History YMMV / Homeworld

* TaintedByThePreview: Many fans have already written off the Homeworld series as doomed after finding out Gearbox obtained the rights to the series. Considering that Gearbox has never worked on an RTS before, and considering the arguably poor quality of some of their more [[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever recent]] [[VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines games]], these fans have plenty of reason to fear.

--> "Once you have pointed the pointer at the point, and you're ready to point it, [[{{Main/Beat}} (beat)]] point!" [[{{Main/Corpsing}} (cutest giggling ever)]]

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: For all its faults, the Remastered Edition offers a welcomed new and modernized take of the many iconic ships and scenery of the original games.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally, combat in ''Homeworld 2'' would have revolved around [[BigDumbObject massive space megaliths]] left by various ancient civilizations, allowing for Death Star-type fighter combat and units that could be deployed on the surface. This idea was eventually scrapped - although you can still see the megaliths in the cutscenes and the background art - and the biggest object you can interact with in the series remains the Taiidan hyperspace inhibitor from the first game.
** In addition, Homeworld Shipbreakers will have surface units as being your primary units. Which makes sense seeing as it's set on Kharak before Homeworld and thus the Hiigarans (then known as Kushans) are mostly relegated to the sandy surface of the planet.

*** Also, compare the "Unbound" (S'jet, her Vaygr arch enemy Makaan, etc.) with the "Hybrids" piloting the Cylon Basestars in the re-imagined BSG. Their portrayal is eerily similar, down to the MachineMonotone voices. It's as if Ron D. Moore played ''Homeworld'' and got a bit inspired... (But granted, SpaceshipGirl [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools is a nigh universal sci-fi trope these days]].)
*** "As if"? The First Hybrid was played by Campbell Lane, who voiced the Bentusi. If that was a coincidence, it was [[ContrivedCoincidence one hell of a coincidence]].

** And then Gearbox turns around and lets Blackbird Interactive use the license for their spiritual successor to Homeworld, Hardware Shipbreakers. Which would eventually become ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak''. Blackbird Interactive has a number of Homeworld's original development team on staff. Plus as of August 2019 Homeworld 3 by the same developers has been announced
* ThatOneLevel: The convoy escort mission in Cataclysm most notably. The catch, it is not exactly hard at all, but rather the high amount of NightmareFuel involved.

** In the traditional sense, Mission 14 of the first game. The objective is rather simple: blow up 8 hyperspace inhibitors so you can jump closer to the Higaara system, and while they have a good amount of HP, they have no guns of their own. Unfortunately, the game ensures that brute force will not work here, with a dynamically adjusted fleet guarding the inhibitors, and somewhere on the order of 150 Ion Cannon Frigates surrounding the inhibitors in sphere formation (by comparison, your unit caps limit you to about 20 frigates total). While there are many ways to approach the mission, any method that keeps your fleet safe from the sphere also takes an impressive amount of time, and it's not uncommon for players to spend several hours on just one attempt at the mission.
*** At least until you realize that there the Empire's otherwise comprehensive defenses [[VillainBall don't include a single cloaked ship detector]], so all you have to do to win is build a squadron of Cloaked Fighters, waltz right past the ion cannons and fleets and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts peashoot the Inhibitors to death one by one]], [[WithCatlikeTread making sure to occasionally recloak them]] when a enemy fighter wing swoops by to [[FailedASpotCheck wonder why the Inhibitors are on fire]], [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy decide it's nothing and leave.]]
*** The slightly more direct solution is to abuse your salvage corvettes and steal the frigates. All of them.
** Asteroid mission 6 in [=HW1=]. It's boring, long, and without any enemies to fight or engage with, just destroying asteroids that don't fight back. It's little wonder that the demo of [=HW1=] skipped the mission and replaced it with a special "Assault on the Turanic Raider Homeworld" mission.
*** This mission is much more difficult in the remastered version. When asteroids are destroyed they split, and the new asteroids have to be manually targeted or your ships will just ignore them even as they are killed by them requiring a lot of micromanagement when the targetable and harvestable chunks get mixed in together. The mission also starts with the first wave of asteroids right on top of you, without enough time to get your ships in position.

* MoralEventHorizon: Taiidan forces cross this when they destroy Kharak and its whole population, for the crime of returning to space, based on the treaty that was made ''millenia ago''. It's so bad that captain of operation is heavily implied to be tortured to death for information by survivors [[NothingIsScarier and the fate of the crew is unknown...]] The Taiidan Empire rises in rebellion when word spreads.

