It's like no StarWars I ever saw

Multiplayer games can last for ages and you will need to use varying tactics to surprise the person you are playing, the key is to learn every unit and understand just why it exists, use it for that reason. Always remember you're playing on a totally alien battlefield, experts at C&C and TA may not adapt as easily as they might to say Warzone 2100. Everything is go in HW. There is a lot to be had with this game and many will become deeply hooked, constantly urged on by artistic cinematic sequences and in-game sequences that beg you to win the next battle. As it happens this is one fun game to play, suffering from being set in the most bland universe of all and being to hard at times, but always original and fun.

HW is unique, there simply isn't anything quite like it at the moment but I don't doubt it will be followed shortly by a new spate of clones designed for this new genre. If you get board of playing one side then there are two, both are virtually the same accept for a couple of different units, totally new models and textures. Anybody who likes wargames will find HW a challenge and fun to play, but some may find it just too difficult and confusing a universe to accept into their worlds of Command and Conquer.

Wow big explosion!

Graphically speaking there isn't much new here, lovely explosions and huge ships dog the sky with their deep groans and hums. 16Bit textures fill the outer of ever ship and sleeking trails follow the smaller ships engines, often useful in battle to see who is who and where everything is going. The quality is good but beware that if you have DirectX7 installed, you may notice some slight pixelation due to compatibility problems, like DX5 to DX6 had in many titles. You simply can't match the feeling of going into battle with two super destroyers firing multiple ion canons at once, it's jaw dropping to behold. The models are good quality although I think 32Bit texturing the mother ships would have been a good idea as up close they look quite ugly and degraded.

Units are modelled cleverly, the whole game gives a realistic feeling in space and I often found myself wishing that I could pilot one of the ships; such a feature would have made the game shoot up in the scores. The game itself is ahead of its class because it's essentially the first, but graphically it's nothing you haven't seen before, just done differently. You should be able to run HW quite pleasingly on anything from a VooDoo2 coupled with a PMMX233 upwards, although large battles may require a more beefy TNT2 Ultra with a P3/K7 CPU.

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