Those who played the original Homeworld will find a few differences in ship management in Homeworld 2.  The first change is a good one in that the smaller ships are automatically built in squadrons, making them easier to build and manage than before.  Partial strength squadrons can even be brought back to full strength after they are brought back to base.  The next change will be a bit more controversial among Homeworld veterans - the ship formations are gone.  Well, user selectable formations at least.  Ships will adopt a formation based on their posture (aggressive, passive, defensive) and the mix of ship classes in the group.  This new system simplifies fleet management and is implemented well, but I can't help but miss the ability to have full control over my strike groups' formations.

The battles in Homeworld 2 are spectacular to watch.

Another change in Homeworld 2 is one that adds a new strategic element to the game.  Ships can now direct their attacks at specific ship sub-systems such as weapons or engines.  Now you can try to leave a capital ship dead in space and prevent it from joining the main battle without having to destroy it completely.  Or you can take out a carrier's fighter facility and prevent it from bringing in reinforcements.

If you played Homeworld, then you'll have no trouble getting right back into things with Homeworld 2.  The control scheme is basically the same, which is a good thing since it was so well-implemented in Homeworld.  The space in the game is three dimensional, and you can easily add a z-component to movement orders by holding the left mouse button after you've selected a horizontal destination and then dragging the mouse to set the elevation above or below the ship's or fleet's current plane.  Camera control is all mouse driven, and is intuitive and responsive.  I can't remember a single time when I even thought about the camera, let alone ran into issues because I couldn't get the right view on the action.  To make controlling your fleets even easier, there is a sensors manager view that gives you a view of the current sector of space.  You can see all of your ships and fleets from this view and pinpoint enemy positions that are in your ships' sensor range.  You can give movement and other orders from this view and can even play out the entire mission without ever leaving it.

You wouldn't want to play the game entirely form the sensors manager view, though, because then you'd miss out on the game's spectacular graphics.  Space is filled with colorful nebulas and gas clouds, and the lighting effects are very well done.  The ships themselves are detailed, and the engine, weapons, and damage effects are fantastic.  Watching a large battle unfold is an awesome sight and on par with the memorable space battles in quality science fiction movies.

If there is a knock against Homeworld 2 it is that is a very difficult game.  The campaign missions are hard right from the get go and do not give you the luxury of the ramping difficulty level found in most strategy game campaigns.  You'll be hard-pressed to handle the waves of enemy ships that come at you, often from different directions.  You'll also pay dearly if you commit to the wrong mix of ships early in a mission or waste resources pursuing the wrong research path.  The major events in each mission are scripted and the second time you attempt a mission you'll know what's coming, but not even this knowledge is enough to give you an edge.  What this means is that if you enjoy strategy games and love a challenge, you'll find plenty of it here.  Other gamers, especially those new to real-time strategy may find the entire experience too frustrating and give up on the game only a few missions into the game.  If you're looking more for a multiplayer experience (and thus a wide range of levels of challenge) , then the game has you covered with Gamespy hosted matches of up to six players per game. 

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 92%.  Homeworld 2 has established itself as the benchmark game in real-time strategy space combat.  Its intense difficulty will be a turn off to many casual gamers, though.

System Requirements:  Pentium III 833; 256 MB RAM;  32 MB Video RAM; 16x CD-ROM;  1.6 GB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

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