HomePlanet Hands-On

In the past year or so, the Russian development team 3MapGames, formerly known as Revolt Games, had been deeply involved with the creation of a new space simulation entitled HomePlanet. Well, it's about time I say! It's been a while since we got a chance to play an epic space combat sim, which is exactly what HomePlanet is all about - huge battles taking place in deep space and in planet orbits, many challenging single-player campaigns, etc. (I'm also foaming at the mouth for Digital Anvil's Freelancer - Ed.)

I know you can’t see him right now, but I’m aiming at that guy over there.

Coming around! Only the fighters are attacking, I wonder what this cruiser is waiting for...

The plot begins during the 7th century of space exploration. Apparently, the Earth Confederation has conquered almost every far region of the galaxy except a few systems that remained independent for a long time. These worlds have formed coalitions, preserving their independence by trading, mining, and so on. These parts of the galaxy were called enclaves. The enclave that's going to be of particular interest to our story is the Klouto, which is divided into 27 clans. The smallest clan among these is the Troiden. Its population was scarce, but it was renowned for successful research in the field of highly advanced space technology, particularly bio-implants. Pretty soon, Troiden had become the center of attention in the known universe and all clans turned their eyes towards Klouto. Many of these clans have begun to assail Troiden. Even though Troiden had the most advanced weapon and defense technology in the universe, the clan was greatly outnumbered and was eventually forced to surrender. From here on, the Troiden had to set out in search of a new home and foundation for its populace. Which is, evidently, where you come in.

One of most commendable aspects of the game is the plotline, which maintains the suspense throughout the missions. Next to the solid story, the game will have many other cool aspects. For starters, players are going to face over 20 missions with various challenges put before them. While searching for your home world, you will be able to choose from a variety of ships - as it was revealed, the game is going to encompass 6 unique fighters, all of which are equipped with specific weapon and shield systems. In addition, HomePlanet features several different types of space vessels like cruisers, space fighters, and so on (or, to be more precise, 60 diverse space crafts altogether). When you sit inside your very own space fighter and slowly begin your cosmic journey, the first thing you notice is that the game is quite easy to get into.

The missions we tested were slightly linear, but frankly this was more of a relief than a disappointment; when you begin a flight through space you want your mission assignments to be straightforward and clear - as opposed to roaming around in black and empty space, clueless of your whereabouts. This doesn't mean you won't have the freedom to move around. The game gives you the opportunity to go anywhere at any given time. All in all, HomePlanet has a rather smooth gameplay thanks to a number of things. Most important of all, the controls can be mastered swiftly and the interface has all the necessary readouts and digits available on screen. All of your weapon, shield, and radar systems can almost effortlessly be accessed via cockpit controls.

To be honest, HomePlanet has the kind of gameplay we've seen so many times before in PC titles like Starlancer, the Wing Commander series, and X-Wing. Nonetheless, the Russian development team promised to put in a few original gameplay elements so that HomePlanet may set its own landmark in the massive world of space sims. The most innovative part of the game is the advanced map system, which gives players the ability to take control over their wingmen. It's not often that we see a sci-fi FPS which allows you to manipulate units in RTS fashion. Quite a nice touch, you have to admit.

As we were informed by the developers this press demo of HomePlanet was supplied with a basic AI routine. But, even this preliminary AI showed great potential; your wingmen are alert and are able to handle almost any situation themselves, while providing you with sufficient cover fire. Engaging the enemy ships wasn't much of a challenge, but like I've said the AI is still somewhat rough at the edges and clearly needs to be worked at.

The Russian development team has revealed that HomePlanet is powered by their in-house FLYM game engine. As far as we could tell, the game ran pretty smoothly with all of the available effects and graphic parameters beefed-up to the maximum. Although we didn't get to see any (near final build) explosions or particle effects, we were impressed with other features like nice and sweet lighting effects caused by the ship's laser fire, the effective usage of environmental bump-mapping, etc. At any time during battle, the player can also switch the camera view from first-person to any other angle he prefers. Still, HomePlanet has one characteristic that outshines above all others. Of course, I'm talking about the sound. Each sound effect was apparently worked on with utmost care, while the music sounds absolutely fabulous. The music will vary from brilliant epic tracks, to soothing and relaxing modern tunes.

Obviously, there are numerous aspects in the game that still require fine-tuning. The developers have enough time to work on many issues both in terms of graphics and gameplay. As we understood it, the final game will also be furnished with a mission editor that allows players to create new assignments and even their own ships and weapons (which is another nice touch). When HomePlanet arrives some time in the next few months, we have no doubt that it will receive the attention it deserves from the public.