Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

This should be considered a neutral review. There is a lot to love here, but also a fair share of frustrations that keep it from fully reaching its potential. The lore is genuinely interesting, and the tone of the narrative feels very much like something that could have been released in the 1980s, serious, atmospheric, and filled with a sense of mystery and survival. The story does a great job of expanding the Homeworld universe while still standing on its own, and the beautifully animated cutscenes help sell the scale and desperation of the expedition. The art direction, in particular, is excellent, giving the harsh desert environments a strong identity that feels distinct from the traditional space setting of the series. That said, the game struggles to mask some fairly glaring issues. Performance can become rough, especially later in the campaign when larger battles start unfolding, turning what should be exciting encounters into something of a chore, inconsistent optimization and noticeable slowdowns during heavier engagements.
The gameplay itself is enjoyable, but it is not as refined as I would have liked. Compared to the main Homeworld games, some of the tactical depth feels streamlined, and the slower movement of many ground vehicles while clearly designed to emphasize the feeling of traversing a hostile desert can occasionally become aggravating. However, that same deliberate pacing does add a certain tension to combat, making positioning and terrain management feel genuinely important. The unit design and command structure lack unique abilities across many units, which places a heavier emphasis on strategy, formations, and battlefield positioning rather than flashy mechanics. In theory, this is a strength, but in practice the UI sometimes struggles to clearly communicate battlefield information, making it harder than it should be to read engagements or issue commands effectively in the middle of larger fights. The game does succeed in delivering a strong atmosphere, compelling world building, and moments of genuinely tense tactical combat. If you enjoy RTS games with a slower, more methodical pace and can tolerate some rough edges, there is plenty here to appreciate. Just do not go in expecting a perfectly polished experience.

"May the blood-sand quiet the great slumber of Sajuuk."
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, or “Homeworld: Zero” as this one guy I know likes to call it. Is the fourth game in the Homeworld series and the prequel to Homeworld 1.
Taking place some century or so before Homeworld, you’re stuck on that dusty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Kharak before it became a really hot, rocky ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Every year, the deserts get bigger, and places to live get smaller, its estimated that in about 350 years there’s probably just not going to be any water or places to grow food left. But years ago, the Northern Khiithid (Basically societal clans, these ones in the north) discovered a large energy reading from the desert.
Luckily, its specific because that’s a big desert.
Believing it can help them save their world, the Kiithid embark on Operation Khadiim, led by Rachel S’Jet and her good and memorable friends: “Kapisi Captain” and “Intel Officer”. Aboard the command carrier the Kapisi, they alongside Kiith Sidiim aboard the Salaka go into the desert in search of the Prime Anomaly, meanwhile being accosted by Kiith Gaalsien, a religious Kiith that thinks space is dumb and stupid and there’s probably mean people up there.
Guess who’s right, though.
A departure from Homeworld as a series, DOK takes place entirely planetside, with your spaceships and fighters being replaced by ground vehicles and, uh, fighters. The Kapisi works as this all-in-one unit producer, command base, and weapon of mass destruction. Every map has a set number of resources you can use to both produce new units and upgrade them and the Kapisi. On normal at least its a perfectly viable strategy to just amass all the resources on the map and then turn the Kapisi into this lance weapon that charges into the enemy while spitting out new tanks at whatever you’re trying to kill.
The Kiith on Kharak has a very interesting way of fighting. I don’t doubt that they have infantry branches, since they talk about “Fighting door to door” back at home with the Gaalsiens get mad. But in terms of combat in the desert, everything is about spitting out Toyota Land Cruisers with AT guns strapped to the back as fast as possible.
Units go anywhere from the Light Assault Vehicle, basically the size of a modern tank but double as fast, with the LAV reaching 110kph, according to the wiki. Which is nuts.
Pumping out bigger, angrier vehicles seems to be the way to go, at least on normal. With the S’Jet main battle tank having a giant rail gun on it, and they still get bigger from there. It’s basically like a space battle from HW1 and 2, but using the dunes and rock walls as cover or elevated positions instead of relying on three dimensional space to jump enemies. “Land Cruisers” is a concept in Kiithid warfare.
So the sight of giant land ships being accompanied by smaller, but still huge battletanks with fighters and bombers flying overhead is a sight to see.
If you’re a diehard fan of the series, you might want to bump the difficulty up. On normal I got a lot of luck just pumping out the biggest units possible and sending them out with the Kapisi in tow. Using them like some kind of heavily armored and armed ARPG character more than an actual military unit. Rail guns supported by AA and land ships was the way to go for me, which got me through all of the game from around mission 5 onward after I figured out how to stop my guys from dying.
The story wasn’t much to talk about, but I enjoyed it. Its well told and does a lot to put you into the Homeworld universe. You pick up on terms really quick, like “Kiithid” and other terms they use. There’s a good chunk of lore just kind of hidden behind a 6 dollar add on that tells you everything from the unit’s origin, their size, who built it, etc, its something I feel like needs to be part of the game as it is, because otherwise you’re basically an outside observer and not someone immersed in the setting like people who started with HW1, Cataclysm, or 2.
I was a big fan of the voice acting here as well. Even when someone was annoyed or angry they still kept that professional demeanor instead of breaking discipline for drama purposes. It speaks for how martial the Khushan Peoples actually are, that even when how they understand the world around them is being flipped on it’s head they remain rather calm about it.
There's a bunch of tiny details in the game as well. You can hear units radio one another. And when a unit gains veterancy, it actually earns a randomly generated name, so you can really feel like ♥♥♥♥ when it blows up.
Every unit you have is either produced by S’Jets own manufacturing company originally, or produced by another Kiithid that basically gave the designs to S’jet and Sidiim for the journey, which is a neat detail.
Honestly, its a good game, I didn’t get a chance to play multiplayer, its one of those Discord games you need to find people to play with. But other than that, it also installs an Epic Games hook on to your computer.
Which is very rude, I did not like that.
But other than that, its a perfectly fine RTS game, at least to me. It might be what actually gets me to sit down and finish Homeworld 1 and 2 instead of just playing it every now and then and then getting stuck because I forgot Salvagers can just rob people. It’ll take you around 12 hours to complete, if not a little less on normal mode.
The game is fun and its neat to watch your giant land killer vehicles blow one another up, so that army man toy box factor is present here like it is in other RTS games. Just be prepared for Tim to steal your bio data and use it to make Fortnite content.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak gets 7 air units bouncing off rocks out of 10.
The first railgun was attempted by Germans in 1917.
An open invite from Kiith Dirk to join us so we can have more people to steal vehicles from the more competent Kiith.

