Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a real-time strategy video game created by Blackbird Interactive and released by Gearbox Software. It was made available to players on January 20, 2016. This game is a prequel to the 1999 space-themed real-time strategy video game Homeworld.
Development
In 2013, Gearbox Software purchased the rights to use the Homeworld game series during a sale that happened when THQ went bankrupt. After this, Gearbox announced plans to create new, high-definition versions of Homeworld and Homeworld 2. These remastered versions were released on Steam, a gaming platform, in February 2015 as the Homeworld Remastered Collection.
After acquiring the rights, Gearbox allowed Blackbird Interactive, a company started by members of the original Homeworld development team in 2007, to use the Homeworld intellectual property. At the time, Blackbird was working on a ground-based real-time strategy game called Hardware: Shipbreakers, which was later renamed Homeworld: Shipbreakers and described as a prequel to the Homeworld series. On December 16, 2015, the game was officially named Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. It became available for pre-order on Steam on the same day. People who pre-ordered Deserts of Kharak received the Homeworld Remastered Collection for free, while those who already owned the collection got a 20% discount on their pre-order. The pre-order also included a free copy of the interactive Expedition Guide, a special game guide that explains the history of Kharak, its society, the expedition’s purpose, technical details about vehicles used by the Coalition and the Gaalsien, and background information about Blackbird’s founding and the development of the game from Hardware: Shipbreakers to Deserts of Kharak. Later, Blackbird reused the Shipbreaker name with a new game called Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a space salvage simulator released in early access on June 16, 2020. Deserts of Kharak was released on Steam, along with its soundtrack by Paul Ruskay (who also created the soundtracks for previous Homeworld games), on the day the game launched.
On March 15, 2016, the Soban Fleet Pack was announced as the first downloadable content (DLC) for Deserts of Kharak. This pack added the Kiith Soban faction as a playable group in Skirmish and Multiplayer modes. Kiith Soban is part of the Northern Coalition but has unique differences, including its own versions of the Carrier, Battlecruiser, Baserunner, and Railgun vehicles. The Soban Fleet Pack became available on March 22, 2016. A second DLC pack introduced the Khaaneph faction, scavengers from Kharak’s southern deserts who use modified Gaalsien technology. The Khaaneph Fleet Pack was released on April 26, 2016.
Plot
The game takes place on the desert planet of Kharak, 106 years before the events of Homeworld. Kharak is a dying world, and its desert grows larger each year. A satellite spots an object in the Great Banded Desert, called the Jaraci Object, or the "primary anomaly." An earlier expedition was sent by the Coalition of the Northern Kiithid, a group of Kushan clans from Kharak’s northern polar region, but this group disappeared in the desert four years earlier. The game’s campaign follows a second expedition and its chief science officer, Rachel S'jet, who is the ancestor of Karan S'jet in Homeworld.
Rachel’s expedition, centered around the Kiith S'jet land carrier Kapisi, departs from Epsilon Base in the Kharakian desert. Shortly after leaving, Kiith Gaalsien, a religious group exiled from mainstream Kharakian society, attacks and destroys several Coalition bases, including Epsilon, and lays siege to Tiir, the planetary capital. The Gaalsien also attack the Kapisi at a S'jet base called the Boneyard while the ship is being prepared for desert operations. A masked Gaalsien commander named Khagaan claims the Coalition’s use of satellites and space-based technology violates the law of the Great Maker, Sajuuk, and declares war on the Coalition. Escaping the Boneyard during a sandstorm, the Kapisi searches for its sister ship, the Kiith Siidim carrier Sakala, which also fled its base after a Gaalsien attack.
In a region called Hell’s Gate, the expedition finds the wreck of a previous S'jet carrier, the Ifriit Naabal, which was the flagship of the first expedition four years earlier. Rachel’s older brother, Jacob, was the first officer of that ship, which recovered an artifact from the wreckage of a space vessel called the Kalash. The expedition attempts to salvage more artifacts from the Kalash but is attacked by stronger Gaalsien forces led by Khagaan from the carrier Ashoka. Just as the expedition is nearly overwhelmed, the Sakala and its escorts arrive with reinforcements, driving the Gaalsien forces away. The Sakala distracts the Ashoka while the Kapisi attacks Gaalsien resource operations. However, the Ashoka changes course to attack the Kapisi and its escorts. Despite the Ashoka’s defenses and EMP weapons, Coalition forces destroy the Ashoka, killing Khagaan and her crew.
