Homeworld: Shipbreakers Clip Shows Big Battles
It's been too long, old friend.
Homeworld is like that bestfriend who has drifted away over the years; these days you only chat by happenstance, and each time you’re left wondering why they never come around anymore.
This time, the upcoming Homeworld: Shipbreakers [official site] made a surprise showing at a conference for Unity developers in Boston last month. A video of the presentation only hit YouTube today, and given how difficult it is for anyone to keep things under wraps these days, that delay is nothing short of stunning.
The video itself is pretty technical, dipping into the specific Unity functions the team uses to give scenes and vehicles presence, but it starts with a great teaser and some gameplay clips. Most of it takes place on a Dune-esque desert world, but what's there is unmistakably Homeworld. The series' trademark sense of scale is out in force, with cameras sweeping from tight angles on individual units, to a color-coded political map of the planet-wide battlefield. Peppered with some gorgeous vistas of mass destruction and a clean UI to manage the chaos, and we've got all the ingredients for a great 4X title.
In case you’ve forgotten, the series has been in something of a limbo since 2000. A good chunk of the original team left to found a new studio, Blackbird Interactive.
Their first big project, Hardware: Shipbreakers, was intended to be something of a spiritual sequel to the Homeworld series. Borderlands developer Gearbox bought the rights in the midst of THQ’s collapse in 2013, and upgraded Hardware from “homage” to a genuine Homeworld sequel.
Welcome back friend, hopefully we can get drinks and catch up soon.
Thanks, Kotaku