that supposed to let the entity station think your a friend. To bad none of your ships can equip the device. You can't finish the mission and the game ends here. This game is broken and the company should be forced to reimburse the money they took for it or post an online patch to fix it.

Hegemohia Legions of Iron

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Save your money!!!! The graphics are great but the game ...! The single player mode is linear and boring. It is also buggy. In the multiplayer mode every time I try to play a scenerio the game freezes up and I have to restart my computer. I contacted the games tech support and the suggestion they gave me to correct it did not work. They also told me that other players are having the same problem. Please, save your money for something else. I wish I had!

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.

Don't waste your money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 16
Date: January 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Buggy!
Terrible:
UI
Voice acting
Story line

Homeworld Lovers Beware....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
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.

Oldie, but Fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game could be compared to either of the Homecoming games, but I find it favorible for the simple reason that it is simpler.
Yes, I will admit the number of units the player can pick from in LOI is very limited, but I think the game more than makes up for it in how they are used. Like in any traditional game (ie, chess, checkers, etc) the player is limited to the number of pieces given, and no more. The way the player utilizes those units determines gameplay. Anybody can simply overwhelm an opponent with superior numbers, but correct and efficient strategies with limited numbers on both sides seperate the rank amateur from the worthy foe.
LOI is an older game and shows it in the UI, most especialy the tech tree. That said, the tech tree is long and you have to make tough choices to advance against an AI that is bloodthirsty and an enemy that is at almost every stage more advanced than your own units. The SP storyline is really very good if you can overlook the dialogue (it's a hungarian company, what do you expect? it wasnt made for english in the first place). I wont comment on the multiplayer as I'm not interested in the multiplayer aspect, but the scenarios are very challenging and creative, though no new scenarios have been developed since (I think)the company was bought out. Where the game realy excells are in the areas of music and graphics. The music is second to none, and I still think the graphics are better than many games to come out even int the past few years. (Side note, I bought Star Wars Empires at War in the hope that LucasArts would be abble to provide an improved version of LOI, but I was sadly mistaken, the game pales becide LOI in every single way despite being years newer). The graphics even hold up to standards set by games made today.
Bottom line is, I have played a lot of newer games in the Space RTS genre, but I grew quickly disgusted and went back to LOI.

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