Yet these brief, sometimes unemotional moments of exposition, perfectly compliment the understated arrangement of the story. These are accompanied by original voiceovers that might perhaps come across as wooden by today’s standards. The narrative is elegantly progressed by the minimalist animated cut scenes that appear between missions. The actual visual detail is in some ways discreet, but it contributes to the significant sense of scale and depth that permeates the game as a whole. When playing the first few story missions of Homeworld, I was struck by the immediate sensation of the expansive isolation the game manages to effectively conjure. It was me out there, on my own, fighting the battles, seeking survival, looking for home. Instead, the player is the fleet, the fleet is the player. There aren’t any people the player might naturally gravitate towards, whose personal quests the player would typically play out. What I found interesting about Homeworld’s story is the fact that the game doesn’t really present any characters per se.

Things soon go awry – a hyperspace jump reveals hostile alien forces Kharak is subsequently destroyed. A Mothership is built and a fleet is assembled. Even more intriguingly, the discovered ship provides a galactic map that points to a ‘home’ to which the Kharak endeavour to return. This discovery ushers in an age of technological evolution and the development of advanced spaceflight. Homeworld follows the story of the Kushan, inhabitants of the planet Kharak, who discover a ship buried in the sands of a desert. If that isn’t enough, the classic versions are included too. This compendium reintroduces Relic’s original series to a contemporary audience, complete with bells and whistles in the form of freshly rendered graphics, HD support, new effects and music. As a fan of RTS games, science fiction and playing with space ships in general, I was excited to finally plug the Homeworld gap in my gaming history by taking on the Homeworld Remastered Collection. My PC at the time wasn’t up to spec, and I missed out on a game that went on to become a cult classic in the RTS genre. I never had the opportunity to play the original Homeworld in 1999.

Homeworld remastered collection