Space can be a tough place

As you'd expect when playing on a true 3D field of battle new strategies and laws apply and unlike other C&C style games, everything you used to know is thrown right out the window. Relic must have spent so much time balancing the game and stopping it being linear that they neglected to see it might get a bit hard to play, even in the early missions and on lower difficulty levels. With such a wide scope of an attack in movement, formations for wings of units (X, Claw etc.) and the ability to change their mood (Aggressive, evasive and neutral) it can sometimes be very hard to understand the playing field.

In the end you have a very versatile game which isn't your usual build and shoot, always managing to present you with something new just when you thought you had seen it all. One moment you're fighting a war with around 200 units in the skies at the same time and the next your swiftly pushing through an asteroid field clearing out the path as you go. Alien species sell you technology and missions rarely go the way you would think they should, the enemy almost always seems to outnumber you. There could have been more emphasis on the trade part of the game, trade should be two ways but in HW you just seem to buy technology and not sell or trade resources. Pity as I felt such an extra would have added so much depth to the game.

On the whole you have to be vigilant, never do what the briefings say as you more than likely would find yourself in trouble before you know it. It's always best to build up a large defensive force and split them up into groups comprising combinations of different units. Ultimately HW is only repetitive in that the scenery tends to remain bland and lifeless and you always have to fight something. I couldn't help but think HW wanted to be something else (Epic style maybe?) but never quite hit the mark. So the game ends up being a constant challenge, which often rewards you with lush explosions and the thrill of being able to see large mother ships blow up in glorious style, so long as it's not yours. Sadly the high difficulty can sometimes make the game frustrating, you can't gage the opposition by sight or on the map so you just have to guess and fight as best you can. Technology is gained automatically as you progress through the game allowing you to build huge capital ships with multiple ion canons or smaller bombers with which to hit your enemy at speed.

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