Enemy Starfighter Conjures First-Person Homeworld Vibe

[Andy Chalk]

Enemy Starfighter Conjures First-Person Homeworld Vibe

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Enemy Starfighter looks and sounds like a from-the-cockpit take on the great battles of Homeworld.

Two points to make clear right from the start: First, Enemy Starfighter has no connection to Homeworld, despite what I think is a very obvious stylistic similarity; and second, this gameplay trailer is almost a full month old, having been unleashed on YouTube in mid-August for the benefit of PAX Prime.

But you know what? I don't care. Late to the game though I may be, this trailer is too spectacular to ignore, even if it's less than a minute in length. It looks like Homeworld, it sounds like Homeworld, but it seems to play more like Freespace, putting you in the seat of a nimble starfighter while at the same time giving you command of an elite fleet of Imperial warships.

The game itself sounds awfully groovy too. From the Enemy Starfighter website: "You are the Harbinger Fleet, waging a guerrilla war against the enemies of the Empire. Your mission is always simple: Jump ahead into a system where you will most certainly be outnumbered, cripple it, and pave the way for the Armada to hang in the skies above the enemy home world like storm clouds and offer terms: submit or be purified."

[gallery=1764]

Submit or be purified in the name of the Empire! That's glorious stuff and, assuming there's not the usual mid-game attack of conscience, a pleasant change from the standard "fight the power" narrative that drives most videogames. Bend to my will or I will scour your world! Yeah, that's the kind of action I can get behind. Assuming you're no more up to speed on this thing than I am, you can find out more about Enemy Starfighter at enemystarfighter.com [http://enemystarfighter.com/].



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[Zhukov]

Huh.

That does look like Homeworld.

In fact, it looks suspiciously like Homeworld. As in, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was made with the same engine and assets as Homeworld 2.

Backgrounds aren't as pretty though. 1/10, no sale.

 

[Pipotchi]

I swear that's a Homeworld Corvette in that video, also is it wierd that there are no stars. Space has stars right?

 

[Ishal]

Huh.

That does look like Homeworld.

In fact, it looks suspiciously like Homeworld. As in, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was made with the same engine and assets as Homeworld 2.

Backgrounds aren't as pretty though. 1/10, no sale.

I suspect there will be more nebulas and colors. If they truly are trying to pay homage to it, they can't ignore that.


OT: FUCKING LOVE that these space titles are making a comeback. So good. So good.

 

[Abomination]

Neat!

Er, low content... right.

Looks fun, always wanted to get stuck in with the rest of my pilots in Homeworld. Do you have to pilot a fighter? Would love to be at the helm of a multi-beam frigate or something similar, plowing my way into fighters and swatting them away like bugs with my fast-tracking ion beams.

 

[Ian Mantell]

And there an old star warrior thought it was forever out of fashion to create this kind of game.
This rocks and for that 1/10 "no sale" remark.. SLAP. Also: bought. Will probably be ready before RSI.

 

[Pyrian]

Space has stars right?

No more so than the daylight sky. You can see stars at night because it's dark. If you're in space and it's not particularly dark in your field of vision, you won't see any (distant) stars.

 

[evilneko]

I saw that cockpit and all I could think of was X-Wing.

 

[Frost27]

Hmmm so someone saw Star Citizen raking in boatloads of crowdfund cash and decided to make a space sim of their own? Excellent, the genre needed a revival and I am glad to see other devs taking note.

 

[Desworks]

Huh.

That does look like Homeworld.

In fact, it looks suspiciously like Homeworld. As in, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was made with the same engine and assets as Homeworld 2.

Pushing the similarity further is the fact that Homeworld Cataclysm had the pilot view. This game basically looks like someone used that view and then thought "why isn't this a game?"

Which, now that I think about it, is a damn good question. I shall allow this.

 

[zumbledum]

looks fun and i dont know about the homeworld vibe but the inspiration is clearly based in tron originally

 

[skywolfblue]

Huh.

That does look like Homeworld.

In fact, it looks suspiciously like Homeworld. As in, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was made with the same engine and assets as Homeworld 2.

My thoughts as well, the trails and explosions look pretty much a straight rip from HW2, the ships are only slightly different, and bear the same bright yellow coloring.

I'd love to see more games borrow from homeworld, but this strikes me a bit more as straight plagiarism at first glance. Hopefully they'll change things a slightly so it's not a direct copy. Because I really want this to turn out good.

 

[Jandau]

Hopefully this will be more like the old starfighter sims like Tie Fighter. You know, where you are dropped into a large scale engagement with a set of objectives and the whole thing plays out, with or without you. There have been some space sims in the past few years, but almost invariably you control a supership that far outstrips anything else for no apparent reason and basically arcade-shoot your way through waves upon waves of baddies.

I miss the good old days of Tie Fighter where you'd be dropped into a battle in the titular ship, which could barely take 2-3 direct hits and told to manage. You bet your arse you stayed with your formation! And while some missions relied heavily upon your involvement, many would progress quite fine without your assistance, or at least they'd make a solid attempt. You weren't given magically more hull or shields than anyone else, and the AI was competent and quite a nuisance. And then there were the multi-stage epic engagements, like assaulting a Rebel carrier over a period of several missions as you gradually strip away its defenses by thinning out their fighter squadrons, their minefields, cutting off their supplies, before finally moving in for the kill, followed by hunting down the escaping officers as a bonus objective. THAT was a GAME!

 

[Tiamat666]

Looks nice. Good to bridge the time until Star Citizen, maybe? Hopefully?

I always found the colorful, misty space in Homeworld a little off-putting (coming from the likes of X-Wing where space is BLACK as it should be). It does look a little bit as if you're underwater, or in a planetary atmosphere at a very high altitude.

But it's OK. I'm over it now.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Looking good, very good in fact.
But that is only the start for any space sim because there are lengths of features to cover before things also play good, so we will see how this turns out once done.

And while they might have taken heavily from Homeworld these certainly aren't the same assets, then again it wouldn't hurt to give Gearbox a ring and ask for extra cash...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Hmmm so someone saw Star Citizen raking in boatloads of crowdfund cash and decided to make a space sim of their own? Excellent, the genre needed a revival and I am glad to see other devs taking note.

There are quite a few Kickstarter space sims floating around, Starlight Inception for example has released its Beta and there are others as well.

 

[Ken Sapp]

Huh.

That does look like Homeworld.

In fact, it looks suspiciously like Homeworld. As in, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was made with the same engine and assets as Homeworld 2.

My thoughts as well, the trails and explosions look pretty much a straight rip from HW2, the ships are only slightly different, and bear the same bright yellow coloring.

I'd love to see more games borrow from homeworld, but this strikes me a bit more as straight plagiarism at first glance. Hopefully they'll change things a slightly so it's not a direct copy. Because I really want this to turn out good.

I agree, from these screenshots and the video it looks close enough to Homeworld that I would be worried they might face a lawsuit should they not make some major changes. Although the detail level is much lower, the physical design and paint schemes of the ships are easily close enough (as in an almost direct rip) to those of Homeworld that the rights-holders could easily win a copyright/trademark lawsuit. If I were them I would consider either drastic visual design changes or calling up whoever currently owns the rights and getting permission.

 

[Gromril]

That's not just simmilar to homeworld. That IS homeworld. See the shots where they zoomed out into the command menu? yeah, thats the homeworld one.

I mean, wow. I know that a starcraft asset theft has been getting backing on kickstarter, but they at least seem to have put in this whole rpg mechanic thing.