In terms of gameplay, Nexus strips down some of the elements of the Homeworld series. There is no resource gathering or on-the-fly building of new ships in the game. Rather you get control of a certain amount of ships in the start and sometimes gain access to other reinforcements as the missions continue. From small corvettes to large battleships on both human and aliens sides, along with non-playable ships, bases, and weapon platforms there is no lack of available ships in Nexus. However, you have more control of those ships than those in the Homeworld series, as you are able to fire different types of weapons (from beam weapons to missiles and the like) as well as control other ship fuctions like sensors, shield and power. You can even repair individual weapon and ship systems when they take on damage in battle.

Ship battles in Nexus are slower paced than in the Homeworld series, which means that they become far more tactical in nature rather than just the “build units, then watch what happens” that occurs in most RTS titles. In addition to the single player campaign there are also a number of multiplayer scenarios for both LAN and Internet play. We wish there was a proper skirmish mode in the game although there is one co-op multiplayer scenario where you and a buddy can face off against AI controlled enemies.