Never managed to beat HW2 either, but it was more of a story issue for me. HW2 uses adaptive difficulty scaling where the larger your fleet is, the more enemies spawn.
All missions in HW2 was designed and heavy scripted to be rushed by player. You stop charge for a moment and immediately overwhelmed by waves of enemy forces. The HW 1 allowed to build slowly and the gameplay was slow and, uhm, viscous (I'm not sure it's right word) that, I think, correspond with story of journey across the galaxy and exploring deep space.
Karan S'jet seems to be getting younger despite however many decades are passing... and apparently sh'es been working since the end of Homeworld 2 as a fashion model.
Good clinical immortality tech. The galactic civilizations seems to have high enough technology level. Back at Kharak the plugging into mothership was considered irreversible. But at Higara she was successfully unplugged.
Karan S'jet seems to be getting younger despite however many decades are passing... and apparently she's been working since the end of Homeworld 2 as a fashion model.
Good clinical immortality tech. The galactic civilizations seems to have high enough technology level. Back at Kharak the plugging into mothership was considered irreversible. But at Higara she was successfully unplugged.
She's regular Ash Ketchum. In all seriousness though, she may have been de-integrated from the mothership, but I don't think she was ever fully "unplugged." Just double-checked some media, and she's always depicted as bald and plugged into something. Even in the Homeworld 1 ending cinematic, she's trailing wires that clearly go to some sort of equipment.
I guess I'm just a grumpy old man yelling at clouds. I don't like it when well established character designs get waifu-washed. The old design clearly reflected her character as an integrated trans human, and still remained somewhat mystical. She really had the feel of being not so much Fleet Command as a bona fide religious leader. It was unique and stood-out especially considering how she's one of the few individuals actually depicted throughout the franchise.
New design looks like it's optimizing pretty over unique, which is a shame. Especially if the game shifts to a character driven narrative. I mean, they even had her put on some eye shadow before she popped into the bacta tank. I disagree vehemently with the idea that important women can't also be pretty, that's not why I don't like the new design. I don't like the new design because it feels like some marketing exec was concerned that gamers wouldn't like her if she didn't look dateable.
