There's actually a good reason why people watch Star Trek. It's not the amusing Klingon put-downs or end of episode card game puns. It's not the ridiculousness of the 'alien' species who are all remarkably bipedal and speak better English than most of us can. It's not even Seven of Nine (well for some it is!) No, the overwhelmingly special bits are without doubt the space battles. Some of them even brush shoulders with Star Wars' best offerings, when the giant armadas of different races assemble within mere miles of each other and set about cataclysmically annihilating the opposition with gorgeously deadly weaponry and mesmerisingly graceful craft of wondrous design. While Homeworld 2 is neither Trek nor Wars, it creates an atmosphere of intergalactic warfare like very few other games out there in a galaxy far, far away where no gamer has ever gone before.

Continuing where its predecessor left off, the wandering Hiigarian civilisation continue through space in all that is left of the home - the behemoth Pride of Hiigaria mothership, which accommodates the few million left alive and acts as your resource and production centre, ever pursued by the obliteration-obsessed Vagyr, the mortal threat to the Hiigarans' very existence. Your mothership must needless to say be protected at all costs, as it is initially the centre of your expansion (just like Total Annihilation's commander), made all the easier with the new addition of static defence platforms that once deployed root themselves at that point and act as defence turrets with various armaments, which are also useful for defending resource deposits or static structures such as teleportation gates.

Once your resource collectors start sucking up various galactic rubble and converting it into resource units, the technology tree begins to open up and the vastness of what's on offer comes to light - corvettes, frigates, bombers, probes, defence platforms, carriers and many others await your construction. But success comes with upgrading different unit types with extra attributes, such as increased speed or enhanced firepower. It's sometimes confusing when it comes to choosing which direction to go in, but as long as no branch of your forces is neglected then you stand at least a chance of succeeding - or so it would seem. Unfortunately, simply not upgrading your bombers' armour at the right time can cause serious trouble for you domination efforts, the balance between research and production often seeming too fine. Considering this, a bit of trial and error is a rewarding endeavour and Homeworld 2 illustrates this well, if not forcibly.

The single player immediately immerses you in the rich, though quite straightforward, storyline and eases you into the basic resource collection/unit production mechanism that its predecessor shared. At once you are forced into the three dimensions of the play area, where ships must be controlled not only on a 2D-axis but also up and down, immediately opening up your brain's spatial awareness and causing you to think in true 3D. For those of you who recall Descent or more recently Forsaken, do you remember trying to negotiate those extra dimensions after years of simple first person movement? [Yes, and it was a nightmare! Ed]. Same principle, different genre. The first thing that will strike you is how really beautiful this game is; no sooner than your first scout ships have begun manoeuvring than the screen is graced with glowing engine signature trails and softly flashing ship system lights, while the epic backdrop of the universe teems with vast, colourful aurora and faint patterns of the distant unknown. A lot of work has gone into the styling of Homeworld 2 and although it has aged and does not take advantage of the myriad of effects now available, it still stands out as a serenely beautiful experience.

The long range scanner screen functions as a mini map of the current levels area and a means to command your units over the huge distances of each scenario - some later levels stretch dozens of miles across space. The ability to produce individual units and mix and match them as you see fit has been surpassed with a more polished feeling, but it's a somewhat debilitating feature, as the bulk of your units are contained in small groups this time around; gunships come in threes, scouts and fighters in fives and so on. These can be joined together into larger groups and arranged into formations as before, but now there are states of awareness such as passive or aggressive; these features add a lot of possible combinations but, as the game plays out, things start to get very complicated. You have to customise multiple groups while maintaining resource collection, assigning escort craft and more - suffice to say, it's far from easy. The controls are sufficient for the job, but with so many of them a pain to learn and remember under the constant pressure of the campaign mode, you've really got to keep your wits about you.

It's when the action really kicks off that the intensity and immersion is at its best. Perhaps two or three levels into the game everything will be going to plan; you're getting to grips with the long-range movement orders and any intrusive enemy patrols are quickly vanquished. Then suddenly a resource collector disappears from the map. An investigating scout party meets the same fate some distance out in unknown regions and you begin to panic for the first time; it's not long before, slowly and horrifyingly, a Vagyr fleet menacingly approaches your mothership out of a gloomy nebula, bristling with heavily armed frigates and aggressively buzzing perimeter gunships. You frantically regroup your forces while trying your utmost to produce a few more squads to face your adversaries - and then it begins. Ion beams arc blindingly, scattering fighter formations while bombers swoop determinedly at the larger capitol ships, desperately concentrating on taking out the vital systems - another new feature is the ability to individually target the systems of a larger vessel such as engines or weaponry. Frigates send high velocity shells ripping into swarms of lesser craft all around them as they vicariously snap at their aggressors, all while you try to direct and maintain your strategy in the tumultuous and deceivingly simple span of open space. The audio, atmospheric and refreshingly unique in standard play, also excels in these moments, with bassy, whirring engines and thudding long range missiles pounding across the cosmos as viscous lasers lance through metal with angry screams.

Particularly later in the game, when seriously massive vessels make an appearance, it's these epic spectacles that are the high points of Homeworld 2, where everything you've produced turns out to do just the job it's there for and you emerge victorious after nerve-wrackingly long and destructive battles. It shares this same quality of all excellent strategy games, and indeed the game's biggest downfall is also blatant in these righteous moments - nothing is more frustrating than having a personally constructed fleet go haywire because of the inability of the panning camera system to allow simple, small strategic movements in the all-important dimensions of a close quarters battle, something that the chaotically beautiful combat simply doesn't cater for. The multiplayer meanwhile is a challenging and strategic affair, allowing the player to choose either Vagyr or Hiigarian forces and pit their dimension-based wits against each other.

With any modern system able to run the game well on full settings, and a rock bottom price tag, if you fancy a challenge and a refreshing and still unsurpassed space strategy game then Homeworld 2 will satisfy hugely and reward those who persevere with a very rich experience, as long as you can withstand the few unfortunate flaws in a game of impressive complexity.

Reviewed by Chris Davies for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).