HomePlanet Demo

Space may be extraordinarily vast and filled with wonders, but there is only so much you can do when you are trapped in a spaceship traveling at modest speeds. Hence, space sims usually have to come up with other exciting stuff for you to do, other than look out the window and shoot lasers at a million other identical ships.

HomePlanet is not exactly revolutionary and it may as well be called a regular space sim, with the exception of a few elements that give it a tiny edge on the competition. Hence, it’s all about drifting through the void and shooting at the bad guys, while various planets and stars decorate the background. You don’t get to actually visit any of them, but the action-packed dogfights should make up for it.

The story talks about a rather distant future, one in which humanity has spread all over the galaxy and somehow split into rival clans on the way there. Hence, you play the role of a fighter pilot for one of these clans, namely the Troidens. As such, your purpose throughout the missions is to defeat the other clans and try to win the war for your side.

Before each mission begins, you get the chance to pick the desired missiles, depending on how you want to approach the combat aspect. However, even if most of the gameplay is played from the classic cockpit view, you also have the ability to switch between a few other angles, although it’s much more difficult to steer the ship that way. There are a couple of different ships you get to maneuver along the way, each with a specific behavior.

From a technical point of view, the developers tried to integrate a realistic flight model and opted for a Newtonian-based physics engine, which makes it a tad more difficult to steer. Every ship can be customized a little bit, so you don’t get bored along the way. Visually, the vessels and the effects look nice, but the environments are way too barren most of the time.

In the end, HomePlanet is nothing special and it certainly doesn’t bring an awful lot to the genre. However, it’s not exactly awful either, so you can certainly give it a try if you run out of space sims to play. Don’t expect too much, however, especially in the story department or from the actual gameplay.