* MagnificentBastard: The Beast in Cataclysm whoever it is. Among others, it used an infected Republican cruiser to lure a convoy's escorts so it is vulnerable to attack, used one of your captured ship's controller to switch off a sentinel shield grid, sending a captured previously friendly ship you met to lure you to it, and most of all, manipulating the Imperialists into doing its bidding which includes repairing the Naggarok's drives, giving it the Cruise Missile designs, and making them do most of the fight with the Hiigarans in general.
** The Taiidani Emperor of the first game also counts, having let centuries of paranoia and corruption cloud his judgement and leading him to pursue a genocidal campaign against the Kushan the moment they receive word of their mastery of hyperspace technology. In the destruction that follows, he uses the near-annihilation of the Kushan Exiles as a means to galvanize the people of the declining Empire, and when this only prompts further rebellion from within his own empire he sends his vast armadas to crush both the Kushan survivors and the rebels before they can finally break his iron grip over the Empire's domain. As the Kushan prove they will not be hindered by the Taiidan's vast fleet reserves, the Emperor resorts to attacking the comparatively more peaceful Bentusi to deny the Kushan a crucial ally in their war against the Empire. He even attacks Karan S'jet herself in the hopes of decapitating the Kushan leadership just as they reach their homeworld. Suffice to say even with the odds stacked overwhelmingly against him, the Emperor refuses to go out without a fight.

--> "To apply mousse to your enemy ships..."

* EarWorm: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIUxwEJ-GXI "Adagio for Strings"]], the music that plays during the 3rd stage in the first game. It really enhances the emotions on that level.

*** Also, compare the "Unbound" (S'jet, her Vaygr arch enemy Makaan, etc.) with the "Hybrids" piloting the Cylon Basestars in the re-imagined BSG. Their portrayal is eerily similar, down to the MachineMonotone voices. It's as if Ron D. Moore played ''Homeworld'' and got a bit inspired... (But granted, SpaceshipGirl [[TropesAreTools is a nigh universal sci-fi trope these days]].)

** And then Gearbox turns around and lets Blackbird Interactive use the license for their spiritual successor to Homeworld, Hardware Shipbreakers. Which would eventually become ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsofKharak''. Blackbird Interactive has a number of Homeworld's original development team on staff. Plus as of August 2019 Homeworld 3 by the same developers has been announced

** And then Gearbox turns around and lets Blackbird Interactive use the license for their spiritual successor to Homeworld, Hardware Shipbreakers. Which would eventually become [[VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsofKharak]]. Blackbird Interactive has a number of Homeworld's original development team on staff. Plus as of August 2019 Homeworld 3 has been announced

** And then Gearbox turns around and lets Blackbird Interactive use the license for their spiritual successor to Homeworld, Hardware Shipbreakers. Blackbird Interactive has a number of Homeworld's original development team on staff.

** The Remaster version of Mission 16 is effectively impossible on the first try. Not only are you immediately attacked by three large fleets, they all ignore the rest of your fleet to absentmindedly target the Mothership. Unless you had your fleet mix specifically set up ahead of time and use SequenceBreaking to give orders before the briefing starts you'll lose the level before your Strike Craft are launched. If you make it past the first three minutes it's a complete cakewalk, but your must first last three minutes.

** The Remaster version of Mission 16 is effectively impossible on the first try. Not only are you immediately attacked by three large fleets, they all ignore the rest of your fleet to single-mindedly target the Mothership. Unless you had your fleet mix specifically set up ahead of time and use SequenceBreaking to give orders before the briefing starts you'll lose the level before your Strike Craft are launched.

** ''Homeworld 2'', on the other hand, removed manual exiting of a mission zone in favor of just giving all the resources that were left in the area, then leaving--[[FridgeLogic even when it made no sense]], such as being given thousands of kilometers worth of unharvested resource pockets while ''fleeing an explosion that creates a massive spacial hazard, with seconds to spare.''

* ScrappyMechanic: The dynamic difficulty system in space-based installments of ''Homeworld'' has been known to annoy some players. Trying to amass large fleet can result in the game spawning more hostile ships in the amount that make the missions much harder.

** Mission 5 in the first game was no cake walk either. The Taidan have a carrier and two destroyers with frigate escorts at a point where you can only build frigates. You have also just learned to make ion frigates recently so you will not have more than 2-3. Unlike every other mission in the game, the Taidan act DangerouslyGenreSavvy about your salvage corvettes and will drop ''everything'' in order to turn around and kill them before they get to latch onto their ships.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: For all its faults, the Remastered Edition offers a welcomed new and modernized take of the many iconic ships and scenery of the original games.

* MoralEventHorizon: Taiidan forces cross this when they destroy Kharak and its whole population, for the crime of returning to space, based on the treaty that was made ''millenia ago''. It's so bad that captain of operation is heavily implied to be tortured to death for information by survivors [[NothingIsScarier and the fate of the crew is unknown...]]

** The divide between those who believe the Kadeshi were wiped out, and those who believe they are still alive. (Found in all its violence [[http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=211580 here.]]