My impression on the 3 HW games

Like most of you on this forum, I too had some vision to imagine the HW story as being more complex and expansive. The game had set up a perfect tone for an lengthy epic adventure, but due to business model and technical limitations, we can only get what the disk can hold. The plot has potential for a much greater story to be told. I imagine the two part saga can have at least 4 games, with 2 dedicated for each Taiidan and Vager wars, or maximum 6 game, 3 for each. Strange that there was no novel published for HW universe, while we have plenty of Starcraft Halo or other minor franchise.

Here I show discuss my impression with all 3 games under its title:

HW1 is perfect in term of plot and atmosphere, despite technicality limitations, the game had a very strong flavor with the few thing it manage to twink with. Its story fits perfectly into a rather linear game progression. It has some of the very deep culture rooted lures for example the return of exile to home was much more emotionally connected than rule the universe with ancient super tech, or combat against space virus. Which are very common theme in scifi epic adventures, the exile story however is rather unique amount the space operas, it bear some epic tone found in classic as Dune.

Cataclysm is the forgotten HW game, the game was a fine one in its own right but feeling very out placed in some way. Not much I have to point out sense many are self explanatory to you guys. The space virus called "beast" was not only cliche but also highly misplaced in the HW universe, the reason is that such entity does not suit the quite and mystery epic with a settle tone established with HW1. HW's art style greatly emphasizes on the mass of brick and mortar starship, it deliberately avoided the "energy space ghost" style that associated mostly with so called "beast". Both the art and music was not on par with HW1, that I do not need much rant.

Although Cataclysm is kind of off the rail, I too would like to see it getting a remastered release sometime in the future, the game is a classic on its own.

HW2 perfected the game mechanic, and bring a polished art style that perfectly in line with HW1's philosophy. It was the perfect HW game in many way but not without its flaws. The plot of ancient super tech fits into its art direction but much less original and less emotional compare to the exile story. The lack of minor factions made the universe lonely and cold, it kind left the two opposing major power in the dark, and is my main complain about HW2.

HW is amazing in a sense that it transmitted so many information with so little means to show, the mechanic is RTS vs space sim, the story is heavily RPG inspired. It convey a sense of vast and mechanic space, yet still full of emotions. All done through a few oddly shaped space craft warped in a sphere of abstract painting. I was glad to learn that this franchise getting a major reboot, not that it would become more popular, but the level of respect it deserved.