Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (2016) (PC) (Blackbird Interactive)
0Although it's technically been worked on for years now, the release of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak still feels like a surprise - it's the first Homeworld game in over 12 years, it's developed by a previously unknown studio and it doesn't even take place in space. Given these conditions it's perhaps less surprising that everything from the painterly cutscenes, deliberately affectless (or at least subdued) delivery by the voice actors, the mystical Arabian-flavored soundtrack as well as the game's narrative focus on a desperate journey across a vast hostile expanse is used to drive home the fact that this is indeed a sequel (or prequel, as it were) to those beloved Relic RTSs from 1999-2003. Whether having to manage without the limitless 3D movement and beautiful emptiness of deep space which defined the earlier games is going to be a deal-breaker or not remains to be seen, but at the very least Deserts of Kharak constitutes a really intriguing beginning to the release calendar of 2016.