The prequel of a classic. This is a fun game, a bit simpler than the original Homeworld, since all battles happen in the sandy dunes of Kharak. I like how this game has a linear difficulty curve: starts easy and gets harder as the game progresses. The story is very interesting and starts the original arc of Homeworld 1. Strongly recommend this game.

amazing campaign, the game is worth it for the single-player alone

Please make some sort of user friendly and easy to use map/scenario editor which the player will able to add building and others infrastucture which will make this homeworld version as the best ever with an endless replayability. Heck please make infantry as well if you dont mind.
PS : i decided to bought this game since i read from the people review that this game dev team tend and still listen to input from its gamers. I really hope you guys will add additional addon such as map editor or additional units since i really love the graphics amd gameplay 🫡

The best "grounded" RTS in years.
Recommended
Taking a legendary space-opera franchise and putting it on the ground was a huge risk, but Deserts of Kharak sticks the landing. It manages to feel like Homeworld despite the lack of a Z-axis, largely thanks to its incredible atmosphere and "Carrier-as-Mothership" gameplay.
What makes it shine:
The Atmosphere: The scale of the desert, the wind-swept dunes, and the haunting soundtrack capture that signature Homeworld loneliness perfectly.
The Radio Chatter: The ambient unit chatter is still some of the best in the genre. It makes your faceless vehicles feel like they’re manned by actual professionals.
Tactical Depth: Using sand dunes for line-of-sight and height advantages adds a layer of strategy that feels fresh, even for RTS veterans.
The Kapisi: Managing your command carrier—moving it between resource patches and balancing its power systems—is deeply satisfying.
It’s a bit short, and the AI can be a pushover once you learn the mechanics, but as a piece of sci-fi storytelling and tactical gameplay, it’s essential for any strategy fan.

Translating the epic space strategy formula onto vast, sandy dunes makes for a stunning and unique sci-fi backdrop. Controlling massive land cruisers and armies across shifting terrain feels genuinely tactical and immersive. However, the flat desert maps can get repetitive, and the campaign pacing loses steam about halfway through.