Homeworld: Vast Reaches

I only played 1 hour and plan on continuing to play. However I must say that I am a little bit disappointed. First the good things: It does look good overall. The atmosphere is there, it's fun watching your vessels rocket through the asteroid fields engaging enemies with a big planet in the background. The controls are fine, I would recommend to not use the stick for movement but to pull yourself through the universe by grabbing. You can resize yourself to get even more immersed by grabbing both controllers and pushing out or in, easy enough. And it does look cool. However, the bad things: The textures are bad. I thought that at least in the PC version, they would have better textures. From far away it's ok, but of course you wanna go into the action every once in a while, or enjoy a nice view following your vessels close up. Also, some textures do not align correctly, e.g. the upper gun of the scout texture from the front is misaligned. The planets in the background are big. But not big enough and not far enough. When you move, you can see the stars behind them moving and appearing behind the planet, which at this scale and velocity of moving should not be noticeable, so this doesn't create the illusion of an actual planet, but only a big ball somewhat in the distance. Which is a real shame. Also, it's low poly which you can definitely see. My big problem however is that at some point suddenly many of my ships weren't visible anymore. I could only see their engines when they moved or their silhouette in tactical pause or aiming at them and that included even the mothership! So... honestly, I can't really recommend. I will keep playing, it's still enjoyable enough for me, since it is one the very very few VR strategy games out there, and I hope that they will do at least some fixes of bugs, but as it stands right now, I can't really recommend.

Clearly a game made for Quest 2-3 standalone hmds using extremely slow phone gpus (Adreno 650/740) - graphics and especially geometry are beyond poor. This feels like a 1:1 Quest port, but you can add up to 8xMSAA and increase super-sampling. Some textures do look okay-ish from a distance. That said, Homeworld 1-2 never had the most amazing graphics, and this game does look much like the original games 25 years ago - and might take you back in time on several levels. Intro is static 2D images, same for persons talking to you. But that's to be expected from a game made for phone gpus. There is no true PCVR here. On the positive side, the game should run fine using a GTX 970 from 2015. I got no frame dips using an insane Index res 500% (45 million pixels per frame combining both eyes) and 8xMSAA with the RTX 3090. I had a hard time appreciating the controls using Index, and gave up. I'll rate the game 4/10, and will not be able to recommend the game. Btw, if the price is lowered to $10 for the cheap phoneVR it is, I'd rate the game 6/10 and would probably keep it.

This is amazing! More Please! For the old-school hardcore fans this is exactly what we wanted. I have wanted to step inside this universe since first playing the original game all those years ago in 1999. You have crafted an intuitive UI and a comfortable environment to play in. I am a 3D designer by day, and spend most of my work day inside a CAD environment. From 20 years of CAD experience I can confidently report the VR environment you have crafted here is without match at time of writing. Thank you, for what I can only assume is a labour of love. I look forward to many hundreds of hours spent inside this environment. Lastly, I am also one of the users experiencing regular crashes, (likely due to older machine) currently experiencing 3-4 crashes during a play session at timer of writing, so the above positive points are said with this in mind. In a Bentusi voice: ~We will be watching from the void in anticipation of what you have planned next~

I like it. I really hope they make VR versions of Homeworld 1 and 2 as well. The VR hand controls take some time getting used to, and the tutorial could be better. I didn't realize you had to hold down the trigger in order to issue vertical commands until the 2nd mission.

Can the "skirmish" mode be added? Why does steamVR crash every time it settles or returns to the main menu?

Has that classic Homeworld feel, great game for any fan of the series.

Good fun!

Great game, works wonderful in VR, an absolute recommendation.