Approaching the edge of Gaalsien territory, the two carriers attack a Gaalsien fortress, with the Sakala drawing enemy defenders away while the Kapisi attacks resource operations. Rachel accesses the Gaalsien database and learns her brother Jacob has survived for years in Gaalsien custody. The Gaalsien believe the Jaraci Object is the mythical Khar-Toba, the "First City" and origin of Kushan civilization. The Gaalsien leader, K'Had Sajuuk, believes he will rule all of Kharak if he enters the temple of Khar-Toba. Along the way, the expedition discovers intact shipwrecks in the desert, and Rachel theorizes they materialized inside solid rock, referencing the hyperspace abilities of vessels from Homeworld. The expedition travels through a narrow canyon into a region called the "Dreamlands," where the Kapisi and Sakala destroy two Gaalsien carriers and fight their way to a high plateau to obtain supplies via airborne cargo landers from their leaders in Tiir.
As K'Had Sajuuk’s forces approach the primary anomaly, a weapons satellite opens fire on them from orbit. Rachel investigates the signal that triggered the satellite while the Kapisi holds its ground on the plateau to secure a runway for the landers. Just as Coalition forces gain the upper hand, the Siidim forces betray them, attacking the S'jet cargo landers. The Siidim, longtime enemies of the Gaalsien, claim they are divinely chosen to "purify" the desert and claim Khar-Toba and its secrets. Rachel discovers the signal that triggered the satellite came from a Taiidan carrier that crashed on the surface after deploying the weapon. Jacob used the carrier’s transponder to trigger the satellite before dying of starvation and exposure. Rachel escapes the wreck with the transponder and reunites with the Kapisi, which then destroys the Sakala and its escort forces.
After defeating the Siidim, Rachel travels ahead and discovers Khar-Toba is an ancient starship surrounded by a buried city. The expedition sets up a scanner network around the wreck to guide the Taiidan weapon satellite in orbit and faces K'Had Sajuuk, who commands a unique flagship-style carrier. Coalition forces destroy the Gaalsien flagship in a battle. As his ship explodes, K'Had Sajuuk declares Kharak will be destroyed by fire from the sky, prophetically referencing events in Homeworld. At the end, Rachel reflects on her brother’s belief that salvation for their people lies in the desert as the scene shifts from Khar-Toba toward the night sky, showing the future awaiting the Kushan in the century to come.
Unlike previous games, which featured two separate races, all factions in Deserts of Kharak are Kushan but have distinct appearances and functions. The campaign focuses on the Coalition (the player’s faction) and Kiith Gaalsien. Two additional groups, Kiith Soban and the Khaaneph, were added in DLC packs as playable factions for Skirmish and Multiplayer modes.
Deserts of Kharak is a spin-off, as it differs from the backstory in the original Homeworld game’s Historical + Technical Briefing booklet. The booklet states that Kiith Gaalsien self-destructed and became a myth centuries before Khar-T
Reception
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has received "mostly positive" reviews from critics, earning a score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Mark Steighner of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5, stating, "Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is an easy-to-learn and well-designed strategy game with high-quality graphics and sound, and it deserves to be part of the famous Homeworld series." Patrick Hancock from Destructoid rated it 7.5 out of 10, noting, "the story mode works well for both experienced players and newcomers, showing that waiting over 10 years for a new Homeworld game was too long." IGN gave it a score of 8.8 out of 10, describing it as "a complex, exciting, and varied real-time strategy game with all the needed tools to play." Zach Turnbull from Gone With The Win rated it 8 out of 10, commenting, "a solid, though not groundbreaking, real-time strategy game with strong story elements. You should not expect to match the original Homeworld from 16 years ago, but you will not be disappointed."