History VideoGame / Homeworld

* On 30 August 2019, Blackbird announced that they would develop, and Gearbox would publish, '''''Homeworld 3''''', [[https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3 with fans invited to engage in crowdfunding via fig.co]]. It has since been outlined as a sequel occurring a century after the events of ''Homeworld 2'', as a new era of interstellar travel has begun with the activation of a PortalNetwork of hyperspace gates (made possible by the [=MacGuffins=] in the second game). It is planned for release in February 2024.

* CoolStarship: All the Hiigaran ships seem to be even sleeker than the ones in ''Homeworld 2'', but the new Mothership takes the cake, assuming the shape of a gigantic horizontal wing/blade.

* PortalNetwork: The Eye of Arran network is now online and actively used by the Hiigarans.

* VaguenessIsComing: An unknown new threat known as the Anomaly is swallowing the Eyes of Arran and planets alike.

* ''TabletopGame/HomeworldRevelations'', TheRolePlayingGame published by Creator/ModiphiusEntertainment using the company's proprietary [=2d20=] system.

** The Hiigaran fleet carrier model is named in honor of Captain T'saan Soban of the second game.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[AllThereInTheManual The manual]] notes that the Somtaaw acolyte fighters are based on tech the Bentusi gave them, though they had to replace the weapon systems. [[EleventhHourSuperpower In the last mission]], [[spoiler:you receive the complete original specs. Turns out they were supposed to use [[WaveMotionGun Ion Cannons]]. On a fighter chassis.]]

** The story is almost a WholePlotReference to Vernor Vinge's ''A Fire Upon the Deep.'' The Beast is incredibly similar to the Blight in that both are techno-organic [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that assimilate technology and organic life with equal aplomb. Kiith-Somtaaw stands in for the Straumers in being a minor power trying to climb the ladde. They find an ancient artifact, activate it, and let loose a terror out of the distant past that promptly starts assimilating everything in sight. Like the Blight, the Beast transmits itself via infectious signals and ships. They both even have their own sleeper agents: In the case of the Beast, the [[spoiler:Taiidan remnants.]] And both go after higher powers as well: The Blight goes after and assimilates Old One, and the Beast goes after [[spoiler:the Bentusi, assimilating one of their tradeships and sending the rest fleeing in terror.]] Both even center around a non-military ship trying to defeat the monstrous force: The ''Out of Band II'' for the Blight, the ''Kuun-Lan'' for the Beast.

** The story is almost a WholePlotReference to Vernor Vinge's ''A Fire Upon the Deep.'' The Beast is incredibly similar to the Blight in that both are techno-organic [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that assimilate technology and organic life with equal aplomb. Kiith-Somtaaw stands in for the Straumers in being a minor power trying to climb the ladde. They find an ancient artifact, activate it, and let loose a terror out of the distant past that promptly starts assimilating everything in sight. Like the Blight, the Beast transmits itself via infectious signals and ships. They both even have their own sleeper agents: In the case of the Beast, the [[spoiler:Taiidan remnants.]] And both go after higher powers as well: The Blight goes after and assimilates Old One, and the Beast goes after the Bentusi, assimilating one of their tradeships and sending the rest fleeing in terror. Both even center around a non-military ship trying to defeat the monstrous force: The ''Out of Band II'' for the Blight, the ''Kuun-Lan'' for the Beast.

** The story is almost a WholePlotReference to Vernor Vinge's ''A Fire Upon the Deep.'' The Beast is incredibly similar to the Blight in that both are techno-organic EldritchAbominations that assimilate technology and organic life with equal aplomb. Kiith-Somtaaw stands in for the Straumers in being a minor power trying to climb the ladder of power. They find an ancient artifact, activate it, and let loose a terror out of the distant past that promptly starts assimilating everything in sight. Like the Blight, the Beast transmits itself via infectious signals and ships. They both even have their own sleeper agents: In the case of the Beast, the [[spoiler:Taiidan remnants.]] And both go after higher powers as well: The Blight goes after and assimilates Old One, and the Beast goes after the Bentusi, assimilating one of their tradeships and sending the rest fleeing in terror. Both even center around a non-military ship trying to defeat the monstrous force: The ''Out of Band II'' for the Blight, the ''Kuun-Lan'' for the Beast.

** The story is almost a WholePlotReference to Vernor Vinge's ''A Fire Upon the Deep.'' The Beast is incredibly similar to the Blight; Kiith-Somtaaw stands in for the Straumers in being a minor power trying to climb the ladder of power. They find an ancient artifact, activate it, and let loose a terror out of the distant past that promptly starts assimilating everything in sight. Like the Blight, the Beast transmits itself via infectious signals and ships and assimilates technology and organic life with equal aplomb. They both even have their own sleeper agents: In the case of the Beast, the [[spoiler:Taiidan remnants.]] And both go after higher powers as well: The Blight goes after and assimilates Old One, and the Beast goes after the Bentusi, assimilating one of their tradeships and sending the rest fleeing in terror. Both even center around a non-military ship trying to defeat the monstrous force: The ''Out of Band II'' for the Blight, the Kuun-Lan for the Kiith-Somtaaw.

* AfterTheEnd: The player's fleet continues on to Hiigara mainly because [[spoiler:TheEmpire eradicated Kharak, their homeworld-in-exile, on the basis of a treaty banning the Kharaki from possessing hyperdrive technology]].
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: For constructed vessels, but significantly ''not'' for captured ones, in the first game at least. Changed in the Remastered version, which counts captured vessels against the limit. No more 200-strong Ion cannon frigate fleets, sadly.

* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: [[spoiler:The Mothership fleet after TheEmpire burned Kharak, though any other astronauts present during the attack were killed anyway]].
* TheCaligula: Emperor Riesstiu IV the Second, a clone that was just as mad as the Emperor he was cloned from if not ''worse''. He orders purges at will, gruesome punishments of any dissenters, and kickstarts the plot of the game by ordering the destruction of the Kushan species. Even when the Taiidan's Assembly of Lords confined him to a life support chamber he still had enormous power, and it wasn't until he died when the Kushan attacked Hiigara that he was finally killed along with all of the clones of him and the facilities required to make new ones.
* ColonyDrop: in a non-planetary example, the second-to-last mission has you defend the Mothership from a huge Mothership-sized asteroid that TheEmpire toss at you. The only reason this works gameplay-wise is because the first game's Mothership can't move outside of cutscenes. The second game's Mothership would've easily moved out of the way.

* {{Cutscene}}: ''[=HW1=]'' has both in-engine cutscenes during the missions and hand-drawn animations between each mission.

* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler:Your home planet (along with about 300 million people) is destroyed right at the beginning.]]

* EvilIsPetty: The Taiidan's reason for [[spoiler: the near genocide of the Kushan? Violating a treaty that the Kushan had no way of knowing about, having forgotten or lost almost everything after landing on Kharak. The ''Cataclysm'' manual suggests it's not so much out of pettiness as a deliberate GenghisGambit to unite the increasingly fractious empire against a common enemy, one which ended up backfiring ''very'' badly.]]

* GoneHorriblyRight: Mission 12 is eventually revealed to be this happening to the Taiidan: they had ambushed the last high-ranking officer supporting the Taiidan Rebellion and blocked him with an array of gravity field projectors that would keep him from jumping away as well as dragging out of hyperspace and out of position any Rebel trying to save him... And that very trap drags out of hyperspace the exiles, that proceed to smash it just to get away and can't recharge their hyperdrive and leave before the Rebel ship escapes with them.
* GutPunch: [[spoiler:"Kharak is burning"]]

* HomeworldEvacuation: The Mothership was meant to be a colony ship [[spoiler:before the Kushan even were aware of the threat to their existence, but when the Taiidan incinerated Kharak's atmosphere it became necessary to their survival as a species. The prequel establishes that the planet had been slowly dying through their entire history and was on the brink of total environmental collapse, which is why they poured all of their resources into the project in the first place.]]
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: After one of the ships that [[spoiler:destroyed Kharak]] is captured and the crew interrogated: "''The subject did not survive interrogation.''"

* OhCrap: The entire second mission of the game is one giant OhCrap moment for first time players, particularly after the wreck of the ''Khar Selim'' is located and its [[ApocalypticLog black box is recovered and replayed]].
--> "What do you mean "''they're not ours''"? [[OhCrap Well, if they're not ours]], ''[[OhCrap then who the hell are they?]]''"

* WhamEpisode: Mission 3, it's title says it all. [[spoiler: [[DoomedHometown Kharak is burning]] ]].
* WholePlotReference: The game can be seen as one huge ShoutOut to ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'', with you being the last survivors of a species using one big ship and a fleet of smaller ships to make your way across the galaxy to a world seen only in prophecy.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The game is all about going to the the original home, but the third mission kicks off with [[spoiler:your exiled home being obliterated]], meaning it's Hiigara or bust.

* LightningBruiser: Thanks to its "Inertialess Drive" the [[spoiler:Naggarok]] can "slide" through space with the speed and agility of a fighter-sized craft despite being the size of the ''Kuun-Lan''. This makes it a bitch to score a hit on with the ''Kuun-lan'''s [[AwesomeButImpractical slow-charging, slow-firing, but super-powerful Siege Cannon]]; fortunately, the drive can be temporarily disabled using the ACV's electrical discharge ability.

* PatientZero: The Beast infection started when the Naggarok picked it up and was infected in hyperspace then dropped out of hyperspace in the ''Homeworld'' galaxy.

* On 30 August 2019, Blackbird announced that they would develop, and Gearbox would publish, '''''Homeworld 3''''', [[https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3 with fans invited to engage in crowdfunding via fig.co]]. It has since been outlined as a sequel occurring after the events of ''Homeworld 2'', as a new era of interstellar travel has begun with the activation of a PortalNetwork of hyperspace gates (made possible by the [=MacGuffins=] in the second game). It is planned for release in February 2024.

* BigDumbObject: The megaliths (huge map structures and background wrecks) return once again, with a much greater role this time.
* CoolStarship: All the Hiigaran ships seem to be even sleeker than the ones in Homeworld 2, but the new Mothership takes the cake, assuming the shape of a gigantic horizontal wing/blade.
* DistantSequel: The game takes place 100 years after the events of Homeworld 2.

* GoldenAge: The (re)opening of the Eye of Arran brought one for Hiigarans and presumably the galaxy.

** ''Cataclysm'' averts this -- [[TheVirus the Beast]] is an intelligent alien lifeform originating from hyperspace, while its HiveQueen ship ''Raggnarok'' is a million-year-old alien exploration vessel from [[OutsideContextProblem another galaxy]].

* AbsentAliens: It's strongly implied with the [[AllThereInTheManual extensive lore]] in the game manuals that the very human Kushan, Taiidan, and Vaygr, not to mention the liquid breathing raiders and ship-merged Bentusi, all share common origins with the legendary Precursors. However, millennia of colonization and several techno-dark ages led to distinct HumanAliens. The Beast is only non-human intelligent lifeform seen in the series, and, well, [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar its not around anymore to complain]].

* ''Homeworld: Fleet Command'', a TabletopStrategyGame produced Creator/ModiphiusEntertainment and Gearbox Publishing.

Since then, four other titles have been announced:

* Creator/ModiphiusEntertainment has announced ''TabletopGame/HomeworldRevelations'', a RolePlayingGame using the company's proprietary [=2d20=] system.