When the original Homeworld came out in 1999, it blew my mind. I had been knee-deep in Starcraft for the past year and wasn’t ready for how mind-blowing and genre-defining Homeworld would become to 3D space RTS titles. Imagine my elation, then, when Homeworld: Vast Reaches was announced for the Meta Quest.
Homeworld VR takes the same brilliant gameplay and strategies from the original and perfectly translates them into VR but carefully redesigns the UI to be simple yet powerful. Commands to multiple groups can be issued instantly, and a clever pause system channels Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic by letting you take a breather to strategize and build before the enemy comes in for the kill.
In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
The story takes place between Homeworld 1 and 2, helping fill in the gaps for fans of the story. The entire experience is fully voice narrated with an excellent and believable cast, too, just as you would expect from any mainline entry in the series. I’ve long imagined what Homeworld would feel like in VR, and Homeworld: Vast Reaches finally brought my imagination to life in a way I didn’t expect would ever happen.
Better yet, it's available right now on the Meta Horizon store with a $10 launch discount and is even making its way to SteamVR later this year.
But it's not the only big franchise that's made the jump to VR recently, much less this year. Series like Assassin's Creed, Among Us, and Resident Evil 4 VR made waves in 2023 and 2022, while other PC gaming favorites like Medieval Dynasty and Tropico just made their first debut in VR on the Meta Quest platform.
And coming up, we've got the likes of Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Metro Awakening, and Zombie Army VR, and even a Meta Quest 3-exclusive entry into the Batman: Arkham series.
So many great series are making the jump to VR and aren't afraid to change things up a bit to fit the paradigm better. It's encouraging for folks who might be overwhelmed with the number of indies and bespoke titles on the platform, and the general quality of releases like Homeworld: Vast Reaches only further helps justify the need for a VR console designed to help people play VR games in a far less friction-filled way than ever before.
Real space strategy
Homeworld was one of the first 3D games I can recall nailing the navigational aspect of three-dimensional space. But what the flat-screen series excelled at, the VR version of Homeworld perfected. There’s an incredibly natural feeling about looking around and grabbing to move in virtual space.
In many ways, the control scheme apes Gods of Gravity, my other favorite VR space RTS game. Grabbing in the void of space with the grip button on one controller will let you pull yourself along through space exactly as you would expect it to. Likewise, grabbing with both controllers at the same time and using a “pinch” or “separate” motion will zoom in and out, changing the scale of your ships.
This makes it simple to quickly zoom out, issue several quick commands, and then zoom way in to get a closer look at the action. You can also use the right stick to quickly teleport between groups of ships, making it easy to zoom around the battlefield with little effort.
What the flat-screen Homeworld games excelled at, the VR version of Homeworld perfected.
Homeworld VR is a game that thrives for players who can micromanage effectively, and it’s a skill you’ll need to develop if you want to play on any difficulty other than easy. In fact, strategy is one thing this game does better than probably any other VR strategy game I’ve played to date. It’s really difficult, and I had to play many missions over and over again until I figured out a strategy that worked for the scenario.
This isn’t a forgiving game, and you won’t be using quick checkpoints to reverse mistakes. Resources are limited in each area, and you’ll feel the desperation of the crew as it hyperspace jumps from sector to sector just trying to survive another day.
In many ways, it reminds me a lot of Battlestar Galactica, as each jump tends to feel more and more desperate as the enemy constantly hunts you down and drains your fleet of its resources.
Homeworld: Vast Reaches is optimized for Quest 3 from day one.
Unlike a lot of other VR games launched this year, Homeworld: Vast Reaches is optimized for Quest 3 from day one. Graphics are sharp and clean, textures look excellent, and the high-res skyboxes make space feel as infinite as it should.
Furthermore, the mixed reality mode lets you swap out that skybox for the room you’re in instead. It was a little distracting for my tastes, but this is a game that feels best when you’re walking around the room, traversing space with your own two feet as if you were a giant god.
The mixed reality mode is impressive, letting you walk around in a giant galactic playspace.
Enabling the mixed reality mode and sizing the map to your play space gives it the feel of a giant zero-gravity playground. It’s incredibly cool and unique among other space games I’ve played on the system.
As with the original two Homeworld games, there are no multiplayer options in Homeworld VR. For that, you’ll probably want to check out Gods of Gravity, as it’s built for multiplayer space battles. Plus, that game is free to play, so there’s no cost for entry.
The entire experience is fully voice narrated with an excellent and believable cast just as you would expect from any mainline entry in the series.
I’m fine with the developers focusing on single-player content for this release. The voice acting, story quality, and well-balanced scenarios tell me that this title has been meticulously crafted to fit perfectly in between the existing mainline games. It’s a huge win for VR gamers as it delivers yet another full-fledged gaming experience with the magic that comes from experiencing a game in VR.
There’s nothing quite like being inside a game like Homeworld VR, especially when it’s as intuitively designed as this game is.
Too much compromise?
The biggest downside to Homeworld: Vast Reaches at launch is the length of the game. The story mode spans 11 missions, each of which will likely only take around 20 minutes to complete. That means you'll probably finish the game in normal mode in under three hours. The developer says the game is more than 5 hours long, but this seems like it must include playing through multiple difficulty settings.
While this seems like a dreadfully short amount of time for any game — especially one that normally retails for $30 — there's a silver lining to be found. Homeworld VR launches on the SteamVR version that's set to launch a little later this year, which will include "improvements and expansions made for Steam that will come to Quest as well."
In other words, the current Quest version can be thought of a bit like an early access model. Thankfully, there's a promise of more content to come shortly, but it's still a tough buy-in in its current short state unless you're a fan of the series or RTS games, in general.
The Quest release of Homeworld VR is a bit like an early access version, promising more content to come later this year.
That makes me wonder what we should expect from two major AAA games coming to the Quest 3 later this year. Games like Assassin's Creed Nexus and Asgard's Wrath 2 delivered AAA-level gameplay depth, but many players seem to shy away from some of the longer single-player games in favor of shorter experiences based on sales for both titles.
Both Alien: Rogue Incursion and Batman: Arkham Shadow have huge expectations to live up to, but there's no telling which avenue each developer is considering right now.
Will they go the route of Assassin's Creed and Asgard's Wrath and offer dozens (or hundreds) of hours of gameplay, or stick with the short-but-sweet type of game that Homeworld VR currently is? It'll certainly be interesting to find out, but regardless of the length, I'm glad we're getting so many amazing AAA-tier experiences in VR.
